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 } July 26, 2011

FLOR: Fun Modular Floor Covering

Installing modular carpet tiles

Restoration Diary, , ,

We needed an odd sized rug to fit underneath our desk, something durable that could stand up to lots of wear. FLOR carpet tiles fit all of our criteria, plus they come in multiple shades, textures and fun patterns.


FLOR samples

I ordered samples to see which worked best in our office.


It’s a plaid, plaid world

We chose a grey plaid called Pop Tartan.


Jack, project supervisor

Our cat Jack overseeing the carpet installation.


Attaching FLOR dot

The tiles are held together by adhesive stickers called Flor dots. It is as easy as peeling the backing off the Flor dot and attaching it to the back of the tile.

The tile is lined up and dropped into place. Easy!


Tah-dah!

It took us 15-20 minutes to install the carpet. Now all we have to do is finish moving into the office.

Comments { 4 } March 31, 2011

Home Office Renovation

Walls painted, light hung, floors refinished

Paint, Restoration Diary,

It feels so nice to get this room almost finished! We have a few touch ups here and there…but we are so close. I don’t even want to remember where this all started.

The floor has been refinished. Now we’re just waiting for it to dry before we start moving into the office.

We already owned this George Nelson Bubble Lamp. I purchased it soon after we married to hang in the dining room of our apartment. It’s been sitting in a box in the garage for years. It is nice to be able to repurpose something from our pre-bungalow lives.

Comments { 7 } March 24, 2011

It’s No Longer a Secret

We have a paint color

Paint, Restoration Diary,

I have decided on the dark gray paint color; Benjamin Moore’s Secret AF-710. I loved the color as soon as I saw the paint sample on the wall. Our contractor really didn’t care for it and it wasn’t David’s first choice, but I’m going with it! And hey, we can always repaint.

The ceiling color is the same hand-mixed soft gray used in our bathroom remodel. We are using the same bright white trim color throughout the upstairs to keep things consistent.


Our contractor is rebuilding a salvaged door for the closet. We enlarged the opening and added another door to provide easier access to our very narrow closet.

Jack, the project supervisor, seems to be making himself right at home on the new window seat.

Comments { 3 } March 22, 2011

Choosing a Paint Color

So many choices...

Paint, Restoration Diary,

No matter how long I have been doing this, selecting a paint color never gets any easier. Sigh…I like to see the paint color on the walls to see how it looks in the light of the room and at different times throughout the day.

There is something about the lighting in our house where color goes completely wonky. Grey colors turn green, green colors turn grey, blue colors turn purple…Thank God for sample pots!

No matter how a color looks in the store or in photos, it looks nothing like that in my house. And I’m the kind of person who spends hours at the paint store, taking the samples out side to see them in natural daylight.

I’ve finally narrowed it down to two choices. David and our contractor like one color and I prefer the other. Now I am starting to doubt myself! Which color should we pick?

Comments { 6 } March 18, 2011

Built-in Window Seat

and Storage

Built-ins, Restoration Diary,

The dormer is too small to provide any real, usable space in the room. I decided to utilize the space by having our contractor build a window seat underneath the window.

The window seat has a hinged lid to provide much needed storage space. In our little bungalow every inch counts. The proportions of the window seat were based off of the gentleman caller’s bench in the living room.

Comments { 3 } March 17, 2011

Home Office Project Update

Enlarging the closet opening

Restoration Diary,

We are making the opening of the closet larger. The closet is long and very narrow. Enlarging the closet opening will make the closet more functional by providing easier access. We are also going to get really modern and install lighting in the closet. Ha!

Comments { 0 } March 10, 2011

Home Office Project

The wallpaper is removed, now on to plastering

Restoration Diary, ,

All the wallpaper is removed from the walls. The tip of using windshield washer fluid worked quite well.


The ceiling is patched and the plasterers have started running a skim coat of plaster on the ceiling.

You can see the original blue gray color of the walls peeking through the wallpaper glue.

Comments { 1 } March 1, 2011

The Creative Work Space

Home Office Inspiration

Inspiration,


Home Office Idea Board: 1. George Nelson Bubble Lamp 2. Benjamin Moore Paint 3. CB2 Triumph Lounge Chair 4. Flor Tiles, Grey Pop Tartan 5. West Elm Parsons Desk

One of the things that make bungalows such comfortable homes to live in is that they are well suited to a variety of design styles and tastes. I am taking a bit more of a contemporary approach in the design of our home office. This may be where some of us aesthetically part ways, but please don’t go away! Stick around and see how great a nearly 100 year old room can look with a contemporary color scheme and furnishings.

This home office needs to be functional for two people and it is a place where we will be spending 8+ hours a day. We work in a creative field and want our work space to be fun, colorful, streamlined and, of course, affordable.

I keep coming back to the pictures of the two rooms above. I love how they both have bright pops of color.

Comments { 3 } February 25, 2011

One Step Closer

Removing wallpaper from plaster walls

How To, Restoration Diary, ,

Let the restoration begin! Stripping layers of wallpaper from the plaster is more difficult since the wallpaper has been painted several times. The Dummies series has a very helpful article on removing wallpaper.

Here is another approach for removing wallpaper from Yahoo! Answers:

“Go to any store where they sell wallpaper supplies, etc. Home Depot will do, too. Buy the tool to score the wallpaper. It looks like a mini pizza cutter but with spikes on it. Run this up and down and all around the wall. Then take windshield washer fluid, the blue kind (which is unbelievable cheaper than wallpaper removal liquid sold commercially). Put it in a spray bottle and spray the wall in sections. Once a section has been sprayed, slowly peel off the wallpaper.”

I intend to give windshield washer fluid a try!


Look at all those cracks on the ceiling!

Our temporary sleeping quarters. Very cozy!

The walk-in closet.

Comments { 12 } February 16, 2011