Monday, February 14, 2011

Closet/Office Re-model

I have been itching to blog about our weekend project...well...all weekend! As we begin to prepare for our little baby Jane, we have encountered a few obstacles. First, the room we intend to use as the nursery has been our office/craft room/"don't know what to do with it" room since we moved into the house in August. Our first solution was to move the office into our bedroom and find storage space for my crafting supplies in one of the hall closets. The plan was to find a medium to large hutch type piece of furniture and convert it to our office space. I had found a few pieces I liked but they ranged from the low $300's to the high $700's and that just wasn't in the budget. Even if we were able to find an affordable hutch, I wasn't super excited about having to move the office into our room. We brainstormed a bit and came up with a Plan B: turn the guest room closet into our office! We did some research online and found great inspiration...

From blisstree.com

from dwellerswithoutdecorators
Our first step was to clean out the closet:

Second step was to re-vamp our old computer desk (which I bought at Goodwill years ago):


Tim bought a 7ft piece of plywood which we used to extend the desk top to fill the closet.


Then came the sanding, priming, and painting.



After getting the painted desk and desktop into the closet, we added some side shelving for additional storage...


As a finishing touch, we ran a piece of molding across the front of the desk so that the plywood addition wasn't so obvious. It worked out perfectly!




I LOVE IT!!!



The total cost of our closet re-model was about $100 dollars. So much more cost effective than trying to find and fix up a large hutch or looking into custom shelving options for our room. I am thrilled with how it all turned out and so thankful I married a man who can turn my ideas into reality. He even re-wired the electrical socket in the room so that we can plug-in the computer and printer from the inside of the closet!

The final step is to find fun curtains to hang over the front. I'm seeing an Ikea trip in the near future...

The most exciting part of the project is now that we have moved the office and craft supplies out of the soon-to-be nursery, we can really get going on prepping for the baby! Pink paint samples, here I come!!

13 comments:

  1. I love, love, love this!!! If Kate ends up going to school up there in the fall, I want a tour! (And who knows, maybe even sooner!)

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  2. Check out the wall paper in this one...
    http://freshhomeblog.com/2010/11/reader-re-do-jennifers-closet-turned-office/

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  3. It looks amazing! That desk is incredible. Props to Tim :)

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  4. It looks amazing and the price can't be beat. Great job! I'm hosting We're ORganized Wednesday through Saturday and would love for you to join if you get the chance. http://organizeyourstuffnow.com

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  5. You've done a wonderful job. The lamp is so pretty. I am curious about the electricity. Did you put an outlet into the cupboard?

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  6. Leanne- Thanks for the invite! I'm so there!

    Sandy- Thanks! The lamp base is a target clearance item from about 6 years ago and I picked up the green shade last week for $1.95. Gotta love it! My husband added an outlet to the inside left wall of the closet. There is an outlet in the front left and he simply drilled into the back of the wall, did some re-wiring, and added an outlet cover so now I can plug everything in from the inside of the closet.

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  7. I saw your feature today!
    I love it! My Mother's book keeper had her "office" in a closet in her family room. I always thought it was genius! I LOVE small space solutions! I guess that is because my home is small.

    Cheryl

    See what I did in my tiny powder room this week- http://ldsmomtomany.blogspot.com/2011/02/plastic-basket-makeover-with-easy-sew.html

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  8. Thanks for linking to We're ORganized Wednesday. I'll be featuring this.

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  9. I love this! Something like this will be a perfect way to organize my spare bedroom closet...plus I like your blog layout from shabby blogs, I have the same! I am your newest follower :)

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  10. That turned out great. I'm your newest follower. I'm having my first link party tomorrow (Monday). It would be great if you could stop by and post your project. http://diyhshp.blogspot.com

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  11. This is a really great idea! You managed to add a room in your house by converting the closet into an office space. I can picture your delighted face while working in such a beautiful place. Please take a photo of your office when it’s all done. I bet it will inspire other creative and resourceful people out there.


    Blake Mitchell

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