Home Office Makeover Plans

One of the worst parts of being a blogger is having to show you before pictures of spaces.

The mess! The outdated decor! The downright embarrassing pictures!

But the good news about before pictures is the possibility in them. The makeover ideas, the new paint colors. It’s all very fun for me and I love creating warm, comfortable spaces for my family and friends.

In our house we are lucky enough to have 4 bedrooms, one of which turned into a home office for me so I had my own space in which to do grad school homework and keep all of my own things like photo albums, books and favorite art. I’ve been working on this space for a few years with lots of changes in between, but before I get to the after I have to show you the before. And my plans for what I’d like to see in the space.

This is such a lovely space, with such unique character. It has beautiful bay windows, a fireplace, and lots of our original hardwood floors and trim. We inherited it with off white walls and a light blue accent wall above the fireplace. Not to mention the very old gas insert in the fireplace.

There’s just a spare bulb in the center of the ceiling but the closet is tall and spacious for an old house.

My plans for this space are to make it a chic yet comfortable space where I can do homework and blog. And while I’m setting it up, maybe take some risks and do some fun things that I haven’t done before. With a fireplace, I see it as a focal point, plus I’ll have to customize some curtains since we have 9 foot ceilings. Here is my plan for my home office makeover.

• Paint the ceiling and walls
• Clean the fireplace More on that here
• Remove the old gas insert More on that here
• Paint the fireplace brick and accent wall above
• Get and customize curtains
• Arrange the furniture in a functional layout
• Get a rug More on that here
• Create a gallery wall and hang other art
• Wallpaper the bookshelves More on that here
• Organize and de-clutter everything

The links in the above list show that some projects I’ve already done in the room, including cleaning the fireplace and removing the insert, getting a rug, wallpapering the back of the bookshelves. We also painted all the ceilings white when we moved in, I just had to choose the wall color.

I ended up wanting a light grey background to work with other ideas I had, which was Dolphin by Martha Stewart. See more of it in my house paint colors post.

Here are some of the elements I’ll use in the room.

This mint green pendant will go perfectly over my lone light bulb. I found this old sign from a hotel at an architectural salvage warehouse that I think is so interesting. I plan to hang it above the fireplace. I thought some antlers would be a fun and unexpected addition. Plus they’d go with Rambo, my metal pet.

These old letters are didn’t come in an English word I could put together, but come back to see what word I did make up with them. Here is the risky rug I picked out in a wild zebra pattern, which was a bold choice for me. The glossy blue dresser and craft fail made better better lined drawers will be a nice storage piece for the room. And lastly, I saw this fabric twice at the store before buying it. Some things you just can’t resist!

See more before pictures of the office here. Come back and see each of these projects including the curtains, fireplace makeover, gallery wall and total room reveal this month.