Office Makeover Plans

I’m finally tackling one of the unfinished rooms in our house. We’ve been using the office for months, but I never gave any effort to space planning or making it aesthetically pleasing. I finally have the energy to work on a plan to make it feel comfortable and functional, as well as look a bit less cringe-worthy.

The layout of the room has always felt a bit awkward. The desks were placed on opposite walls, and some bookshelves sat in one corner. The walls were lined with furniture and there was a huge open area in the middle of the room. While I enjoyed having a lot of space to move around, I was certain that we could make the room more functional with a different layout.

Our fist step was to move the desks back-to-back in the middle of room on one wall, with the bookshelves on the opposite wall. It immediately felt better! It also got my creative juices flowing again.

There is so much yet to be done to make the office a space I’ll truly be happy with. It’s obviously still quite the mess, but that’s about to change.

Here’s the inspiration board that I have put together so far:

(1) Jace has already agreed to paint the upstairs game room this year, so I unfortunately can’t push for the office to be painted anytime soon. The eventual plan is a lovely turquoise color, but the creamy tan color that the builder’s used will have to suffice for now.

(2) The big clunky, mismatched Ikea desks that we have now will be replaced by two slim dining tables. I’m still waffling between the Melltorp and the Torsby. The Melltorp has a fantastically cheap price and a crisp white profile, but in-person it didn’t really leave me enthusiastic. The floor model was rather dull and scratched, which makes me wonder at its durability. The Torsby on the the other hand is gorgeous frosted glass and chrome, but at price tag that is a stark contrast to the Melltorp (at least for Ikea).

(3) The colorful dinosaur planter is a future DIY project that I’ve been contemplating for a while.

(4) A wide set of Alex drawers will be the perfect place to store our printer. It’s currently precariously sitting on the rather shallow bookshelves.

(5)The bookshelves will get a bit of a makeover with doors on the their lower half. I also have plans to use geometric fabric to line the back of the exposed half.

(6) The walls of the office seem a perfect place to put all the fun art that I’ve been eyeing over the past few months. I will use two of the walls for large gallery-style displays of eclectic art pieces.

(7) New storage boxes will add some organization to the chaos, and even add a splash of color.

(8) These Helmer drawers are simple and modern, made from powder-coated steel.

We’ve already made a bit of progress since I started this post, but it is by no means complete. I hope to have another update post in a few weeks, so keep watching.