Office re-do

We finished the office renovations a couple months ago, but I am just getting around to posting about it. I'm really proud of how it turned out AND the fact that we did it all on a shoestring budget (at least in comparison to what it could have been)! The office was pretty much the last entire space in the house to tackle, and the re-do was SO needed. It was basically a non-functional space: the floors were growdy carpet tiles, the walls were white on top and painful bright yellow on the wainscoting, there was no storage or desk, and we sat on lawn chairs! (I'm working on finding some 'before' shots to make the pics of the transformation that much more impressive.)

Enter me with persistent nagging to get the renovation going, a pottery barn "inspiration pic" (first pic below), a joint desire to keep everything on a fairly tight budget, a hardworking husband... and voilà.

pic from Pottery Barn catalog  (pricey, pricey pieces, we seriously did our office for 1/8 of what it would have cost to buy these pieces from Pottery Barn)

The first things "we" (and by "we", I mean Brad) did were paint the walls- neutral beige on top and bright white on the bottom- (using paint we already had), and pull up the ugly carpet tiles and lay hardwood floor (definitely an investment, but not bad given it's a pretty small room). Then I went to Ikea and bought under desk storage units and drawers (and loaded them into the car myself. eh um, go me...) The pièce de résistance was next: Brad BUILT a gorgeous wooden desk top that wrapped around 2 entire walls and mounted to the storage units! (Seriously, I had NO idea he was this handy. Score 1 for me!) That left us with an entire empty corner of the room and, after some searching, I was able to find a pull-out sofa bed that fit perfectly. (We now have 2 queen size guest beds in our little house!) Add in a handful of amazingly fun Amy shopping trips for chairs, decorations, lamps, desk stuff, and throw pillows AND, we have a pretty big pimpin office if I do say so myself.

(Note- the office is fully functional at this point thus the bit of mess... Also, the unpacked boxes are all Brad. Somehow, with all of his vast free time, he has yet to get around to unpacking his files... slackass)