We built a desk.
…and set up our home office.
After our electrical and plaster repair nightmare was finally over, we turned our sights toward setting up our home office. We decided that the office should be the first room we tackled because we were both working from home and needed a functional space where we could hunker down and focus. We had four bedrooms upstairs to choose from — we chose the one at the top of the stairs.
The first order of business was getting a desk. We thought we’d be brave and try sharing a desk, but all of the two-person desks online were either very expensive or didn’t have the right measurements (we had an 10-foot long wall and a 3-foot wall at a 45 degree angle that we wanted to take advantage of). So we decided to just try building our own.
Home office sweet home office…
The vision was super simple — basically just long pieces of wood with legs on top. Surprisingly, building and using the shared desk worked out well and we only annoy each other occasionally.
Then, we had to finish the rest of the room…
We primed and painted, polished the wood, and added finishing touches — switch plate and outlet covers, lamps, and plants.
We added velvet damask wallpaper and stained Poplar crown moulding.
For storage, we used used 2 Ikea Kallax. We added metal casters to the bottom and wood on the top.
The 90 Percent List
We’ve come to realize that whenever we officially “finish” a room, we still have a few little lingering projects left to tackle. In the office, here is what’s left on the list:
- Give the closet a makeover. At some point in time, someone made terrible plywood shelves and covered them in terrible contact paper. We plan on making some new shelves with better wood (+ stain and poly) and giving the closet a fresh coat of paint so that it can serve as a storage hub for camera equipment for work.
- Organize the damn papers. All of those storage bins are mostly empty. We have so many papers to organize and file (like tax paperwork type of stuff) but we keep putting it off because…well, that’s a dull way to spend a weekend.
- Hang up wall art. We have a ton of wall art that is still living in boxes in the basement.
What Do We Wish We Did Differently?
- Caulk. For some reaosn, we never caulked this room before we painted. Oops.
- Paint choices. We've gotten a lot better (I think) at choosing paint colors and sheens since doing this room. If we were to do it again, we’d use matte instead of eggshell. We’d also probably color match with the darker color in the wallpaper.
- Light fixture choices. Since the sconce light fixture is really a task light, it doesn’t throw enough light out into the room. But on the flip side, we’ve made up for this by adding lamps throughout the room — which helps keep things feeling cozy, especially when one of us is stuck working late.
- Keeping plants alive. You know it's an ongoing struggle.
No home office can be complete without the dog.
Finally cozy :)