We'd love to be able to do all of our shopping at boutique stores, picking up the latest, most original (and most expensive) designs. But the reality is, our homes are more about a mish-mash of hand-me-downs, a few key investment pieces and a heck of a lot of stuff from Ikea...

Lifehacker reader Patrix99 has put together a great-looking home office on a budget with creative furnishings from Ikea and Walmart. Saving money on a desk and accessories meant that he could splurge on a sweet monitor and other sleek computer peripherals that add the polish to the space.

The details of what pieces he bought and how he 'hacked' them into this home office can be found over at Lifehacker.

If you're after a cheap home office and eager to know how to keep your place from looking like you did, Lifehacker suggests keeping furnishings simple (don't go too trendy) and keep it all in the same color scheme (brown-black "Espresso" furniture is a nice color found at most big-box stores).

Via Lifehacker

(Image from Flickr user Patrix99 under a Creative Commons license)