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One Room Challenge

Before and After: A Home Office Redo Swaps a Youthful Look for Something More Grown Up

Megan Baker Detloff
Megan Baker DetloffHome Projects Director
Megan is a writer and editor who specializes in home upgrades, DIY projects, hacks, and design. Before Apartment Therapy, she was an editor at HGTV Magazine and This Old House Magazine. Megan has a degree in Magazine Journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. She is a self-taught weighted blanket connoisseur.
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published Oct 6, 2022
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About this before & after
Home Type
House
Project Type
Office & Dens
Cost
N/A
Style
Eclectic
Maximalist
Traditional
Skill Level
DIY
Rental Friendly
No
Before: Office with navy blue walls, green sofa, white marble coffee table, and white rug. A gallery wall hangs above the sofa.
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Credit: Haneen Matt

Some decisions are meant to last a lifetime. But a room makeover only needs to last as long as it’s making you happy. And when it’s not? Well, it’s easy enough to shuffle things up again and create a space that makes you feel good and reflects your personal tastes.

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Credit: Haneen Matt

Let this home office makeover from Haneen Matt (@haneens_haven) inspire you to take the plunge with any areas in your home that don’t reflect your current style. The office Haneen started with was lovely. “The before was youthful and vibrant, but not necessarily put together,” Haneen says. “The before wasn’t bad! Just no longer felt like ‘me.'”

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Credit: Haneen Matt

What Haneen wanted instead was to create a space that felt more sophisticated and grown-up, with the vibe of a library or a study. So she took on the makeover as part of the Spring 2022 One Room Challenge, completing her makeover over the course of eight weeks.

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Credit: Haneen Matt

Haneen went all-in on the academic new look, trading navy blue wall paint for a cozy plaid Thibault wallpaper. The pattern might be busy, but the neutral green, black, and white color palette keeps it from looking wild. Haneen also swapped out the old sofa for an updated Chesterfield one, and traded the old wood desk for a more spacious a black one.

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Credit: Haneen Matt

But maybe the biggest, most daring transformation of this entire space lies overhead. Rather than leaving the ceiling white, Haneen decorated it with leather book covers laid out so they overlapped to create a shingled effect.

It took a bit of trial and error to pull off that creative DIY. “I started with trying to use an adhesive, but that wasn’t working,” Haneen says. “Then I tried a brad nailer, but that didn’t quite work either.” In the end, she reached for trusty Command Strips, which have held up just fine.

The rest of the room got furniture that fit with the luxe-yet-minimalist feel of the remodeled office. “It’s really moody in here, but warm and welcoming,” Haneen says. And this risk-taking DIYer offers sound advice to anyone else taking on a reno project: “Not everyone is going to love an idea you have, and that’s all the more reason to do it!”

This project was completed for the Spring 2022 One Room Challenge, in partnership with Apartment Therapy. See even more of the One Room Challenge before and afters here.

Inspired? Submit your own project here.

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Before & After
Home Office
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