Real Homes: Before and After – My Office

Over the last couple of months my house has gone trough somewhat of a transformation. We have pretty much changed every room apart from the bedroom, with every room having a paint job done, new furniture, new accessories and generally a good old spizz! (More of this to come in future weeks on the blog). With the arrival of baby Hood, we had to do a bit of switching over of rooms upstairs. My office (which used to be the spare room) became the nursery and Nik’s old office/dumping ground has now become my office.

I talked about the design and decoration ideas behind my new office HERE and I’m pretty pleased with the finished results. We had to move my rather spacious office into a much smaller space to make room for the baby, and I did this by having a massive clear out and de-clutter! I looked at colours to make the office seem roomier and decided on brilliant white to give the illusion of space. Taking inspiration from my year planner I then decided on yellow, pink and turquoise for added colour and the results are this rather bright, light work space.

Admittedly there isn’t as much room as before but to be honest it isn’t as much of a problem as I thought it would be! I love my new office, it is light, bright and a fun space to work in.

The room was originally decorated 7 years ago when we first moved in, and as you can see was a bit of a mess! First of all it was my office, until I moved into the spare room 2-3 years ago, it then became Nik’s office/dumping ground. It had all manners of rubbish in it and definitely became a little worse for wear!

We got the painters in a few weeks ago and they worked wonders, giving the office and nursery a new lease of life, from tired old cream and brown into, brilliant white and a rather bright lemon punch (which I have to admit took some getting used to!)

I then searched high and low for office furniture, the brief was white and space-saving. I looked everywhere and eventually good old IKEA came though and delivered the perfect solution! and at a really good price as well. Poor Nik had the job of putting the whole thing together.

Within my office space there is a rather handy cubby hole. This used t be piled high with boxes and rubbish but once cleared out gave me a great storage area. I have been wanting to get all my photo albums organised and on show for years now, as they used to be stored under the spare bed, this area and the massive book shelf from IKEA gave me the opportunity to have them all on display, along with my wedding albums and memorabilia, camera equipment and a few other office essentials. I love this area.

With the desk and side units purchased, I could then go about sourcing out the finishing touches and all the bist to add the colour to the office. Again IKEA came though with most items, giving me the bright pink and yellow boxes, the wall clock and the bin. The chevron lamp shade as from a shop on ebay, the blind was from John Lewis and my favourite item the chair from cult furniture.

I do love my little office space, I am really happy with the use of space and I don’t feel claustrophobic at all! which I though I would do moving from a much larger space. All it needs ow is a new carpet but that’s going to have to wait for now!

Desk – IKEA £125
Side cabinets – IKEA £35 each x 2 = £70
Book shelf – IKEA £45
Chair – Cult Furniture £170
Blind – John Lewis £40
Lamp Shade – Ebay £30
Bin – IKEA £12 (I think)
Clock – IKEA £10

Total = £502

I’d love to feature your home on the blog, if you have a restoration project or a new room you would like to show off then please email me [email protected]