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Renovating the office – The reveal

I’m so happy that my office redo is finally done! I started back in October as I couldn’t hold the orange color anymore. Just a pic of the before so you can really appreciate the change, if you want to see more about the part one of the renovations, click here.

It was a big mess sanding the desk and the shelves, I ended up with orange dust all over. We have an open space downstairs so the dust spread to the living room and the playroom too. I should have thought of covering everything with a protecting cloth. I wish I had a vacuum and mop in one to clean up the mess quicker!  It was quite tedious to clean all shelving, starting from the top, vacuum every corner of the drawers, sweep into every nook and finally end up cleaning the floor with steam mops ( found on steamclean reviews ) and a DIY floor cleaner. We have concrete floor in the all house, I clean it with some liquid dish detergent mixed into water and once in a while I use a wax cleaner…which is suppose to be for wood floor but works great on my stained concrete. Once there was no more orange dust around, I started painting. I used a 2 in 1 white paint, combining primer and topcoat. I applied 3 coats, and finishing by

The painting was a big part of the work, along with cleaning, cluttering, and organizing. You can read the part two HERE. Crafting is a lot of fun but organizing the supplies can give headache…I found out that boxes storage work pretty well for me. I organized the boxes by material: glues, threads, beads, tools, markers, paints … Usually, I need several boxes to make a DIY, so I leave them open on my desk while I’m working and once I finish I put the material back in its place. Well, at least it’s what I should do…I still need to perfect the “cleaning step”.

As credenza, I used a plywood board covered with fabric. It’s fixed on the wall with double face tape. I also made a cover for the sewing machine with the fabric leftover… can you spot it?

This is the only thing I’m not sure about. I put a curtain under the desk to hide the plastic drawers. I wanted to be able to open and close the drawers easily, without messing with the curtain fabric. So I screwed a curtain rail under the desk and hanged a white fabric to make the curtain. As I didn’t want to show the mess inside the drawers, I also slid white sheets on the front of the drawers (check here for the DIY). I think the drawers look pretty clean by themselves, I’m not sure the curtain makes a big difference. What do you think?

To separate the office from the playroom, I made a room divider (DIY Here). Even if most of the time the room divider is partially open and the kids come and go between the rooms, the toys remain on the playroom side which is huge progress. To store the paper I made the same DIY towel hanger, as I did for the bathroom. I like that the papers are not rolled on themselves, and also that I can use them as a decor element! What a good excuse to buy nice patterned papers!

There is usually a lot more stuff in the pencil holder…but I made some serious cleaning to take this pic!

I found this free printable HERE, there is thousand of vintage and historical poster available! At first, I thought I would hang a botanical print but I couldn’t find something that will fit the space. When I saw this vintage Puerto Rico poster I knew it will suit in the office, the colors and design are just perfect. I made it printed, then glued one trim on top and other on the bottom. I fixed a piece of rope on the top trim and hang it on the wall…so for less than 5 dollars to can have a cool poster!

And I finally have a nice place to display my Domus magazine collection! I want to add more plants, I’m not sure which one yet…I guess I will just look around and buy little by little what I like, suggestions are welcome.

Amaryllis

Amaryllis

Stefan Bradley

Tuesday 30th of July 2019

I like how you covered the plastic drawers with a curtain. My office is in the need of some new furniture, and I am looking for a place to buy some that would suit my work area. Hopefully, I can find some high-quality office furniture online.

Diana Lopes

Wednesday 21st of February 2018

Looks really beautiful, sort of clean, but refreshing at the same time...I'd love to work in a place like that!

amaryllis

Friday 23rd of February 2018

Thanks Diana! I do my best to keep it clean and organize (not always working)

Mamyca

Friday 16th of February 2018

Quels changements ! Je suis d'accord avec Patti, les rideaux ne sont pas nécessaires, ça fait un peu "brol" et puisque tu as recouvert les tiroirs... Maintenant si c'est pour jouer à cache cache, les enfants seront ravis ?

amaryllis

Monday 19th of February 2018

Euuuuh...j'aimerai autant qu'ils jouent dans leur salle de jeux!

patti

Wednesday 7th of February 2018

looks so nice and "clean"! for the curtain, either pull tight so there are no folds, or go without. the bins are nice enough to show.

amaryllis

Monday 19th of February 2018

Hello Patti...Yep, I agree with you! I would better have stick to my first idea of showing the drawers. Now I just have to take the curtain down...and find something else to do with the fabric ;)