Welcome to my new workspace!
Back in March when Covid hit (I know, this post is WAY overdue and it feels like a lifetime ago) Anthony started working from home and it became apparent I needed to make proper room for him in my office. He had a dingy second-hand desk stuck in the only available corner. To add to the clutter, it also included a cat tower, a king single bed and a buffet/hutch that also became the dump zone. Sigh.
The room was well in need of a revamp.
This was the old messy / cluttered space;
I wanted the look and feel to match the rest of the house so the materials were a no brainer, white with timber accents. This time I opted for raw timber plus black for a little punch. With a limited budget of $1000 I also wanted to reuse decorative pieces.
Now I don’t normally spend hours scrolling through Pinterest, but I did use it to create a board of Pinterest-pretty home offices to help me work out a plan of what I liked, wanted and then needed in the space.
This was my Pinterest mood board;
My room goals with the design were:
Inspiring: I wanted the space to be calm, incorporating little hints of Menorca, Spain while still carrying on with the same aesthetic of our home.
Multifunctional: The room had to have the ability to accommodate various activities: computer work, product shoots, product creation, order packing on super-hot days, and gaming for the boys. The room is also our guest bedroom and where Ant sleeps while on night shift (or in the doghouse). Everything needed a place to live so any overflow wasn’t piled on the bed or floor.
Ta DAAAAAA!!!!
So how did I do it?
1. Rearranged Layout
With two people working in the space we had to overhaul the layout completely. We needed an open plan layout so we opted to have once long desk along the wall, leaving plenty of space in the middle of the room to house a king single bed comfortably.
Both hubby and I are over 6ft tall so standard desk heights don’t just cut it. We are over sitting hunched over and I hate when I can’t cross my legs under the table. We decided to try and custom make a desk on a budget. That way, it would suit our proportions and fill the entire length of the 4metre wall.
With a lot of searching I found the pieces to pull it off;
- 2 x Desktops 1600 x 800 x25 = $266
- 4 x Matte Black Table Legs = $116
- 2 x Mini Lockers x 2 $223.90
The Mocka Mini Lockers were the right height for the desk to act as legs while offering each of us our own storage. With a little extra space at one end, we decided to add a small filing cabinet to house the printers to free up space on the desk.
- 1 x Black 2 drawer filing cabinet $99.00
2. Artwork on a shoestring
Budget home decor has really kicked it up a notch in recent years. I’ve been known to print and frame my favourite quotes, repurpose old calendar artwork and I’ve even used the kid’s artwork for a splash of fabulous.
For the new space I wanted to showcase Menorca without it being overbearing. I had a favourite photograph from my visit wandering the streets of Ciutadella and then found a fabulous road map of the country on Etsy.
- 2 x Officeworks Poster Prints = $40.00
- 1 x Menorca Road Map $9.42
- 2 x A2 black frames $70
3. Reused, Repurposed and Rehomed
While we didn’t want to re-paint the walls they were in need of a big clean. We simply used Chux Magic Erasers to buff out any marks and for a general clean used sugar soap to bring it up like new.
Most of the decorative pieces I already owned, like; the rug I bought in Morocco, the Magpie artwork was given to me for my 40th Birthday, or the Bon Maxie Wall vase I treated myself earlier in the year. It was simply a matter of refreshing what we had.
I removed the pieces no longer needed such as the buffet, hutch and old desks. I listed them on gumtree and they were snapped up within hours. Woop woop! The three-drawer filing cabinet was moved to the warehouse.
4. Add Plants
There’s only one thing I love as much as Avarcas, PLANTS! While I’m surrounded by nature, I still appreciate the benefits of having nature inside especially in the workplace. I added my 3rd largest fiddle leaf to the space along with a new others that I swap between my office and the house.
5. Shop on a budget
You don’t need to spend big bucks to make big changes. A few extra pieces from IKEA (who doesn’t love Ikea!) that cost a neat $112 made the office seem almost like new.
- 2 x Ikea BURHULT/SANDSHULT Wall Shelf $29.98
- 1 x Ikea MOPPE Mini Chest of Drawers $29.99
- 1 x Ikea KNUFF Magazine File Set $19.99
- 1 x Ikea PLEJA Letter Tray $14.99
- 1 x Ikea SLIRRE Desk organiser $12.99
- 1 x Ikea KAFFEBONA Plant Pot 9cm $4.99
And the best part other than a gorgeous new space is I came under budget…at a total of Grand TOTAL $924.26
I would love to know what you think!