Before and After: A Storage Nook Turned Chic, Practical Home Office for $150
Not everyone has a natural spot for a home office. Sometimes you have to do a little magic with the room you do have, especially in small spaces. Holly, on Instagram as @calling_allcreators, knew she’d have to think outside the box in creating her own home workspace. “I wanted to create an office space for myself, but I knew we had limited space in our home,” she says. “The only place we had space to create an office was in our unfinished basement. So I went down there and got creative with where I could put a small office space for myself.”
What she found: The storage space under the stairs—filled with stuff—was actually the perfect size for what she needed. “It was an unorganized mess that drove me nuts whenever I looked at it,” Holly says. “It was a wasted space with lots of potential.”
After clearing out all the stuff, Holly stenciled the floor to give it an upscale tiled look (even though it’s concrete!). “I was super nervous about how that would turn out,” Holly says. “It ended up being super easy and I love the way it turned out.” She wanted the space to feel bigger, not smaller, so she went with white paint for the walls (Sherwin-Williams’s Alabaster) and black for the ceiling (Sherwin-Williams’s Inkwell). Since she used leftover paint for the whole project, she saved lots of money on materials. The back wall looks like wood paneling, but is actually faux; Holly made it using Sharpie!
Cork panels make use of the small back wall as a place to hang notes and reminders. Holly bought the desk from Amazon after looking for something with plenty of storage that still felt open and not too bulky. The black desk chair—a spin on the classic Windsor—is from Target. Final touch? Plenty of plants!
“Truthfully, there really wasn’t anything too difficult with this project,” Holly says. “It is a project anyone could do, and that is my favorite thing to share with others! Projects that are easy, yet make a big impact to their space! I am always saying there is such power in paint, you can totally transform a space using paint. It is inexpensive and my go-to DIY weapon!” Hear, hear!
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