MY NEW BLOGGING OFFICE: BEFORE AND AFTER

 

Welcome to a tour of the most impulsive large-scale project I’ve ever done! I had been dreaming of my own office space for a long time, but basically didn’t have the guts to figure out what to do with everything we had in the “storage room” which was the only possible spot I could set up an office.

Because our house was fully furnished when we moved in as renters, we’ve been storing quite a bit of furniture along with some craft supplies, sentimental things from our wedding, childhood memories, luggage, etc. all in this one room, and it had become a catch all for anything in our house that didn’t have a home. This picture is after I’d already started cleaning it out! (Not pictured: 2 dining room tables, a third tall metal shelving unit filled with a coffee table, 4 dining chairs and more)

Honestly, kind of embarrassed to even show you this, but you have to see it to fully understand how exciting this room transformation is!

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It all started because we had some 100-degree weeks here in LA, and along with it came a lot a lot of ants, all over our house. One day, mid-melt-down-about-the-ants, out of fear that they would get all over my closet, I grabbed my clothes, cleared out a tiny section in this room, folded them on the rack and claimed this room as my new closet + office space. I impulsively moved a bunch of furniture out and into our living room, promising I’d take care of it ASAP, and thus beginning a way bigger project than I actually had time for.

But 3 months later, I’m pretty glad I did it!

Here was my original mood board for this space:

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I sent my vision to one of my favorite companies for really nice, customizable furniture: Joybird. I asked them if they’d be open to partnering with me to design this room around their pretty Ivo Accent Chairs, and they said yes! I worked with Joybird on my living room transformation and love the items so much that I knew I wanted to work with them again!

I shared lots more details on my thought process behind the design in the video above, but basically — I wanted something ultra feminine that was still clean-feeling and neutral so that the pink chairs could be the solo pop of color.

Here’s what it looks like now!

 
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Sequin Art:

I bought this 40x60 foam board from Office Depot and stapled some fabric onto it! To hang it, I stapled two loops made from some random ribbon I found around the house and hung it on a couple of push pins.

I only got a yard and a half of fabric, expecting to have to cut the foam board, but it ending up stretching over the entire board which was great!

I got this fabric from Mood Fabrics, which I typically love for their higher-end quality. Unfortunately it came with some stains all over the back that you can see through in some spots, but I normally have a better experience with them so I would still recommend it.

This whole project cost $60 because of the fabric I chose, but you could do it for much less with cheaper fabric.

I only had two DIY projects for this space: the little flower coffee table/side table, and the sequin art work! Both were very, very simple.

Flower Table:

I found these heart shaped wooden plaques at Michaels and a thin wooden circle, and I used wood glue to glue them to the top of this IKEA wooden stool. That’s it! I didn’t stain or paint or anything.

The edges are just a little rough, so if you try this, you might want to sand a little more or finish them with something, but I left mine completely untouched and it matched the IKEA stool perfectly.

The best part is this entire table only cost $25!

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Here are links to everything in this office! (The white planter was from Home Goods a few years ago ($30), and the Rubber Tree was a find on Facebook Marketplace ($50)... I added similar items here.)