Home Office Before & Afters

Ah yes, the forgotten room aka “out-of-sight-out-of-mind room” aka the junk drawer room, we’ve all had one some of us may still have one (guilty). Molly took it upon herself to help her forgotten room find its purpose as an adorable work and lounge room, a tall order for a small space. Check it out! From Molly: Hopefully, everyone can understand the out-of-sight-out-of-mind room. The neglected, ignored, sad space that falters while other spaces get more attention.

Emily juggles a successful creative business as well as her family of four so having a space to work at home is crucial. She had a large enough room to work in, but it was dated and not necessarily the most functional. First, Emily worked with a professional organizer to help edit her current work space. Add some of her signature cheerful DIY style and this uninspiring room was transformed into a bright and fresh space that will keep her organized with no shortage of creative inspiration.

I moved small my app development to Cowork.rs Gowanus a couple of months ago. The coworking space just opened, and I was inspired by the potential of a new space and ‘blank canvas.’ All of the furniture is new while most of the office decoration was stuff I had on hand.

Nicole and Nate needed this room off of their Chicago kitchen to do it all: function as a home office, be comfortable enough to lounge in, and also be flexible enough to fit in the occasional overnight guest. Here’s how it looks now: Nicole and Nate enlisted the help of online design service Havenly to create this triple-duty room.

When Jelena wanted to create a place to work from home, she turned to the garden shed. Using colorful and fun coworking spaces as her inspiration, she transformed this storage space into an energizing place to get stuff done. From Jelena: Looking for a solution to solve that problem I resorted to the Internet and came across a few solutions that I could adapt to my own situation.

What to do when you’ve got a spare bedroom on the boring side and are looking for a creative place to work? You tackled it stylishly like Marie and her husband did with their extra room, creating one seriously dramatic, contrasting space to get creative in! From Marie: Our renovation started off quickly because, four days after moving in, a pipe burst in the bedroom’s ceiling and flooded the entire floor and closet.

Project by: designHARMONY Location: Bothell, Washington From the designer: This busy family of four had a disorganized, uninspired office space. We transformed it by updating pieces the family already had, turning a former closet into a desk space and created a masterpiece with all of the kids’ artwork. Bright paint and accessories round out the now creative, family-friendly space.

How do you take a bland spare room with builder’s beige carpet and turn it into a sleek, modern, black and white home office and craft room combo…without spending a lot of money? Well it took a lot of patience and some awesome used furniture finds but Melissa turned this boring blank room into a sleek home office for her and her husband. From Melissa: Our home office doubles as a work space for my both my husband and me.

What do you do when you move into your boyfriend’s house full of his stylish things? You work on carving out a space for you. That’s what Chris did with this tiny spare bedroom that had been rented out to a tenant before. He wanted to turn the dark room into a more welcoming guest bedroom but also create a spot he could get work done while at home, too. From Chris: Moving in with a significant other is never an easy task.

Amy’s home office functioned just fine before. But, being located in a corner of her living room, she didn’t want it to feel temporary or look blah. So she tackled a considerable amount of mini and large DIY projects to add some stylish detail to this small corner. From Amy: To make it more functional, I added shelves above the desk to increase storage space. Keeping with the theme of gold accents, I spray painted the brackets gold in addition to some of the other desk decor.

Christina’s second bedroom is a tight eight feet wide by 13 feet long. But, despite the small size, she needed it to function both as an office and craft room, and a guestroom that could sleep two people. Christina turned this room with beige walls and bland carpet into a light and inspiring space to work and entertain guests! From Christina: The whole transformation cost about $800.

Benches have to be the most versatile piece of furniture ever. Even in the tiniest apartment, there’s room to move a bench around to the foot of the bed, along the entryway, or pulled up to a dining room table. And then there’s the endless ways to customize: starting with just four legs and a seat top, like this affordable plain white SIGURD bench from IKEA, anyone can create the perfect piece to finish off a tricky room.

Christine’s husband thought she was insane for falling in love with this 113-year old house — it was a mess of ’70s faux wood paneling, awkward trim colors and in desperate need of some TLC — but she knew they could reveal its charm with a little elbow grease. In the sunroom, she painted the paneling a soft gray and gave the buttery-yellow trim a coat of crisp white. What a difference! From Christine: I was also thrilled with how easily I was able to paint the paneling.

Wendy from Designed to Dwell had a perfectly nice formal study, yet she came to a realization I think we’ve all had at some point: sometimes what we think we like isn’t our style after all. Check out how Wendy lightened and brightened to create a completely fresh new room that’s much more her. After living with the formal study for a few years, Wendy realized her study needed a makeover.

Coltography’s closet home office was already a space efficient and streamlined affair, with cables and wires thoughtfully routed through the wall from PC to a trio of wall-mounted screens. But with improvement in mind, this industrious gent set out to eke out even more usable desk space with an impressive modification merging desk with computer… As a person with a tiny room, I have used my closet as my desk space.

What happens when you find yourself in need of an area to call an “office”, but the layout and/or space inside your home doesn’t offer delineated work and live boundaries? That’s the issue general contractor Tim Logsdon faced when helping set up a home office in Atlanta, Georgia for a novelist who needed somewhere to write.

Amy says, “Great things happen when you are willing to haul your neighbors’ discarded trash down the street at 8am in your PJs while they drive to work in their swanky cars.” Want to see what she means? Read on… Amy’s about to start her own creative business so she needed a great space to inspire her. With her limited budget ($200), she was able to fill in the gaps of her scavenging with a few key IKEA pieces and some DIY initiative.

Drop by IKEA’s as-is section, any thrift store, Goodwill, or yard sale, and you’ll eventually run into one of these wooden slat bed bases.

The compact shape, characteristic midcentury tapered wooden legs, and bargain price all caught Shannon’s eagle eyes at a yardsale, immediately convincing her this worn and roughened desk had yet another life to live in her living room after a serious makeover…I decided that a fun dose of bright color was just what it needed to really come to life!

Where I used to avoid working in my cluttered office since I could just carry my laptop elsewhere in the house, I now ONLY want to work in here.  The mood it creates is nothing short of inspiring. I used the rich wood tones and bold colors that I love, and I added in pops of color in unexpected places.

Harry Potter isn’t the only one with a cramped cupboard under the stairs. KariAnne Wood had a similarly awkward closet off the living room in her farmhouse. Previously it was just wasted, forgotten storage for random things, so she decided to make it a more useful and special spot in the house. See more of this project on KariAnne’s blog, Thistlewood Farms Thanks for sharing KariAnne!

Joy and Corey loved their downtown Los Angeles loft, but its small footprint made finding storage space pretty challenging. So they figured out a way to take advantage of their 13′ ceilings by going vertical.From Joy: The whole project was inspired by the need to get stuff up and off the floor; with limited square footage, every inch counts. Also, I really wanted a way to consolidate all our media elements.

From Celestyn: This is a pretty great “up-cycle” done by my super talented husband for the front office of our family business, Repla Prints. He broke down old pallets (FREE!!) and aged them by rubbing them with steel wool that had been soaking in apple cider vinegar before putting them onto the wall. He used the ugly existing desk and made an amazing privacy cover around it. The top is 2×6’s glued and clamped together and sanded for a smooth finish.

The second bedroom of our house is only 8 feet wide and 13 feet long. In spite of its size, we still needed it to function as an office/craft room and a guest room that would sleep 2 people. The major projects here were pulling up the carpet and painting the walls light gray and the ceiling blue. Then we found the perfect sofa bed for small spaces and built a wall shelf behind it since there wasn’t room for end tables. The whole transformation cost about $800.

It’s one of those things that nobody wants, but everybody needs in their home office. A utilitarian fireproof file cabinet is a must to keep your important documents safe and in order. But you don’t have to settle for the metallic beige eyesores of your parents’ den circa 1970.You can take an old cabinet (or a new-to-you one from a flea market or thrift store) and tailor it to suit your home office with a fresh coat of paint, wallpaper or patterned vinyl.

DIY desks are becoming a more common sight these days, but desks like rrim’s beautifully executed bi-level birch and pine desk designed for three displays and a water-cooled PC is far from the norm. Hours upon hours of “sanding and staining and clear-coating” resulted in a space efficient and cable-hiding piece worth showcasing… rrim’s Spec’s List: CPU: Intel i7 980x @ 4.

From all-purpose craft room/storage room to spectacularly organized and inspiring workspace, this craft room makeover is enough to make the best of us a little envious.I love the industrial touches with the work stool, table legs and chains that hold up the shelving. It doesn’t go over the top and retains a refined edge.The makeover was done by Real Simple so of course they focused not just on the aesthetics, but functionality and organization.

Think you need to spend a lot on new furniture to give your space a total overhaul? Think again. This compact kitchen office gets a 180° makeover from the pros at Martha Stewart using a new color and a few inexpensive additions — a task chair, acrylic desk organizers and a rolling window blind (really!).

Just off of Washington Square Park in Philadelphia, there’s a small art gallery called the Bridgette Mayer Gallery. A champion of innovative contemporary art, owner Bridgette Mayer exhibits international artists from around the world. She also just finished an amazing year-long renovation of her gallery. With it, the exhibit space has more than doubled in size. However, it’s the basement (or Level A, as Bridgette calls it) remodel that really struck me.

If there’s one thing Small Cool month reminds us, it’s that even a small space can pack a dramatic punch. Beth Beattie, who owns a PR, branding, and event planning business, tackled her tiny office transformation on a tight budget without sacrificing high style.After!Beth’s aim was to create a space that was comfortable and feminine with just the right amount of glam.

I have always dreamt of having a “couple’s desk”. However, every apartment we’ve had hasn’t given us the proper space for this to happen. Luckily, for Valentine’s Day my guy surprised me with a rearranged space and enough room for my dream double desk to finally happen!In the before photo above, you can see our original desk. It housed his cluttered workstation and was large — but not large enough for two people.

Designer: Jen ChuClient: ChiLocation: Fort Greene — Brooklyn, New York My friend, Chi, grew up in this room. She moved out for college, and when she came back, the room seemed to need a face lift more than ever. The dingy paint with the poor lighting made the room unbearably drab. The lack of storage made it impossible to maintain a tidy space. Fortunately, her room had great bones with plenty of wall space and nice hardwood floors.