Home Office Makeover
Create a newly revived home office makeover with just a little bit of paint and accessories. Old and outdated office furniture can be made over in to something beautiful with just a few inexpensive changes to create a space that is both functional and inspiring.Â
I love a good furniture makeover. This one home office makeover I am sharing today is probably one of my most favorite to date.
My sister in law has been working from home for awhile through her job in banking. And she absolutely loves it and all the benefits and flexibility that it offers.
Sounds amazing, right?
The only problem is that she has not been able to get her office space set up how she wants to make actual working its most productive.
 ÂShe has tried different areas and places in her home to set up her work monitors. She has a spare room in her home that acted as a play room, guest room and her home office.
She even tried a spot in her master bedroom.
The thing is that while that guest room has worked for many uses, it just wasn’t the most ideal.
The room itself is kind of far off from the rest of the house. This is great for quietly working, but also almost too self-isolating, and too far from the coffee pot!
After talking over some different solutions with her, and where she finds herself drawn to during the day, we came up with a new idea.
The Kitchen Nook
Just like most homes, her home has both a dining room and a kitchen nook. The kitchen nook is a small space for a family of four. Any more than that trying to eat in there is rather tight. She also indicated that they enjoy sitting in the dining room for eating and crafting with her kids.
So the kitchen nook, is almost too cramped and a dropping zone for anything that doesn’t get put away right away.
Since she naturally gravitates to this area during her working day to fill up her cup of coffee, or check out the sunlight we thought best to make this area her home office work area.
So she up the space as her office.
The Pros
She was centered to the house, and could see everything. She is real close to the coffee pot. She can quickly change over a load of laundry on a break without stepping to far away from the office. There is more sunlight!
The Cons
Centered in the house, so its not as quiet if little kids are home. Note: (Her kids are school aged so this is not a big deal – but if there’s a pandemic going on it presents a different situation.) Her setup is uninviting, and her black bulky monitors and cords were an eye-sore to the rest of the house.
The Solution
The only way to make this work was to style the area to be both beautiful looking and cohesive to the rest of her house and decor, while also be functional as an office, and inspiring to actually get some work done.
Her desk or table that she was using in the space was a nice table, however, it just didn’t work for the area.
So we did the only obvious solution of finding a new desk. While also looking for desk options, we looked for inspirations of kitchen nook areas used as other spaces than they were intended for.
To my surprise, there are several people using kitchen nooks as everything else but kitchen nooks.
We also found a really awesome desk and color scheme, however, the price tag of the desk was way too expensive.
So, again she did the only obvious thing, she set out to Facebook Marketplace.
She found a few options, and then finally landed on the one pictured below. Never underestimate the marketplace for a great find.
This desk was $125 dollars and in good shape. She spent about another $75 in paint and accessories to complete the look.
Home Office Makeover
For this home office makeover, she decided on a navy as the desk color. She loves navy and has it sprinkled throughout her home.
Navy was a great choice because it will create a cohesive look to home’s decor that is already in place, and it is a dark enough color to make the black bulkiness of her monitors sort of disappear.
>>>PIN THIS FOR LATER<<<
Choosing a desk with a hutch in a darker color will also sort of hide the monitors and the ugliness of them in any space.
Once she started painting, she allowed the paint to dry before applying a second coat.
The desk came with a thin particle board type of back. While this was okay, she wanted something sturdier. We went to Lowes and picked out a sheet of bead board ply wood. The entire sheet of 4X8 plywood was $20.
We had Lowes cut it to size to fit the back of the desk where the previous particle board was. Since there was a few pieces leftover, we stored them for later to create some future DIYs or signs.
Because the desk was wider than the plywood sheet we had it cut into two pieces. We could have easily cut the long side of the plywood for one cut, but she wanted the beadboard to run up and down.
Therefore this required two pieces.
Once the painted was done, she applied a thin coat of Rust-oleum matte clear she had in the garage. This just gives the paint job a protective layer and nicer finish.
Hardware
For the desk, she decided to use the existing harware and spray paint it gold. She could’ve also bought some newer knobs that were modern, but the ones it came with were in pretty good shape.
Once the hardware was put back into place, all that was left was styling.
We spent an afternoon in Micheals Craft Store shopping the home decor section to find a few accessories to go with the desk.
Keep in mind we wanted to keep it first functional, then beautiful. Finding a balance of this for any space and room can be tricky.
Sometimes it also doesn’t happen in one store or shopping trip. We got really lucky with this space though.
Using a combination of new things and accessories from around her home we were able to really pull this work space and home office makeover together.
She found 3 baskets that fit perfectly into the cubbies of the desk. She wanted four originally since there are four cubbies.
However, the store only had three that we could find, and my solution was to use one of them as a decoration nook instead. This does two things. It creates a break in the eye and some interest. Plus it adds a cozy element to the space.
We bought a hanging file fold system and new matching clock to put to the left of the desk to make the entire area come together.
Here’s a look at the finished space.
She added a globe from the kids playroom, some succulents and a new plant in a blue and white print to bring it all together.
I really love the way this home office makeover turned out. And like I said before is one of my favorites.
It really compliments her home’s already existing decor and her own personal style.Now she can work in a beautiful space that is both function and inspiring to her.
In the future, she made a cozy sitting chair to side corner opposite fo the desk similar to this one, which will be pretty for having that first cup of coffee before starting her day.
Have you made over a piece of furniture before? Leave a comment or picture below. I’d love to see your space.
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[…] Scrap wood piece about 18X18. (I had this beadboard leftover from this DIY Project). […]