Make-over Monday–home office

Now that we’ve settled into our new business it’s time to start making our new home comfortable for us.

I have quite a few inspiration boards and plans ready to go for complete room make-overs, but there has to be an order to things… which means sometimes you have to start on the less exciting projects.

 

Our first room to be made-over was the home office.

This was a bonus room for us, as it was previously used as a store room and hadn’t been touched for many years.

The quirky thing about this room was it’s shape… it’s a triangle with windows on two of its walls. The bottom half of the windows had been boarded up years ago and vertical blinds fitted to the top half. The windows extend right to the ceiling, so are quite large.

 

The first time we saw this room it was closed up and dark. The walls were painted buttercup yellow and the terracotta floor tiles were chipped and missing quite a bit of grout. It was a room desperate for some attention.

Given our new home is quite small, we had to convert this room from a storage room to a usable space. It is now the office for Woodberry Designs and Shabby Art Boutique.

One of the unexpected blessings of this room is its outlook. That window behind my computer looks out over the ocean and begin an early bird, I get to watch the sunrise over Shelly Beach from my desk every morning.

First thing we did was open up the vertical blinds. To be honest, I’m not a big fan of vertical blinds, but they are ideal for this space. The room faces north and receives sunlight from one side in the morning and then from the other side the rest of the day. Being able to vary the angel of the vertical blinds throughout the day allows plenty of sunlight in without glare on the computer screen. I washed the blinds down with a mix of white vinegar and warm water and they look as good as new.

Next step was to wash down the walls in preparation for painting over the buttercup walls and the brown ceiling. I used Dulux Lexicon Half for the entire room.

Here’s my first tip: Always expect the unexpected when renovating!

I climbed that ladder to paint the ceiling and was quite surprised when my cutting-in brush went through the ceiling. Yep… straight through. Apparently, there was a slow leak above from an upstairs bathroom and all that was holding it all together was that old brown paint.

So after that surprise deviation to repair a hole in the ceiling and a plumbing issue, the room was refreshed with several coats of white paint.

The floor was so dated and in disrepair, but being a budget make-over laying new tiles was not an option. I cleaned the old ones and removed loose grout, before re-grouting. Over the next couple of days I painted the floor tiles with several coats of White Knight Paving paint in Opal Glow… I’m sure you’ll agree it made quite a difference.

Next we needed an office storage solution. Having windows on most of the available wall space decreased our options, but we got around this by using small display shelving from a discount store that just happened to fit under the window sill. There is still space to add another two units, so we now have plenty of open storage space.

Between the last storage unit on the left and the doorway to the house is a narrow floor to ceiling cupboard that houses a plumbing down pipe and several small shelves. At just 50 cm wide it is a fairly useless but necessary cupboard, however, it did provide a space for another useful office element… a blackboard. I painted the front of the cupboard with blackboard paint and hung my clock at the top. The blackboard is perfect for ‘To Do’ lists and messages and makes use of an otherwise blank space.

I can’t believe how different this room is now and the best part is that we made it over for less than $150.

I’m sharing my Monday Make-over with these friends this week: Inspiration Exchange, Live Laugh Rowe, The DIY Dreamer, Tutorials, Tips & Tidbits, Blissful White Wednesday, Transformation Thursday,  French Country Cottage, The Vintage Farmhouse, 36th Avenue, Be Inspired Friday at Common Ground Tickled Pink

I’d be thrilled if you’d like to connect with me at the following places. . .

       

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