Above: home office before remodel, with air mattress set up. Old computer desk and hutch moved to my craft room. Large, heavy oak roll top desk and hutch moved to living room.
Home Office
I am a full-time freelance writer and mainly work out of my home office. Our current house is a large, 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom, 3,000 square foot ranch house. We also have a large screen porch and screened-in in-ground pool all on 6/10’s of an acre of land.
Since the house is so large, I took over one of the bedrooms for my home office, when we first moved here approximately 5 years ago. We just moved in my old office furniture and didn’t do anything to paint or decorate the room. My home office also serves as our guest room when my mom, AKA Oma, comes down from upstate NY to visit during the holidays.
My mom usually stays with us for 2-3 weeks each Christmas. We always set up a large air mattress for her bed, but that meant taking out some of the office furniture so we could squeeze in the air mattress. It also meant that I was unable to get to my desktop computer during her stay.
Above: 3 walls painted allspice, mocha colored computer desk, hutch, printer stand. I’ve got a large basket underneath the desk, which serves as my garbage can. I’ve also placed my paper shredded underneath the desk, which stays out of the way until needed.
Time for Change
After Oma’s last holiday visit, I decided we needed to do a major office re-do, to make it more comfortable for my mom when she’s down here, and to make it less inconvenient for me while she’s staying in my office/guest room. My mom is in her 60’s, and has had both knees replaced, so I know getting in and out of the air mattress can sometimes be a struggle for her.
I decided to remove most of the furniture from the office. We use our large family room, towards the back of our house, as our tv room and living room, so the small living room at the front of the house really wasn’t being used. The living room had a ratty old loveseat and chair with ottoman that our dogs were using as their personal dog beds. Both pieces of furniture were used when we got them, so they were never in that great shape to begin with. I decided to throw out both the loveseat and chair with ottoman to make room for the items from my office.
Above: back wall painted dark orange, with Japanese wall hanging, Murano glass sconces and futon.
Above: close up of one of the glass sconces.
Moving Day
We moved the large, roll top desk out into the living room. I can place my laptop computer on the roll top desk when my mom is visiting for the holidays. I bought a rolling printer cart for my printer which is normally connected to my desktop computer. I will move the printer stand out into the living room, whenever we setup the office as a guest room. That way I will have a printer available which I can use with my laptop computer.
I moved my file cabinet out by the entryway, next to the living room. We always had to take the file cabinet out of the office in order to fit the air mattress. The file cabinet is really heavy and is always a pain to move. We always put the file cabinet by the front door, so I just rearranged some other items by the front door, so we could leave the file cabinet permanently set up in the entry way. The file cabinet is just outside of my office, so I don’t have that far to go if I need a file. The file cabinet is wood, not metal, so it looks more like a cabinet rather than a piece of office furniture. I covered the file cabinet with a table runner Oma made for me a few years ago for an extra decorative touch.
Above: rolling printer stand, with my all-in-one printer, scanner, copy machine. The printer and stand will move out to the living room when the office is set up as a guest room.
Rearrange Your Stuff
I also got rid of all the old office bookshelves. Most of them were falling apart anyways, so we put them out on the curb. I had one small bookshelf with was still usable, that I moved into the living. I donated a huge pile of books I no longer needed to our local library. The closet in my home office is filled with shelves, instead of a clothing rod, so I was able to fit all my office supplies, remaining books, etc… into the closet.
I’ve been wanting to get some type of sewing desk or craft table for my craft area out by our laundry room. I decided to move my old computer desk with hutch to my craft room – it makes a terrific sewing and craft table – YEAH! We purchased a new computer desk, hutch, storage cubby with baskets and printer stand from Office Depot. It was all on sale – perfect! I was interested in decorating the office with an orange accent wall, with the other 3 walls painted beige and wanted the furniture to be in that dark mocha/dark chocolate color. Very dramatic.
Above: I finally found the perfect spot for my antique comb collection, on the wall to the left of my computer desk. The comb collection has been sitting in a closet, for years, waiting for its day of glory.
Fun with Paint
I originally had my husband, who hates painting, paint all four walls orange, but that was way too much color for such a small room. He’s a great guy, and went to Home Depot to buy a can of allspice paint to repaint 3 of the walls. With the dark office furniture and bold accents of the other items I placed in the room, it really needed a more neutral wall color.
I kept the back wall orange, official name is Koi, and hung the Kimono-like wall hanging my mom got for me when she visited Japan on that wall. And my husband finally sent two of his electricians to hang my red/orange Murano glass sconces on the wall on a rainy day. One of the electricians was my 19 year old son, who works for the same company as his dad. Yes, I was a bit nervous having my son drill holes in my walls and wire electrical fixtures, but he did a great job!
Above: another view of the office, before Murano sconces were installed. Yes, once we move the rolling printer stand out of the way, there is actually enough room to open the futon up into a full size bed.
Futon as Sofa and Bed
In place of the ugly air mattress that we used to use for our guests, we went to a local futon dealer and got a nice futon for the office. The futon has an oak frame, which has been painted black, which looks good with the mocha/java office furniture. I found a nice orange/yellow/gold oriental looking print to cover the futon. So the futon normally functions as a sofa but opens up to a full size bed when we have company.
Above: old cork board covered in fabric and made into French-style memo board. Details on how I made the memo board can be found here.
Homemade Decorations
I placed two of my fused glass plates on the top of the computer desk hutch. One of the plates I had made a couple of years ago, the other plate I made specifically for the office. Both of the plates have a bit of orange in them, since I’m on a kind of an orange scheme for the office color.
Above: closet turned into storage cabinet. There is still a small closet rod on the left hand side of the closet, for when we have guests. A family friend constructed the built-in closet shelves. I have more than enough room for all my office supplies in this closet.
I took my old, large cork board and covered it with batting, decorative fabric and ribbons to make one of those French memo boards. I’ll be adding a detailed report on how I made the memo board in a future Craft Diva blog post.
I also had two old wood picture frames, which I base painted cream, then crackled painted with a copper wash. I simply cut up a couple of pieces of scrapbook paper and placed them in the frames for instant, and inexpensive artwork.
Above: wood frames, paint, scrapbook paper equals instant artwork.
Final Verdict
I’m really enjoying my newly decorated home office. The only problem is, now the rest of the house looks ratty. But I don’t think my husband is ready to do anymore painting. An unexpected perk of the office re-do, it looks a 100 times bigger with the new furniture arrangement. I obviously had way too many pieces of large furniture stuffed into the room before. But now the room looks more like a guest room, and not so much like a home office.
I also have a nice little retreat to enjoy a cup of coffee and read a book – the futon makes a fantastic couch, really comfy. The dogs keep eyeballing the futon, thinking it’s their new dog bed, but unless I’m in the office, I keep the door closed. Access = DENIED! Poor doggies.
Take care,
Lynn Smythe
Founder and Chief Blogger
The Creative Cottage
Sloth Athletica
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