First some background; the home office or the study as we like to call it is one of the first rooms you see as you enter our home. The room is right off the foyer opposite to the living room. According to B it is his room, his work space even though all of us use it. I’m supposed to be getting my art studio/craft room in the basement (hopefully soon). So I had to work with what B wanted aka. the traditional L shaped desk, which we found on Craigslist. As promised, this is what I was up to over the last few weekends.
A big improvement from this pic (taken the night before the desk was in the room), right?
Here is an ‘in progress’ shot;
The ‘after’…Woohoooo!
All it took was some grey paint (it is definitely grey to the naked eye though it may look brownish in the pics) on the walls, curtain trimming, a gallery wall, a cork board map, and some accessories.
The gallery wall is made of post cards that our friend sent us from different parts of the world, the vintage movie reels (the reason behind hanging these in the room here) from the Lucketts Spring Market, some personal keepsakes like B’s World Trade Center I ID card, our wedding card etc, and some photos (there is a story behind every one of them). Here is a close up.
The paint color, Martha Stewart Brooke Trout looks much richer and darker at night as you can see in this pic.
The map cork board was adapted from a number of tutorials on various blogs. The kids had a lot of fun making flag pins and marking the places where we’ve been to. I’d say she’s the star of our home office makeover!
And yes those orange sticks (salvaged from our garden) are in an Ikea ORDNING, the kitchen utensil rack. 😉
There was more recycling going on in the form of flag pins made out of old school folders.
We took the ‘before’ pics only after we moved the old computer desk to the basement. So I’ve tried to recreate the look using PicMonkey and a pic of the old desk from our first home.
An ‘after’ night shot from the same angle.
As usual here is the break down;
Source List
- Martha Stewart Brooke Trout paint matched to Behr Ultra – $20.00 – Home Depot (was on sale)
- Desk -$300 – Craigslist
- Map Cork Board – $24.63 – DIY
- Gallery Wall – $131.67 – Frames from Big Lots, K Mart (Tutorial)
- Chair – Already had
- Curtain Rod – Already had – Home Depot
- Curtains – Already had – Overstock
- Total cost for our home office makeover- $476.29
PS: I still feel that the room needs something more, maybe a rug, some ladder shelves by the window? What do you think? Maybe a faux zebra hide (don’t have the heart to walk on a real one or even a cow hide dressed up as a zebra) rug? We also have plans of filling up the gallery wall end to end eventually.
Stay tuned for details on each of the projects in the coming days.
Update: I made the zebra rug!!! You can read about it here.
I love what you have done with the room Vidya. I particularly like the colour you have used on the wall. I love using colour on walls but would opt for tones like the one you have chosen. Somehow, bright colours on a large expanse don’t work for me 🙂
The spark of orange on the twigs connect with the drapes and are such a subtle add to visual interest–verryy nice 🙂
Thanks Rekha. Glad you liked it. I am usually not a dark color person. But after seeing many bloggers try it with wonderful results, I finally got the courage to start small in my powder room. Surprisingly I loved it. So I thought why not go dark here too. I’m loving it now. I too prefer to stay neutral even with a dark shade.
Vidya
I love the room makeover Vidya, specially the Map Cork Board. Did you do that ?
Ya, Shruthi I made it. Tutorial coming up soon. 🙂 Thank you!
Vidya
I will look forward for that bcs I got the similar map and thought of framing it, but after I saw urs I changed my mind 😉
Tutorial coming up next week. 🙂 It is screwed on to the wall with bolt like screws. I think it kinda gives it an industrial look. B is not so thrilled with it. He is leaning more towards framing it. For now we’ve decide to live with it for some time to see if it grows on him. 🙂
Vidya
This room looks fab! I am in love with the paint color and that vintage looking map! What a great and fun idea to mark where you have been!
Thanks Erika. Isn’t grey so pretty? I am really in love with grey these days.
Vidya
Great work chechi. I love the way you arranged gallery.
Thanks Arun.
Hi Vidya,
I was waiting to see this makeover. Looks very good. What happened to those game board boxes. I thought you would do something withthem. The only thing which I felt was out of place, were the movie reels. I think they would suit more in a media room.
Sree
Thanks Sreevani. The game board boxes were just used as weights to weigh down the map, to make it straight. The story behind the movie reel is coming up tomorrow. 🙂
Vidya
love the color of the wall and love love love orange:)
Thank you G!
Vidya
I really love your photos. Check this free online photo editing
http://www.fotor.com
Love the desk, who is the manufacturer?
Not really sure JoAnn. We bought it off Craigslist. Have seen similar ones at Belfort though.