An Office Inspired by My Own

 

I love hearing from readers who have used something they’ve seen on my blog or in my home as inspiration for one of their own projects.  So, I was flattered when Nicole used our home office as a jumping off point for her own office redesign. 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s her original idea board for the space:

 

 

 

 

And, the final result:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Money-saving idea. . .

Instead of built-ins, she customized a combination of  Billy and Benno bookcases from IKEA with crown molding and trim.   (See more of this process here.)

 

 

 

 

We also used the same resource for our farmhouse tables/desks—Craigslist!  Hers wasn’t the finish she originally wanted so she fixed that with some major sanding and a miniwax stain:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She also included display space for her pillows that she’ll be selling on Etsy starting next month:

 

 

 

See more of Nicole’s work and office redesign on her blog.

 

Another Dining Room to Office Transformation

 

After posting our “dining room to home office makeover”, Christine emailed me for the name of our carpenter.  She also had a mostly unused dining space that she wanted to convert:

 

 

 

And, her new home office:

 

 

 

Since she needed more hidden storage, she had him build doors on the sides and bottom:

 

 

 

 

 

Do you think formal dining rooms will eventually be phased out of new homes, much like formal living rooms?

 

DIY Custom Memo Board

 

Before we got started on Katie’s office nook makeover, she and her husband tackled installing a memo board on the long, narrow wall space above her desk.  

 

 

 

 

Her inspiration were these simple (but pricy) burlap memo boards from Ballard Designs:

 

 

 

 

Since she wanted the board to fill the entire back wall, they started by taking exact measurements, marking for electrical and phone outlets:

 

 

 

 

We noticed that one review on the memo boards from Ballard said that the burlap was wrapped around MDF which made it really hard to tack anything onto the board, and also made the board pretty heavy.  So, instead of MDF, Katie used this insulation product (recommended by the guys at Home Depot):

 

 

 

 

They had it cut it to their measurements at the store:

 

 

 

 

Before wrapping the board, they carefully plotted out and marked where the outlet openings would need to be.  (Thankfully, her husband is an engineer!)

 

 

 

 

Katie also found that the best way to avoid wrinkles was to use inexpensive painter’s canvas drop cloths instead of the burlap:

 

 

 

 

It gives the same great texture and was easier to iron.

 

 

 

 

They used 3M spray adhesive to attach the drop cloth to the board:

 

 

 

 

Here’s Rich marking and getting ready to make the cuts (which was easily done with a razor) for the outlet openings:

 

 

 

 

Folding the ends:

 

 

 

 

To attach the board to the wall, they used three velcro strips (which could easily be removed if they ever wanted to take it down):

 

 

 

 

Once we began styling the space, we used a couple of packs of silver thumbtacks to create the look of nailhead trim:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total cost of this project (according to Katie):

Board = $12

Thumb Tacks = $12

Canvas Drop Cloth = $14

3M Adhesive Spray = $11

A patient, engineer husband = Priceless

 Total = $49

 

 

 

 

 

PS--On the subject of offices, thanks to Darlene of Fieldstone Hill for featuring mine on her “Ditto” series yesterday!

 

Katie’s Office Makeover

 

When Holly, one of my sponsors and owner of the office style and organization company See Jane Work,  asked if we would like to use some of her products for an office makeover, I couldn’t think of anyone more deserving than my trusty assistant/friend Katie.  (She’s the best!  She handles all of the sponsor-related emails for my blog and is super on top of things.)

 

 

 

Katie is a busy mom and like many of us, her “office” ended up being in her kitchen nook, in the middle of the house:

 

 

 

The wallpaper was installed by the home’s previous owner, and Katie is trying to work around it for now.  To downplay it a little, a memo board was installed across the length of the desk.  (I’ll share her tutorial for this tomorrow.)  To freshen things up, we changed out the desk chair to something more neutral and used lots of simple, white office products from the See Jane Work Basics line.  This is the result:

 

 

 

These are some of the fabulous products we used to get her desktop organized:

 

 

Ceramic Pencil Cups

Simple Structure Pencil Cup

Dwell Studio Sticky Note Set

 

 

 

 

Letter Box (great for hiding away desktop clutter!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Big Clips

Fabric Thumbtacks

 

 

 

 

 Basic Art Boxes (a pretty way to save the kids’ art and school work)

 

 

 

    

 

Le Pens

Basic Magazine Holders

 

 

 

    

 

A big thanks to See Jane Work for getting Katie’s desk as organized as she keeps me on a daily basis!

 

My Home Office: Finally Finished

 

As promised, I cleaned up my work space enough to take pictures of our newly completed home office:

 

 

 

You may remember, we converted what was suppose to be the dining room, into the office.

 

 

 

Our biggest addition to the space were the bookcases that we had built by a local carpenter (email me if you need a referral; he did a great job!).  The wall behind the desk was huge, and I wanted something that would make a big impact since it’s one of the first things you see coming through the front door.

 

I replaced the original chandelier with this oversized lantern that I picked up at my Habitat Restore.  I blogged about the makeover process here.

 

 

 

To make the shelving pop, we painted the back of the bookcases a dark gray by Sherwin Williams called “Urbane Bronze.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since I know we all love a good “before and after,” here’s a look back at how the room started:

 

 

 

This is how I worked for months, shopping for furniture and thinking about how to make my vision of floor to ceiling bookcases come to life.  I found the farmhouse table on Craigslist, the metal chairs at a Pottery Barn outlet, and my linen desk chair came from TJMaxx.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The real challenge came when it was time to fill the bookshelves. I didn’t have nearly as many books as I thought, but wanted it to be colorful and have a real “library” feel. Several friends and family members gave me extra books, and I lucked out at a recent Habitat Restore book sale where I bought them by the box-full for next to nothing.

 

 

 

For  more color, I moved the Ikat rug from our foyer that I blogged about here (from RugsUSA):

 

 

 

 

 

 

What I like most about the space is that it should easily transition back to a dining room with the addition of some chairs, if we ever need the space.  For now, though, I plan on doing a lot more blogging than hosting dinner parties. . .  Hope you enjoyed :)