Our first project of the year is well underway, so it’s past time for me to catch you up. As I mentioned in my Home Goals 2017 last week, we are redoing the last of our three bedrooms, the room that is going to be my office.
This room has been my office since we moved here, but it’s never been set up as a functional office. It had a filing cabinet to hold our paperwork and a desk (left by the previous owners), which held my sewing machine. That was pretty much it.
Along the way, we added furniture that we weren’t using elsewhere, which gave me a place to store magazines and patterns. But most of my fabric, office supplies and knickknacks were still in the cardboard boxes that I’d packed when we moved from our first house–almost five years ago.
Having a pretty, well-organized, high-functioning room where I can craft, sew, write and work is important to me, and we’re finally going to make it happen.
Here is some of my inspiration.
Sources: Goose, Paint Colour, Desk, Chair
And here’s our to-do list and an update on where we’re at so far.
Scrape ceiling– It has become a tradition that over the Christmas holidays we scrape a ceiling. This year was no different.Paint ceiling, trim and walls– With the ceiling scraped, everything could be painted. The trim, ceiling and closet look so fresh with a coat of white and the walls are a fun dark turquoise.- Add new shelf to closet – I bought the shelf on Friday. I just need to trim it to fit.
- Redo china cabinet and desk – I’ve stripped and restained the tops of the desk and the cabinet and primed the bases. I’m hoping to continue painting this week.
- Reupholster slipper chair – The legs of the chair got a beautiful dark stain while I was doing the desk and the cabinet. I have the fabric. I need some foam. Then I’ll teach myself upholstery.
- Reupholster ironing board – Because a primary activity of the office is sewing, I have an ironing board in the room. It needs a new cover to match the new office.
- Unpack all of my boxes and decorate – Oh I am so excited to do this finally.
I don’t have any pretty photos yet. Here are some progress shots.
First up, the guest room, which is holding all of the things that used to be in my office. Oy vey. My poor pretty guest room. I hope no one wants to come visit for a little while.
Matt doing the messy work of scraping the ceiling.
Where we’re at as of yesterday afternoon. Beautiful smooth ceiling, bright trim, oh so purty turquoise walls… and a makeshift paint shop.
I do not like refinishing furniture indoors, but it’s a necessity in January in Canada. My freshly painted walls were so dusty, and I don’t have enough space to lay out all of the pieces that need painted. Argh. This stage is going to take a little while, but I’m feeling good about the progress we’ve made so far.
What do you think about the progress and plans? Do you have an office? What do you use your office for? How do you balance the pretty and the function in a work space?
Home on 129 Acres 
My office consists of empty filing cabinets in the basement, a secretary desk and plastic bin both stored in my bedroom and jammed shut to contain disheveled papers, and another smaller bin of stationery that I just removed from my parents’ house but can’t unpack yet. I’ve unfortunately finished every job I can think of doing before taking on this.
It sounds like you’ve been intentionally avoiding an office project, Chad? And it sounds like the empty filing cabinet could be put to good use. But no judgment from here!
Well it may have become intentional since the new year
🙂
I don’t have an actual office, but I have a laundry room that could be made much more functional. I may think of adding that to my home goals this year!
Multi-purpose spaces can be very useful.
BTW, I love the turquoise walls!
Thanks! Me too.
I agree! That’s a nice colour for a room where you’ll be spending a bunch of time. 🙂
Thanks, Jared. Nice to hear from you!
Looking fab so far!! The colour is gorgeous. I’m excited to see it progress.
Our office got a bunch of work done on it last year, but then various kids moved in and out (it’s also the guest room) and progress ground to a halt. We got the room mostly painted except this little closet area and the ceiling. However we need to repaint a bunch of it because when my son lived in there he got grease on the walls, as he works with heating oil. We planked one wall and built a desk out of a door that can be folded against the wall as it’s on hinges. It has pipe legs that just screw out. We were going to plank another foundation wall but stopped, because our home is a rental and we might have to take it all down before we move, whenever that happens. We got a hide-a-bed in there and found a different mattress for it which is actually comfortable, but the couch part needs a slip cover. So as you can tell, we’re partway there but stuck on a bunch of things. Also, the files are all in file boxes under the desk, which isn’t too handy. I want to get a file cabinet and refinish it with wallpaper to match the colour scheme, which is light blue (walls), white (planking, trim and ceiling), and grey (future slipcover), with pops of bright colours.
That sounds like a lot of good progress. But the leftovers sound a bit frustrating. Can you pick one thing and just knock it out, rather than looking at the whole list?
That is an excellent idea!