1.24.2010

Before and After : The Office

For the last couple of weeks I've been obsessed with getting the office together. The goal was to make it pretty and functional, instead of beige and gross; while spending as little cash money as possible.

Before:
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After:
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I made the desk, with help from Zach, using two doors, a small bookshelf that I already had, and two table legs. I'll expound on this project in another post.

Before:
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After:
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The wicker chair is from a thrift store, it was twelve buckaroos. I threw a couple of pillows that I already had on it. The yellow stool is from HomeGoods.

I didn't spend any money on the artwork. I already owned all the frames. All of the art consists of things I already had (fabric and giftwrap) or things I printed on my home printer. I used three sources for printing artwork: Vintage Printable, a disk of clipart images I had, and Dafont.com. The pear, bicycle and tree sihouettes are all Dingbat fonts I downloaded from Dafont.
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The paint color is from Valspar, called Plum Passion (which is weird because it's not purple). The roman shades I made from the existing faux wood blinds that we had using Jenny's tutorial from Little Green Notebook. I was a little nervous, but they turned out okay. I think I will go back and add a liner to each of them. I used an old Ikea curtain for the fabric, and glued on black grosgain ribbon.
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I replaced the black plastic pulls on the file cabinet with new brushed nickel hardware. The shelves and the containers I already had, and most of them are from Ikea. The silver wall flowers are from Target and were on clearance for about a dollar. Target and Ikea hold the answers to all of life's problems.
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The EXPEDIT bookshelf from IKEA is one of my favorite products - so much storage!

The desk chair I also got at a thrift store for $15. It was in pretty good shape so I just recovered the upholstery with some fabric from Joann's.
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And there you have it, my new office! When all was said and done I spent about $200 benjamins.

46 comments:

  1. Everything looks amazing! I love the colors, the desk, the sweet chair in the corner and especially your desk chair...everything looks fresh.

    Great job as usual.

    Momma

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  2. very nice work, erica! i love the office :) i would love your help to finish my office. it's technically donny's :( and it's the one room he has design control over in the house-but it's hard because he wants it to be an outdoors theme. any suggestions w/o becoming too tacky?

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  3. I hate that you are so good at making things look perfect and spending nothing on it. When we buy a real house can I hire you? I will pay you in Diet Coke, Filiberto's and hugs. Long and awkward ones. From Philip. Deal?

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  4. Love it all - the color is amazing - you are inspiring just when I need it the most! Thrift stores and Ikea (even though it's an hour and a half away) - here I come! Love the new blog!

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  5. There's something about you saying that this desk was created by 2 doors that's such a slap in the face. That's why I hate you...and love you. Your office looks amazing, and your taste is ridiculous. Ridiculously GOOD!

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  6. It looks incredible Caca. Malia said it perfectly--we love and hate you because of your magic decorating talent. Mostly love, of course. :) Just lovely.

    Chris

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  7. Your office is the answer to my problems! I hope you are going to share how you made that desk because it is genius. And I have that exact black filing cabinet. Of course it still has the ugly plastic handles, I would have never thought to change them! I'm glad your design wisdom is back :)

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  8. Erica, OMG it's so beautiful!!!!!!!! You should totally be a home decorator...and then you can charge people to make their spaces as amazing as yours!!!

    Just a thought!
    Kaitlyn
    {kaitlynsays.wordpress.com}

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  9. Very cute. Yay for a new blog! I love that yellow tray on your desk...very cute!

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  10. I will seriously kill you. It looks so freaking amazing! I don't know how you make everything you touch so perfect and simple and attractive. Ditto to Malia.

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  11. First: Wow!
    Second: Absolutely loves it!
    Third: I wish I was as amazing as you!

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  12. Love your new blog space! I have been stalking for a while and you can come decorate my place any day! Thanks for all the helpful advice - Lord knows I need all the decorating tips I can get!
    Thanks again for sharing!
    - Mandy

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  13. i love this office more than words can say. i think it's just the inspiration i need to get started on ours.

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  14. This is really amazing and shockingly budget friendly! Definitely keep an eye on craigslist for a great (real wood) bookcase in need of refinishing and dressing up. You'll find something!

    Melissa
    http://www.houseography.net

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  15. What a great transformation!

    My black filing cabinet has metal handles, but I love the idea of swapping out the hardware. That never would have crossed my mind!

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  16. I love that your Momma is still the first person to comment on your blog! It makes me feel better about my own blog. Love the new office. The framed pictures are great!

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  17. Love it! Thanks for the vintage printable tip, I was just looking for new wall art. Like you I use things I have in the house- just blogged about it!

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  18. I did a similar color-coordinated bookshelf reorganization just the other day! Great job :)

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  19. I just love this space! You've styled it beautifully... it looks sooooo much more expensive than it really was :).

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  20. WOW!! I LOVE this office. I followed this over from YHL and really want to make the L shaped desk with the two doors. I can't wait for your post about the desk.

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  21. Hi Lindsay - This is actually an older post, you can click on my banner for the current posts. I already posted about how I made the door desk, you can find it here: http://tart-house.blogspot.com/2010/01/diy-door-desk.html

    Thanks everyone for the nice comments!

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  22. I love this room! you did amazing!

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  23. Great job! I would love to spend hours in this office.

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  24. Just saw your office via YHL - what a great lovely room!! I lvoe your art wall and your desk and storage ideas! wow

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  25. I love how bright and crisp this office is! And the fact that your books are color coded.. nice touch!

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  26. You did an amazing job!! I love the colours you picked! My fave is your $15.oo chair...you covered it in great fabric!

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  27. I love how peaceful it is. I would definitely feel motivated to work at that desk!

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  28. This is fabulous! Love the desk and all the decorations which just finished off the room lovely!

    Quick question- did you get the paisley print (in the white frame in the center of all the pictures) off of a website? I would love to find it if you can re-direct me :)

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  29. Wow! That's incredible and so inspiring. My mouth is hanging open.

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  30. This is JUST LOVELY! Thanks for the tip on Vintage Printable. It looks like a really great resource.

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  31. looks great!

    I was wondering if you would mind sharing where you got your screensaver? :)

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  32. I found the screensaver via Making it Lovely. You can find it here: http://www.9031.com/downloads/screensavers.html

    Thanks!

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  33. I love it! I am so impressed by how you made the windows and the bulletin board and shelves flow. Great job!

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  34. Looks great!! The color is so fresh and inspiring!

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  35. I'm 100% smitten with that chair. Oh, how I can't wait to have my craft room fully functioning! And I agree: target and IKEA really DO hold the answers.

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  36. You did a lovely job! I think I may try to tackle making a desk like this over the summer. I love you yours turned out!

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  37. I love the room. My goal this year is to work on my office, especially the desk. And you have given me a great idea.
    I love the room color it is pretty close to the color I painted my office.

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  38. Congratulations for being feature in YHL... that is where I came from.. your transformation is amazing... love how you have so much desk space and I'm totally jealous of the big windows in that room...

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  39. Looks great! I'll be putting this in my inspiration folder when I get a chance to work on our office.

    Lovely blog!

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  40. I can't tell you how much I love your office. Those chairs are an amazing find. The fabric on the desk chair looks like it was made for this room. Amazing. I have super chair envy.

    I'm going to have to take a good look around the rest of your blog now and see if I can't scope out some more jealousy inducing amusingness.

    Cheyanne

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  41. I love your room makeover. I came here after seeing it on Young House Love! i was wondering if you could share with me all the paint swatches you were debating on. In the future I'd love to repaint my sewing room (the grass green didnt come out as hoped and as much as i love it. when i move i want more a color you have!)

    Thanks and Great work!!!!!
    im always a fan of floating shelves, but i love how those ikea brackets looks so fresh and unobtrusive

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  42. Your office surely looks like it is a place where you can enjoy your time lounging or working. Good job with the organising and personalising!

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