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Before & After: Jason's Closet Office

9309jasonoffice1.jpgEven the most talented and organized among us have a lot of accumulated office junk. The above accumulation belongs to Jason Loper, the brains behind Zola Jones Designs, a line of stylish and efficient handbags. As you can imagine, though, Jason managed to turn this office mess into an equally stylish and efficient home workspace in a closet...

 
 

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With a few clever decorative touches, and by culling, cleaning, and organizing like crazy, Jason managed to wrangle all of that haphazard stuff into a neat office tucked into a closet space, freeing up the rest of the room for use as a comfortable den. Let's take a look at a few details...

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To create a richly colored backdrop, Jason lined the insides of the closet with wood-grain oilcloth. The dark color seems like a practical choice for hiding wires and giving the whole set-up a neater look.

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Jason used elfa shelving to create storage space above his desk. We love the convenience of the little letter sorter hanging down in front of the drawers, too.

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Check out more photos of Jason's home on his Flickr page. To have a look at his gorgeous handbag designs, visit the Zola Jones website.

(Images: Jason Loper, Zola Jones Designs)

Tags

organizing, Workspace, home office, oilcloth, elfa shelving

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Comments (16)

Congrats on the organization, but the best idea here is the closet lined with faux bois oilcloth, brilliant! Thanks for sharing.

posted by Beautyeverywhere on September 3rd 2009 at 9:27pm
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Now I want to see the rest of the room!

posted by mei-ling on September 3rd 2009 at 10:21pm
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love the Grizzly Bear desktop

posted by thomasbalkcom on September 3rd 2009 at 10:49pm
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lovely, well done! question: what is the surface on which he placed the computer (i.e. the desk itself)? It seems he uses the ventilated shelving, with something on top of that.

I am trying to decide whether to use elfa shelves (laminate) or something like we see here.

posted by avianmission on September 3rd 2009 at 11:06pm
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Wow, what a great transformation! Now if I can get my boyfriend to do something like this....

posted by suzy8track on September 4th 2009 at 12:02am
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Kind of nice but maybe a little claustrophobic for the person using the computer.

posted by ChrisGal on September 4th 2009 at 6:32am
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Whew! The before picture was scary.

posted by quiltmaster on September 4th 2009 at 8:04am
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agree with Chrisgal...it seems so depressing to be half in a closet to work.

posted by ec05 on September 4th 2009 at 10:51am
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Great post! I have a closet turn to office project that I've been putting off. (Note to self: remove closet door this weekend)

Unfortunately, the closet is the only space in my little apartment I have for work space.

posted by thewifeofanartist on September 4th 2009 at 11:47am
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I looks nice. The only issue I have with a lot of these closet offices is that I don't think they can be used for any length of time. There's no where to rest elbows and no back support.

posted by tarsengreen on September 4th 2009 at 12:00pm
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Nicely done!

I envy those who can use a closet office. I set one up for myself, and it was utterly adorable- a cozy nook with a spot for everything. The sad thing was that I just never used it. I always chose to use my laptop in the couch instead of being holed up in my office. *sigh* I tried!

posted by shockthebourgeois on September 4th 2009 at 4:23pm
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that first picture stressed me out so much i almost didn't read the rest... but i'm glad i did. great job - what a huge improvement!!

posted by formosagirl on September 5th 2009 at 3:13am
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Great topic, they are more attractive than others, i appreciated it,

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posted by nikeairmax4U on September 5th 2009 at 3:23am
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we just took our office back out of the closet - couldn't handle it anymore

posted by celesteinoz on September 6th 2009 at 7:10am
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avianmission: Container Store sells the elfa shelf liners I used on the desktop and on a few of the lower shelves.

posted by JasonLoper on September 9th 2009 at 1:34pm
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Jason, how did you attach the oilcloth to the walls? nails? staple gun? wall paper glue? other?

and - all over or just at the top? I was thinking that the elfa uprights and other hardware might be all you need to hold it in place.

posted by aearle on September 29th 2009 at 11:17am
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