Home Office Makeover: turning a builder-grade study into a modern, organized and colorful office and home library for the Fall 2016 One Room Challenge.

One Room Challenge {Week 1}: Home Office Makeover – The Before

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Today is an exciting day, friends!  The Fall One Room Challenge, hosted by Calling It Home, kicks off this week and I am back for another round as a Guest Participant (you can see this round’s Featured Designer’s here). This past spring, I turned a spare bedroom into a pretty and well-organized craft room. This time, I’ll be taking on my home office makeover, a.k.a “the” project, a.k.a my dream.

Home Office Makeover: turning a builder-grade study into a modern, organized and colorful office and home library for the Fall 2016 One Room Challenge.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ve probably heard me mention my dream home office. I feel like “home office” is a limiting term because it’s a really a home-office-slash-library. And I have been dreaming of this room since we started our house hunt, actually, even longer than that.

Remember the scene in Beauty and the Beast where Belle glides across the bookseller’s shop on a rolling ladder? Yeah. That’s how long I’ve been dreaming of having a library room in my house. When we built this house, we added walls and French doors to the living room space to turn it into a study, with the intent to eventually add built-ins and a window seat. I even have a Houzz Ideabook dedicated to this room.

Well, friends, that day—erm—6-week-long Challenge—has finally arrived!! I am beyond excited and also a bit nervous because we are doing all of the work ourselves, from building storage cabinets and bookcases to sewing a cushion for the window seat. And ideally, it will be completed by November 10th so that I have a post full of gorgeous “after” photos to share with you. I am accepting any and all good vibes, well-wishes, and encouragement—haha!

Let me show you where we’re starting. This is what my office looks like now. I didn’t even organize or de-clutter before I took these photos. Don’t judge 😉 It’ll make the “after” photos that much more impressive! And I have no idea why these photos came out kind of grainy, but please pardon that, too!

Home Office Makeover: turning a builder-grade study into a modern, organized and colorful office and home library for the Fall 2016 One Room Challenge.

The plan for this wall is to add cabinets and top them with bookcases that will reach to the ceiling. And to not have piles of books and a printer on the floor.

Looking across the room…

Home Office Makeover: turning a builder-grade study into a modern, organized and colorful office and home library for the Fall 2016 One Room Challenge.

On this wall, we’ll be adding a long window seat and another cabinet-and-bookcase built-in to the left of the window.

Home Office Makeover: turning a builder-grade study into a modern, organized and colorful office and home library for the Fall 2016 One Room Challenge.

The wall color is staying, though I’m sure we’ll need to do some touch-ups and possibly paint another coat. We’ll also be adding crown moulding to the whole room.

Home Office Makeover: turning a builder-grade study into a modern, organized and colorful office and home library for the Fall 2016 One Room Challenge.

Some other elements in this room that are staying are the light fixture and this map art that is hung on the long wall opposite the French doors.

Home Office Makeover: turning a builder-grade study into a modern, organized and colorful office and home library for the Fall 2016 One Room Challenge.

Over the years, I’ve been collecting artwork and decor for my office, and I already have a stash of fun pieces and tchotchkies to display on the shelves. I have a few surprises for this room up my sleeve, too. Can’t give away all the fun details yet, can I? 😉

I am also super excited to be working with some fantastic sponsors along the way. The One Room Challenge is a great opportunity for brands and bloggers to partner together. By nature, I’m an introvert, so I find it challenging to put myself out there at times. But I did it, and it totally paid off! I’ll be partnering with some awesome brands to bring my dream home office/library to life and I can’t wait to talk more about this next week when I share my makeover design plan. Stay tuned!

Are you participating in the One Room Challenge? Let me know in the comments so we can cheer each other on!

 

42 thoughts on “One Room Challenge {Week 1}: Home Office Makeover – The Before”

  4. Brittany Goldwyn

    This space looks like it gets great light! And I’m a little jealous you aren’t changing the paint. I usually enjoy painting, but not after moving into a new house, haha.

  6. Ariel

    what?! no mood board! I can’t wait to see where you take the space. My office is fun, but also very much a place to stash stuff.

  11. Michelle from Weekend Craft

    I am glad you are keeping the wall color I love it! I have always had the dream of grandiose book shelves and built ins too. I can’t wait to see what you do! I feel like 6 weeks is already ticking away, what did we get ourselves into!

    1. Two Purple Couches Post author

      Thanks Michelle! I love this wall color, too. I knew I wanted a deeper grey color and Tom painted it on a whim for me one weekend. I have to admit I am already freaking out over the timeline! But it’ll get done one way or another, I guess!

  14. Thalita

    This is so exciting!! Dream home office! yay!!!! I’ll Just call you Belle for the next 5 weeks while you get your library built. I can’t wait to see all you do in here and I am mega impressed you’re doing it all yourselves!

    1. Two Purple Couches Post author

      Hahaha, I love it, Thalita! I was joking with Tom the other day that this project might be the ultimate test of our marriage – we’ve never done anything like this before! We may be completely and utterly insane 😉

  16. Sarah

    I LOL’d at the Beauty and the Beast reference! Can’t wait to see the whole room come together, it’s going to be gorgeous!

  17. Ruthie

    I’m glad the light fixture is staying! 🙂 I have the same one in our kitchen and love it! Can’t wait to see what you do with this room!

  18. Denise

    What a great space! We are making over our home office space for the ORC as well! A window seat would be such a treat! Looking forward to following along!

    1. Two Purple Couches Post author

      Thanks Denise! I am so excited about the window seat; it might be my favorite feature we’re planning! How fun that you’re doing your office too – I love seeing what fellow ORCers do with similar spaces!

  19. Lynn Spencer

    Good Morning Emily! I hope you are making progress in your office…I’m plugging along in mine. You have some great bones to work with…love the color of the walls, love that lamp…is the chair staying…it’s very fun and looks comfy too. I think your little fuzzy friend will LOVE that window seat.
    Can’t wait to see your update this week.

    Hugs, Lynn

    1. Two Purple Couches Post author

      Good Morning Lynn! We are making progress, too! The chair is not staying in this room, but its mate is in my craft room, so it will likely be moving there. It is comfy, but I’m looking for a more traditional desk chair this time around. More on that in this week’s upcoming post 😉 And yes, my pup is going to be *very* pleased with the window seat, I think!

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