1. Wild Bliss - boutique gift store
2. Southern Charm - boutique gift store
3. Capital Title - a title company (who is now 2 doors down but is about to move to a new building in Argyle)
4. The Real Estate Station - a real estate brokerage who is now in another cute old yellow building in Argyle.
5. A carpenter's shop
We aren't sure on the history of it beyond that, but we think it's a pretty neat place!
We are a part of a set of three buildings built with similar architecture and style. One of those buildings was previously an open-air farmer's market. After the market shut down, the building was enclosed.
We signed the lease on the building back in December but the office needed new paint and some other clean-up before we could start to move in.
The walls and cabinets and trim were baby blue from the previous tenants. See picture below!
There were other details that we didn't like, such as brass hardware on the doors, and in the bathroom, that Ryan had to replace.
Because the previous business was a clothing boutique, we had to take down some of the wall clothing racks (seen above, behind Ryan). We also had to do a lot of new business "stuff"; including turning on the utilities, obtaining a certificate of occupancy, having a fire inspection, etc. etc. etc.
Then came the paint. Generally my area of expertise. Picked out the following colors:
From left to right: ceiling, wall, trim, cabinets. In my mind: off-white, tan/khaki, barn red, dark gray. Got Ryan's approval. Check.
Well, the paint was completed and here is what it looked like:
Not sure what your opinion is…but Ryan thought the red looked pink. Any man of reasonable character cannot have a pink office. Obviously. My thoughts? It was a more "earthy" red. But the bright white fluorescent lights were throwing things off and Ryan just wasn't having it.
He also did not like the cabinet color: said they looked brownish/greenish instead of gray. I have to say that I agreed with him there, but at least the color was masculine.
So….
He called the painters and asked them to paint a small area that would be a darker red so that we could get an idea of whether or not we really wanted to paint again.
Obviously now we are dealing with the reality that the "organic earthy red" is indeed pink.
So...here we go again. Painters please come back and paint our trim "dark red." Fortunately we were not moved in yet so it wasn't a big deal. That is, if you don't count the extra cost.
Skip forward: we have moved our furniture into the office, got everything kind-of arranged (but not organized) and I just can't stand the color of the cabinets. I suggest we change out all 48 of the fluorescent bulbs: from bright white to soft white. I think this will help because:
1) The lights already give me a headache.
2) I cannot stand cool white lights (think Wal-Mart).
3) I believe it will change the color tone of the cabinets.
Well, the bulbs make the place look A LOT better: warmer, inviting, more house-like instead of office-cubicle-like. BUT I still hate the cabinet color.
Re-enter painter.
Please come paint the cabinets black. I cannot even bare to pick out a shade of gray for fear that it will have any color tone in it that I do not like.
And now? We have matte black cabinets. We also have less money.
Final result:
Please note: these are iPhone pictures and they aren't high-quality!
We are both happy, happy, happy--and now we can move past painting and work on things that will actually earn us money instead of cost us money!
We are now working full-time in the new office and although we haven't decorated yet, we are completely functional! Come by anytime and have some coffee!
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