The Riddick Home - Our Study

Happy Thursday!! Last week, I shared a little post about our Living Room and so many people loved having a Riddick Home update, so I thought I'd keep it going with a little room in our house that we worked on last weekend... 

This room has always been a really tough one for me...there are two big entrances, a door out to our porch, making three smaller walls plus a window, not to mention it's pretty much the main room people walk through to get to the kitchen...so, it's always been hard for me from a design perspective. There have been multiple times where I have taken everything down, rearranged everything, taken trips to HomeGoods, and come back empty handed only then to put everything back where I started... Not only did Pierce think I was crazy....but I also did because it just seemed to stump me every time. 

But this room has also been seriously everything under the sun...

When we first moved in, Pierce was in grad school and needed a place to work when he was home. He joked about wanting his desk facing outward...so I tried my hand at an arrangement I had never done before... I put some of our favorite memories on the wall for my first "gallery-wall" of sorts and put our desks on two of the small walls, and it was honestly a pretty good setup for what we needed at the time...

When we had company over for dinners or family in town for Christmas, we pushed the desks back and set-up a table in the middle. Looking back, I love these memories. We were really newly married, didn't have much furniture and even less money, but we made it work. And honestly, we aren't far from that boat now...

Then I rearranged it again a while later around Christmas, and although it semi still felt like a study, it just felt like it didn't fit with the rest of our house... I remember reading an article that Joanna Gaines wrote early on, and she said one of the biggest things she learned was to keep design a little consistent throughout each room.... Well, I knew that I was far from that with this set-up haha And not that I couldn't learn that I like things differently along the way, but I really did feel like I wanted the room to be lighter...

Especially from this picture from a random early-on set-up.....oh my! I'm almost embarrassed to even post this picture, but I wanted you to see and know what I meant by it's been everything under the sun.....

But fast forward to two years later....

And you have our new and improved, but still a work-in-progress study. Most of you know I run a small math tutoring business on top of teaching, and I put a little bit of my tutoring money aside each week and try to save up for little things to add to our house - a new bed-frame, a new chair or rug or lamp, etc. And last weekend, I got to invest in a few pieces for this room! And let me tell you, at times, I finally feel like I'm at heaven in this room. 

I know there is still a lot I could do... I dream of this wall being board-and-batten one day, and I know I need more couch/chair pillows (note the borrowed pillow from the living room haha)...but, for our mornings, Pierce's work days, and my tutoring sessions, this room may just be what we need right now. I'm sure one day with kids, this room will take on yet again another all-different design, but this one is feeling quite right for right now. 

So feel free to take a look around at our new-and-improved Riddick Home "Study!"

Welcome to our cozy little room....this is when you walk in the front door and turn right...feels a little more cohesive to me now with the living room on the left.

We also added a RUG for the first time, and let tell you, it has made ALL the difference...oh my, so cozy, quiet, makes it feel lighter and more like a room. And this particular rug is so soft too - a HomeGoods find!! We also hung a mirror over the couch which I think opened up the room a bit. That was also a HomeGoods find! 

Like I said, I need a little pillow for the corner chair, but we picked that up last year at Tuesday Morning...we have a matching one in our room. And I'm still deciding on the desk chair, but I think the color fits and it's been comfortable this week as we've been trying it out! The desk is a Pottery Barn desk that I had growing up. We had it up in Pierce’s studio, but it fit the space so much better when we moved it down to this room. I always thought I would add baskets to it - maybe one day!! 

The mirror on my desk is a hand-me-down from my sister when she redid her space. I figured I could find a spot for it, and it's been a fun little addition! 

This little bookshelf was a Hobby Lobby find, and one that I was particularly excited for. I saw this bookshelf in a home design friend's picture and asked her where she got it. I thought it was fun and a great color. I've linked it here incase you want one too!! 

One of the biggest surprises I think Pierce still has is that I don't always put a ton of actual booooks on some of my bookshelves... 😬🤭🤔😂 Now, he has a bookshelf FULL of books in his studio, but I prefer to experiment a little more because I think it makes things more fun... But I also like when they're practical too. So I put a stack of some of our older Bibles on one of the top shelves that we love to have nearby and out incase we need to reference something. Then maybe my favorite is all of our journals on one of the lower shelves...these are so special to me. I always say if our house caught on fire, I think I might grab these first because they are just something that you could never get back. And the bottom basket holds our Bibles, journals and studies that we are currently using right now. It feels nice for those to finally have a place of their own. 

The top shelf, I just threw some extra greenery I had and one of our little calendars that we try to make at New Years reflecting on the year. This is 2018 - truly one of our favorite years. 

This mantel might be one of my favorite pieces in the room...

I found this piece when I was at an Antique Mall in Plano while I lived there after college. I frequented these places just to look and get ideas...but I took this picture and kept thinking about this sweet 1930's mantel long after I had moved to Nashville. 

Pierce and I had a trip to Texas planned the summer we were engaged, so I called the Antique Mall on a whim to see if they still had it - and they did! By then I had saved up enough to get it, and I was so excited. Pierce helped me go pick it up and bring it back in his truck... 

I think I really was in heaven that day! And I honestly still am every time I see it haha such a special little story that piece has! 

Aww and I love how it mirrors the real mantel on the other side of the house/living room too. 

Here is the other Ranch door from Pierce's family Ranch! 

And well, that about does it for our study tour!! I hope you liked the updates and the history of the room too.... 😂  I'm sure I'll look back on this set-up years from now and see all that I could have done differently, but for now, we love the cozy early mornings in this room and have been loving all the work that happens here during the days. 

Thanks for always being so encouraging with these Riddick Home posts! I love hearing how your projects are coming along too!! Thanks for following along!

I'll see you back here tomorrow!
Love y'all!
Tab