THE OFFICE REVEAL

The day has finally come that you've all waited so patiently for: my office makeover reveal!  As you may recall, it started out as a closet makeover, but turned into a larger project when we had to treat a mold problem and do a lot of painting .  We also decided to add new baseboard and trim while doing this makeover.   I also did a lot of purging and organizing of this space including going through all drawers and files. The end result - a prettier more organized office that functions well for me.

 I present to you my new office closet.

I really had planned to go to IKEA to buy storage boxes and containers for this space, but we ended up not taking our daughter to the airport in October.  I couldn't justify a four hour round trip just to get them.  I've instead reused many items I already had in my home.

THE OFFICE MAKEOVER PROGRESS

I had hopes to share my office makeover last week, but I was unable to upload photos or blog posts because of the bad weather causing our  internet connection to be down.  A very small inconvenience compared to what the people on the East coast are dealing with.  Today I want to show the progress of the office closet; and hopefully later this week, I'll be able share the whole room.

Wanting to keep to our budget (which is small and limited), I decide to keep an eye out for used materials.  I couldn't believe my good fortune while shopping our local thrift store,  I found a shelving package.  It had 4 lament shelves along with rail and brackets. The only problem was that I wasn't sure the shelves were the right length, so I passed them by.  A week later when I saw the price of materials (a package of two brackets at Lowe's - $13.37 and the rails for $12.60 each), I decided to go back to the thrift store and see if they were still there.  To my great surprise, they were still there and on sale for half price with a price tag of five dollars!

In the photos below you can see the progress of the shelves going up.

My husband decided it would be best to have 3 rails with three brackets for each shelf, because of the weight these shelves will be holding.  We ended up having  to buy two more brackets costing $13.37.

Total cost for materials = $18.37
Cost for labor = FREE, thanks to my dear husband for doing the work.

If you've missed any of the posts on the progress of the room, you can read past post by clicking on the highlighted area below.

Chair Makeover
New Baseboard and Trim
Lamp Makeover
Office Closet Painting
Deciding the right wall color for the office closet
Office Makeover
Office Makeover Progress
The Closet Makeover Has Begun
Closet Makeover

This makeover is almost finished and I can't wait to share it with you!

FALL DECOR

This past weekend I finally got to do some fall decorating around the house.  I've been wanting to put out my fall decorations, but with all the office stuff sitting in the living room it was delayed.

I love using my mercury glass pieces.  I purchased a few new thing to add to my collection including this mercury glass pumpkin from Tj Maxx ($5.99)   In this vignette, I brought together silver and gold to accentuate the fall colors in the candles and leaves.

The fabric and silver pine cone candle holder were recent thrift store finds.

( candle holder - .49 cents)

(fabric $1.49 for 5 yards)

In the photo below, you can see this vignette placed on the top of my cedar chest.

CHAIR MAKEOVER

A chair makeover for my office.

The work in my office is coming along slowly but surely.  I don't share a lot about my personal life on this blog, but do so occasionally.  Today  I thought I'd explain why the progress on the office  has been a bit slow.   My husband (a pastor, and my helper/carpenter) has had to sustain a very difficult exam this past week. Our church has been independent for the past 6 years and decided to join a federation of churches; and because of that decision, he was required to take another oral exam.  This exam is very difficult and stressful.  It's compares to the oral exams he took for his master's degree.  What made it even more difficult is that it's been over 20 years since he received his master's degree.  Over the past few weeks, this has required all his attention to his studies for the exam.  I'm very thankful and proud to say he passed the exam!

While he was busy with his studies, I decided to work on a few small projects  for my office. 

I bought a chair for $5 a few years ago at a yard sale to use as a sewing chair.  This is how it has looked since the day I bought it ... brown cushion and brown wood.

OK...but I thought it could use a little sprucing up.

NEW BASEBOARD AND TRIM

We're moving on to adding the new trim and base board in my office.  Let's take a look at what we started with.  Old yellow looking wood dating back to when the house was built.

We decide to add white trim molding and baseboards.

 In the above photo, you can see the trim inside the closet. We decided to go with a plain trim on the inside of the closet without the rosettes since it's not visible when you walk into the room.

We added rosettes on the corners of the door trim. I like the charm it adds to the room but also adding these made it much easier for installation.  My husband could do straight cuts and didn't have to make mitered corners.

Here's a view of the new baseboard.  It's amazing how this new trim makes the room look so much newer and brighter.

LAMP MAKEOVER

The  progress in my office /closet makeover is slow and steadily moving forward.  Today I thought I'd share with you one of the small projects I've done.   I knew I wanted some sort of lighting for the closet since it can be a bit of a dark corner.

 I decided against a lamp that would sit on the desk and take up precious work space.  I reflected back to the inspiration closet/office photo from Jen @ I Heart Organizing.  She used a wall mounted lamp.

At Pottery Barn I found the perfect lamp in an antique nickel finish.  The problem was the price tag it came with of 89 dollars.
Then I remembered an ugly old gold lamp in our attic purchased back in the 80's.  Its lovely pleated shade was dented and falling apart.

The base with a "lovely" gold finish.

OFFICE CLOSET PAINTING {PART 2}

Continuation of the office/closet painting makeover.

Originally I'd thought that I would paint all the walls blue in the closet, but after applying the white primer, I realized that I really liked how bright the white made the room look.  I decided to paint the back wall white and the two side walls the blue color - Lighthouse Shadows by Valspar.

I checked into putting pretty wall paper (allen + roth Sea Breeze Floral Trail wallpaper) on the back wall, but it was to expensive for my budget with a price tag of $59.96 a roll.  We're already spending more in this room than we first had planned by adding new baseboard and trim.  I opted to stencil the wall instead.  In the photos below you can see my test spots.

 The first one I tried was from Jones Design Company  -  a hand painted wallpaper.

The second  is a stencil I found on line at Hobby Lobby.  It was $16.99 but using an online coupon and free shipping made it $10.20.  I ended up choosing the Hobby Lobby stencil even though I liked the painted wall paper.  The thought of painting all the lines by hand seemed very labor and time intense.  Note the white paint over the blue, which was my first thought for the painting project.

In the photos below, you can see the process of painting the stenciled wall using the blue paint over the white.  I followed the instructions and stated at the top of the wall in the center.    To make sure the stencil stayed straight on the wall I used a level and worked across the wall horizontally. I continued this process working  my way down the wall.

Here's how it looks once the side walls were painted and stenciling was completed.

Oh, so much better !

I'm loving how the closet is turning out.  Stay with me; and I'll continue to show you the process for the rest of the closet and room.