The home office is COMPLETED… Ahhh đ Sometimes I feel like it’s never going to end. But it is totally worth it. As mentioned in Part 1, to have an office space is a must for us. My fiancĂ© and I are designers. Often times, we can work from home. So to have a separate room that is dedicated to work is great.  The idea for this space is to be like a mini design studio. A space that’s more functional than stylish. Let’s recap from my first post; Part 1 is about cleaning and planning, Part 2 shows some progress with new colors and adding some furnitures, and Part 3 is about adding small funitures to finishing the room.
Before in Part 1, we painted the entire room in white.
… then it became a dumping ground for a while.
Before Part 2 â “Deciding to Paint the Bookcase Wall in Black”
Progress – “Shopping”
In searching for things like drawers, magnet boards, and small tables for printer, Ikea had a wide selection of different office furnitures. I began looking at the Galant drawer unit with casters. The size is perfect, it can be placed underneath the desk and it doesn’t take up too much space. Th casters are a plus for cleaning and moving it around easily. There is a little story about these 2 drawers. We decided to go to Ikea one weekday, on a Tuesday, because we were trying to avoid large weekend crowds. We went to check the “as-is” section (why not, right?)and there it was â a Galant drawer half price off! We were not sure in the beginning if we were going to buy it because the corner of the box is damage, the label said “Article scratched/chipped” and that is the last box there. We took a risk and bought it anyway. Because the drawer would be placed underneath the desk, we thought a little chip and scratch would be concealed. And that’s okay with us. After we got home to open the box and looked at all the pieces, we realized that there were no scratches or chips at allâanywhere! đ  We went back to Ikea 2 days later just to see if they might have another one. Aaand surprise surprise! â there was another one for half the price.  The second drawer had a different number of drawers but the style is exactly the same. We also got small tables for printers and magnet boards while we were there.
Progress – Adding subtle texture to the wall
We found these wood lettering from Target that is exactly what I was looking for. These wood lettering was to be on the desk wall. See more details on this link.
Progress –Â Making the Peg Board
We made the hanging pegboard from scratch. It will be for small tools like scissors, markers, rulers, and etc…
Progress – “Outlets and Air Vent”
All the outlets has been replaced to a new color. The air vents were sprayed in a new color to match with a new wall color.
After – Home Office
Finally…. this room is ready for work. Originally there was no ceiling lights when we moved in. We have thought about adding lamps but it will not be enough light for us. We had an electrician add the ceiling light to the room. To keep the ceiling space area clean and simple, I chose a flush mouth ceiling light. Even though the ceiling light is not a focal point of the room I still wanted to add an aesthetic appeal to it. So I picked a retro industrial style lighting fixture. It helped add character to the space since the majority of the furnitures in the office are white. The office chairs are different. We chose comfort over style đ
We knew in the beginning that height-adjustable seats and desks are the way to go so that you can switch from sitting and standing. It can be pricey but it is worth the buy if you have to work on a desk for a long time. And if you have a fiancĂ© with back issues, it’s plus.
The size of the desks is spacious. There’s enough room for laptops, note pads, mouse pads, and other desk accessories.
The other side of the wall (a wall behind the desks) is where the two printers, a peg board, magnet boards, and tool cart is located. I know printers are not a good looking pieces of furniture. But I don’t want to hide them in a cabinet either. They need to be easy access. So I found a way to make them look like they are a part of the room without taking too much space. The lower printer table (for the small printer) can be slided out when we need to use a scanner and slide in when don’t need to.
AÂ table for a bigger printer can be use as a cutting table if needed.
The tool cart is for other things that can’t be hanged on the peg board. It stores office accessories like magnets, paper clip, glue, tape, etc… The big magnet boards are located right next to the peg board. Most of the time, it is for design reviews and for important things that we don’t want to forget.
The bookcase is on the other side wall of this room. We have so many books and lots of them are about Art and Design. đ I wanted to make the bookcase pretty but without too much decoration. So I started with storing all the books that we have first, then filling the empty space with decor.
We added a foldable ladder as a functional decor and piece for the room.
Sit Stand Desk – Dania // Galant Drawer – Ikea // Wood Back Office Chair – HomeGoods // Black Office Chair (Similar) – Wayfair // Wood Letters – Target // Flush Mount Ceiling Light – Amazon // Printer Desk – Ikea // Printer Side Table – Ikea // Magnetic Board – Ikea // Utility Cart – Ikea // Bookcase – Ikea // Pewter Float Frames – Michaels // Black Float Frames – Michaels