Home Office is a Winner!

Wow! I'm so excited about how this home office project turned out ... as I sit at the desk typing this very blog post. It's just so much more functional and my style. (Plus, the wood shelves still smell like lumber and I love that!)

Here's the before picture of the traditional bookcase I just couldn't get used to (project overview here). Despite so many voices telling me to leave it, I just couldn't be satisfied with this not-my-style bookcase.

Well, two weeks and $200 later, here's the office ...

After: Much More Usable Space, Air and Style

Quick reminder of the BEFORE picture of the same wall ...
Before: Lots Chaos, Not A Lot of Usable Desk Space

WOWZA!

My goal was to liberate more of that granite desktop to be useful ... spread out papers and electronics, etc. When I work, I need SPACE! At the same time, I needed book storage, a place for the girls to plugin their school-issued laptops, and my file bin for all the papers that need to be stashed and sorted. Meanwhile, I wanted to inject some lightness to the whole room.

Here's the details for this wall:

  • I absolutely love these iron shelf brackets I found on Amazon. And spent a total of $110.85 on all 12 of them, after doing a lot of research ... there are surprisingly a lot of options out there. 
  • The wood for the shelves came from Menards (it's a midwestern big box hardware store). I got 32" x 11" boards that are 2'' thick for $6.50/each from the scrap area ($39 total). I really wanted 2'' thick board to look substantial in the brackets and luckily I found them at the exact size I needed them, so no cutting necessary. I used stain from another project to finish them.
  • I painted this room last summer in the same Polar Bear from Behr that I used all over the house. (The golden yellow just had to go.) So I finished up the bit I had left and bought another gallon for $46 to take care of the wall.  I'll want to repaint the whole room in something better.
  • I also spent $14 on a drywall patch and spackle to touch up the wall before I painted it. 
  • In total, this transformation cost $209.85

But there's more!

In the back corner by the windows, I built a shelf for all the travel books and cleaned up the sewing cabinet. I also cleared off the small table in front of the window and pulled in an upholstered chair from another room to add a soft landing place. If you remember, I wanted as many work surfaces as possible in this room, so here's another one.


Lastly, on the wall opposite the window, I set up my Mom's desk so she has a place to work when she's here. And I rehung the bulletin boards, because they're just so useful to have up and available. Photo coming. 

I'd say that was a budget well spent and I'd argue with any naysayers that this new style is way more attractive to potential buyers (not that we're selling the house anytime soon).

On to the next!



Related links:
See the start of this project! And catch up on all the Office posts

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