• July 26, 2011

Home Office

Turning an unused bedroom into a workspace

Before and After,

We have moved into our newly renovated home office and are loving it! We were able to work a lot of our inspirational ideas into the room. We ended up using an IKEA table that we already owned as a desk. The white leather office chairs are from West Elm.

The original closet was very long and narrow…and had no light! This is a far cry from the large his and hers walk-in closets of today. We added double doors for easier access, as well as lighting. A salvaged door was modified to match the original.

The room prior to the renovation wasn’t in the best shape, especially after removing wallpaper from the plaster walls. We had the walls patched and re-plastered. Where the wallpaper has been completely removed, you can see the blue-grey color of the walls from 1912. We painted the room a darker shade of the original paint color.

Ah, the newly built-in window seat is one of my favorite parts of the room. The space was just crying out for it!

I really love our new work space. It is such a comfortable room to spend time in.

Bookshelf – IKEA; Grey Pop Tartan carpet tiles – Flor; Nelson Pear Pendant Lamp – Design Within Reach; red leather lounge chair – CB2; white leather office chairs – West Elm; desk – IKEA; and wall color – Benjamin Moore, Secret AF-710.

Comments { 11 }
  1. Elissa

    Looks great! I love the window seat and the Flor tiles!


  2. Julia

    Just noticed the door frame trim had been stripped in the before photo. Having followed your website for like 5 years I know you went to a lot of work stripping the trim in other rooms. I too have stripped way too much wood work (we have 1929 douglas fir trim painted over and over) and sometimes I have an urge to start painting it all again because as you know sometimes it is impossible to get all the paint out. My husband would kill me if I talked about painting trim now so I won’t but I was wondering if you changed your mind and went with the paint in that room for asthetics or if the overwhelming job of stripping more wood work just was unapproachable at this point. I love the look of the room the colors and the white painted trim look great. Best wishes!


    • Heather

      HA! I know EXACTLY how you feel. Do you have a lot of woodwork left to do?

      The woodwork downstairs had originally been stained and painted over. That was horrible to strip, but I didn’t truly understand the definition of horrible until we moved upstairs and tried stripping woodwork that had originally been painted! We only did a very small area, a back hallway and the tiniest of stair landings. The woodwork faded a few weeks AFTER it had been stained and sealed! You can read about it here: http://1912bungalow.com/2006/11/hallway-two-or-more-steps-back We didn’t work on the house again for several years after that happened. Severe renovation trauma…I am kidding…sort-of. :)

      After that experience I was not willing to attempt another upstairs (originally painted woodwork) room. The wood was stripped in the office, but not all that carefully. We just wanted to get it clean enough to put down a smooth coat of paint. The doors were stripped better and then sanded. They were easier because they could be taken off the hinges and stripped outside. We have now started on the other upstairs bedroom. I think it is one of the worst rooms we have encountered as far as being in poor condition. More posts soon…


  3. Ann

    I am totally digging that wall color. Too grey for a looong grey northwest winter in my area I suppose, darn, but the room looks great!


    • Heather

      Thanks! I was a little worried that it would be too dark or maybe depressing, but it is actually a very soothing, easy color to live with/work in.


  4. DeNacho

    late comer here! but discovered your site through curbly. i LOVE your redo on this room. i think i could marry those office chairs. well executed all the way around!



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