And I had a TON of fun using accessories and storage bins from all over my home, to completely style up my new desk space!
Giving it some major before and after drama that has had me wanting to take up permanent residence in my new workspace!
So here is the quick back story in a nutshell. Once upon a time we created an office space for me to use for blogging, logging daycare information {as my first job} editing kid's pictures, and hopefully as a place to start up my future Home Organizing business. That makeover was even featured on Young House Love!
Then, our basement flooded and our carpet was ripped out along with trim, doors and much of our furniture, giving us a temporary residence in our upper level. And because our insurance said our loss was uninsured, it will be mucho months before we can refinish our lower level back to what it once was...
Once my kiddos are down for their nightly sleeps or when I am blessed with some quiet alone time, I could spend hours working on the computer or crafting. After losing the lower level, we did what we could to quickly consolidate all of our belongings and move to the upper level. The only zone we were without was our work zone.
We have since been uber successful in re-creating a new place to call work home, and we couldn't heart it more. In fact, we have decided to call it our new permanent office, even after we move back downstairs, because we just love it that much!
We first tackled the space by adding some paint and wallpaper, to give it some life and make it a place that we would enjoy working in. As you know, I am a jumbo believer in mixing organization with beauty, because when you believe your space is lovely, you are more apt to want to keep it that way.
Then the hubs quickly tossed in a piece of MDF that got a quick coat of paint, along with a painted floating shelf and called it a desk!
And I was left with my favorite part. Making it functional. Making it fabulous!
I started by looking at EVERYTHING I wanted to fit in the space, and decided that between the printer and craft cart alone, I was already losing half of my space.
And where to put the printer? It was half the size of the desk!
And I had no more budget!
No fear my friends! I went shopping anyway! In my own house!
I snagged bunches of paper boxes and organizers and accessories from my previous office space, and even snagged a shoe rack from our old closet.
Looking at the abundance of storage options at my fingers without having to leave my house, made me beyond excited to get the space in tip top working space in no time!
We started by tackling the printer problem. Using a shoe rack that we shortened to fit, was the perfect solution for housing not only the printer, but also our external hard drive and a docking station for our laptop. It also holds storage boxes and my overly used laminator!
Keeping these items tucked away under the desk, leaves us with a boatload more workspace on top of the desk!
We also added one more shelf up high, out of the remaining shelving we originally had in our closet before all of the makeover began.
Between the shoe rack down under and all of the shelving above, I was able to add oodles of labeled storage boxes to hold papers and mega amounts of craft supplies.
And speaking of papers. I unloaded three drawers full of 12 x 12 papers into a pretty white lace basket I stole from our old playroom.
But back to those shelves. Want a closer peek?
Receipts are tossed into a media box....
And electronic cords and misc. office supplies are tossed into some pretty planters...who would ever know?
And to make an accessory out of storage, I used those mason jars IHeart so much, to hold some pretty scrapbook embellishments.
And no shelf would be called complete without some art. And to us, it was the most beautiful art a gal could ask for....
I just tossed a picture I printed out from our recent Regent Hill photo session, and matted it in a glass clip frame {also stole from the old home office}.
Now we get to focus where all of the real magic happens. Well, at least where the work is produced. It also packs a lot of stolen storage!
Like magazine bins used to hold stationary and address books and planners...
To spice tins to hold more of the mini-scrap-booking embellishments....
Although the tins have pretty paper in the fronts, and still require some labeling, they are quite perfect for those little things!
As you may have noticed, the storage I snagged from around the house definitely didn't stop there. I also re-used my fav pencil cup storage for art supplies.
And threw some cork in an old photo frame to create a new memo board!
About a gazillion years ago I snagged a swing arm lamp for our guest bedroom next to the bed... it has been in a box for that gazillion years waiting to be installed. Lucky me, because task lighting is so important when you are working, it got installed in my new workspace instead!
And what you may be wondering about all of this fantastical glam desk space.... where are all those cords?
When we are running cordless.... I have a tray with some desk accessories....
But when it's time to plug in.... the tray is scooted aside, and a little hole is exposed....
That cord comes from a docking station which also connects all of our other electronics {printer, external hard drive, etc...}.
Everything is currently powered by an outlet just outside the closet, however, for only a couple bucks we picked up some electrical materials to install an outlet inside the closet to permanently hide all cords for good!
So when you put ALL of that stolen storage together, you get a little of this!
And this.....
And a big ol' smile plastered across this face!!
It feels SO good to be done with THAT!
Speaking of done, no blog post is complete without some final before and after pictures.
Here is a side by side of what the closet looked like when we moved into the room, and what it looks like today, a couple weeks later!
It really resembles our previous office space, I guess that's what you get when you reuse everything!
It also made me realize the main things IHeart about any work space:
- Wallpaper {Make it Pretty!}
- Accessory Storage
- Family Pictures
- Paper/Stationary Storage
- Memo Board
Now for our favorite part! Enjoying it all each and every day!
Who else out there is working out of an itty bitty closet space? Do you just love that it's all tucked away? What is the most important storage piece that you use in your office space? How about your favorite functioning room accessory? I would heart to know!!
P.S. Make sure to check out how I have updated the space to be easily concealed! {Not that I ever would want to hide it, I just heart it so much!}
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