The nursery was my office in it’s previous life and while Mike was in Chicago and our pregnancy plans were put on hold I figured I’d redo my office.  I mentioned the idea here and then showed my plans here, but we wasted no time after Mike got home getting pregnant and I never stopped to show you the office space before it was made over into the nursery.  It was never finished, let alone styled, so they’re just phone photos, but I thought it was fun to see.

I had bought all the items that I had planned to, knowing they would all move into the guest room when we switched over this room. 

I had thought it would be a little longer like this so I even bought a small cabinet to be used to store my cutting machines.  It was only $35 on Craigslist and had awesome hardware, but unfortunately a faux wood stained paint job too.  Yes, in the photos I was fooled and thought this was stained wood, but once I examined it it was pretty obvious it was painted to look like wood grain (why?!).

This is where the dark blue paint came from.  I had wanted a dark blue piece anyways and cleaned it up and painted it Sherwin Williams 7615 Sea Serpent.  Due to a miscommunication at the store I was sold a gallon of All Surface Enamel, which was awesome for this project but I didn’t know what I was going to do with a whole gallon of it. 

It’s a good thing I loved the color, and at first I was worried about painting the wall with it, but I figured if any wall in our house could use the extra protection, it’s the wall in the nursery!  I got really lucky when it worked well with the rug I bought.

The light in this room can be really great and I was looking forward to styling it as an office, but I was even more excited when we got the news that we would need this room for something else!  Everything moved down the hall except for the rug, which I sold at a loss since it was too small for the new space and the old rug was still in good shape. 

One day I’ll photograph that room, hopefully before we have another kid and I lose my office all together!  

I wasted no time after the doors were cured and rehung on their respective frames to paint the office walls.

When we bought the house 7 years ago we painted everything before moving in.  Which means I had to pick every room color without any furniture.  Seven years ago I would have never painted a room white and while I knew I wanted this room to be neutral, beige was my safe choice.

Now, (like everyone else) I find myself drawn to white rooms and I chose Sherwin Williams - Spare White (SW6203) which is a creamy white with a slightly gray undertone.  My first thought was to use SW Alabaster like my sister did in her family room, but it has a beige undertone and living with beige for so long I wanted something that read a little cooler.

Even though the color wasn’t too dark before, it took 3 coats to get full coverage, also the paint was really thick which I don’t usually have trouble with so maybe it was just a bad can.  Either way, it was worth it because the room looks and feels completely different now.

Spare White is just gray enough to offset the true white trim and everything looks so clean and modern now!  I’m super happy with the black doors in here and can’t wait to add gold accents and some greenery as well as more white and wood from the furniture I’ve selected. 

The room is a small rectangle, only slightly longer than it is wide, so it’s hard to take photos in, but there’s a small closet, 1 window and the door to the hallway.  Our neighbor cut down the tree that used to be outside this window a couple years ago which was sad for the privacy/greenery, but it’s also allowed a lot more light to come in as well which has been nice.

I took all these photos with the overhead light on and the walls read a tiny bit warm.  With no artificial light, the walls are definitely a creamy, cool white.

I’ve already laid out the rug and spent the weekend building the Ikea furniture, so I’ll share that progress soon, as well as another furniture piece which was a craigslist find that I’m hoping to paint this week.

Alternate Title: If you give Mal a paintbrush…She’ll probably decide to paint all the interior doors as well. 

Several months ago I mentioned my next project would be redoing the office and I had a plan of the large pieces and the style direction.  I’m happy to report major progress has been made: new furniture purchased after a trip to Ikea, major purging action of unnecessary supplies, too many Craigslist/Facebook selling transactions to count, clearing out the room, and prepping for paint. 

While I was this close to painting the room and getting one step closer, I decided the empty room was the best opportunity to finally tackle the interior doors.  I made a quick confession of our door situation, or lack thereof, way back in 2011.  In a nutshell, when we first moved in we had planned to refinish all the original interior doors, but after failed attempts to remove the layers and layers of paint, (which were so thick the trim details were basically unrecognizable), we set them aside to deal with later.  That turned into years (yes we lived without doors on our bedrooms for a year or two), and in the meantime we found another solution when we found solid core cherry doors while shopping for our upstairs bathroom vanity at our local construction surplus store. 

We were able to get all the doors needed for a steal (it was so long ago I can’t even remember the total, but I think it was something like $40/piece) and they were similar two-panel style to the originals seen in this really old photo from our first walk-thru:

But, our 1927 house wasn’t going to make it that easy, and all the doors needed to be modified to the smaller frame dimensions.  Back in 2012, I took photos as Mike modified them so that I could write detailed instructions, but now I only barely remember what’s happening in these photos so I’m going to try my best, ha!  It should also be noted at this point that the plan was to paint all the doors white, like they were when we moved in. This becomes really important later on in the story.  But, on to the tutorial!

The first step was to use the table saw to cut one of the stiles off completely. 

Since the doors were solid core cherry veneer, the edges couldn’t be modified without exposing the particle board insides.  So Mike did this to get to the inside and modified the center so that all the stiles were still proportionate.

This next part was sort of a gamble, but we couldn’t figure out how to remove the inside panels from the rails/stiles so we figured we’d let gravity help.  Mike drilled holes in the panels (knowing at least that amount was going to be removed to get the final size) and we basically hung it from the ceiling and gently hit it (important to note we did this as uniformly as we could and with a rubber mallet) and the panel slid out from the rails.  This makes more sense looking at the photos:

It was slow going, and I was there to help “catch” it, but it worked (!) so we continued the same process for the rest of the panels (6 doors x 2 panels each).

Next, he chiseled out the insides from the stile.  This would later allow him to fit the shortened panel back in.

Then the rails, (top, middle, and bottom) were cut to the correct size.

The panels were also cut on the table saw, but I didn’t grab a photo of that. 

Everything was lined up and marked for new dowels.

And, new dowel holes were drilled into the stiles and rails.

At this point I must have gotten bored because that’s where the photos end, but the panels were gently slide back in and the stile was loaded with dowels and glue and pounded back into place as well.  Bondo was used on any spots that didn’t line up perfectly and lock sets and hinges were added.  Then repeat for all 9 doors (6 upstairs, then 3 for the basement)! 

Once everything was dry we were so happy we had new doors that Mike installed them, raw wood and all!  I do remember very vividly him saying that it was such a pain in the butt to carry each one up two flights up stairs (deck and inside) that I either had to paint them on the hinges or we would have to clear a room upstairs because he wasn’t carrying them downstairs again!

We have been living with them for the past 5 years like this and with the office completely cleared out I figured it was as good of a time as any to finally finish these bad boys.  I’m a little bummed because I could have finished the office by now, but having this giant task done will be really nice!

I’ll be back next time with the story of finishing the doors, and hopefully photos of them installed!  At this point we have half of the doors removed and the paint bought so I have a busy next couple of days ahead of me!

Now that I’ve introduced you to my latest project, let’s get into the plan. 

But real quick, we need to talk about our house master plan.  If/when we have kids, the plan is to use the bedroom that I use as my office for the nursery.  Since we don’t have that many overnight guests, we’ll eliminate having a guest room and move the office into the now guest room/dressing room. 
With this in mind, I knew any new office plans/furniture would need to work in the current guest room.  I basically designed my office in the guest room space and then made those pieces work in the current office, that way if we switch it over, everything works!

I’ve been collecting a lot of inspiration, and there are a few common themes.  Here are some that I’ve been pinning for the last year or so.

All of my inspiration rooms are mostly white with accents of black/dark blues and wood.  This is similar to the aesthetic on our main floor, most notably our kitchen, and something that I’ve been wanting to bring upstairs.  I feel like crafting supplies and accessories are colorful on their own, and can be a little overwhelming, so a neutral background is my preference.

Luckily I was able to create a new desk and add a lot more storage options with this in mind.  Here are the pieces that I’ve either bought or planning to bring into the room:

The large items like the shelving unit and desk hail from Ikea and will help keep the room from feeling too heavy.  The butcher block top will bring in the natural elements and provide a large workplace that I’m used to.  The chair is also from Ikea and is something I’ve had for years and love.  I have had both wheeled and stationary chairs and prefer wheeled for quickly moving to grab something on the other side of the room.

The rug is something that’s been purchased and I’m looking forward to adding something a little more comfortable and a lot more stylish/mature in the room.  All while keeping in mind that I share the room with the litter box and loose pieces of litter are just a reality.  This rug will sweep up well (which I do A LOT for the above reason) and will camouflage anything between.

I plan to bring in plants (real) and gold/brass accents (fake) and color with accessories.

My timeline is still very loose on this project.  I have to pare down a lot of supplies like scrapbooking paper which I have a lot of, but surprisingly have never scrapbooked!  Once I clear a lot of it out I can then paint and switch out the large pieces, which is another hurdle since it took 3+ people to bring in some of the larger pieces in the room and it’s just me now!

It’s been three months since Mike’s been in Chicago and I’ve basically taken a break from life (including blogging obviously).  I thought I’d have all this alone time to get shit done and do some things that I want to do like crafting or something, but I found myself in kind of a funk.  That all sounds a little more depressing than it really is, but getting into a new routine at home, where I was responsible for my regular chores plus Mike’s, took some time.   It’s taken awhile, but I think I’ve finally figured it out and I’m back to my old self, which means I’m itching to start a project!

I’ve been brainstorming an office makeover for literally years.  Besides small changes, like a new chair, here and there I haven’t done anything to it since we moved in.  My style and interests have changed, which means the office just doesn’t work for me anymore.  

Here’s the photos I have on the Home Tour page:

I painted it beige (Bungolow Beige SW7511), brought in my old crafting area, made a desk for Mike, and added the cube storage and then literally never updated it.

Here’s how it looks today, without any cleanup, styling, or general care for putting this on the internet:

As you can see the organization has gotten a little out of hand.  When we moved in I was mostly just paper crafting, but now I do a lot more and while I still love paper crafting, it’s not the main use of this space.  Which is probably why the cube organization still looks relatively neat – I don’t use it that much.

Another major problem is I share this room with the litter box.  Which is less than ideal.

This does force me to keep it clean, but all the mess that is associated with it is a pain.  Plus I don’t think kitty litter bins are exactly in style.

I’ve got some plans and basically all the furniture is getting upgraded and adding in more storage that’s not specific to any one type of crafting.  I’ll share the major plans soon, I just figured if I put this idea out on the blog, it’ll give me even more motivation to get it done!