Office to Guest Bedroom, Part 1: The Closet

In the process of making the guest bedroom the baby's room, we had to deal with the office. Since we were consolidating the two rooms, these were the priorities:

1. Closet space and a dresser for Wes. Our bedroom has a single closet. It's just not happening.

2. A place for guests to sleep. We have family and friends out of town so this is essential.

3. A smaller desk area. We made a skirted desk not long ago, but there wasn't room to keep it and bring in the bed. Admittedly, the desk didn't get much use, but we still needed a dedicated bill-paying station and a spot for our laptop (other than the dining room table).


First up was the closet. Wes has been using it, so it got a good clean-out, a fresh paint job, and a better arrangement to accommodate some of the things that were in the desk and elsewhere in the room.

We swapped a small, low dresser for the one that was in the guest bedroom. The small dresser is finding a new home at my sister's house.


The closet needed doors, and since we put the dresser in front of it, there wasn't really space for anything but a curtain. I made a simple one out of a drop cloth from Lowe's ($9.48) and a tension rod from Target ($3). I still haven't mastered my sewing machine so I just used iron-on hem tape.

On the wall that used to host the small dresser (the larger one couldn't go there with the bed in the room), I finally hung the warbler prints I've had for a few months. The frames are simple ones from Target ($16.99 each) that I painted with leftover trim paint (Bennington Gray by Benjamin Moore).

Day 852: alternative office

For now, one of our three bedrooms is a dedicated office. But when that's no longer possible, I don't mind a bit pulling a chair up to a pretty little desk.


Or a lovely secretary.


But tell me, where is all of the "stuff?"

Photos: Decor Pad, Sara Gilbane, Rayman Boozer.

Day 766: No-Sew Skirted Table

After we made the skirted tables for my sister's wedding, I knew that we needed one to use as a desk for the office. It took a little convincing to get Wes on board -- I think he was hung up on the word "skirt," which clearly wasn't fit for his man room/office. I eventually wore him down by e-mailing him inspirational photos every other day and threatening to never make him pancakes again.


Not only did he change his mind, but he upped the anty and really improved on the original project by building a super-sturdy desk that fits our needs perfectly (and it looks pretty darn good, too). He's so handy.


You'll have to ask him if you want to know more about the measurements, but the desk is basically two boxes made by 2-by-4s and 2-by-3s and connected in the middle, with a piece of 3-quarter-inch plywood on top. He researched ready-made desk sizes to come up with the measurements for height and depth.


And he used the sizes of the two plastic drawers we bought to decide on the width. He was worried about storage, but with these babies (which we picked up at Target, for under $30 for both), we have more storage than in the old desk.


The rest of the project was basically free since we used lumber left over from other projects, and the cotton-duck fabric from the previously-mentioned wedding tables. We did have the plywood cut to size at Lowe's. Since the desk is so much shorter, it wasn't a problem that I had cut my yardage into pieces. By the way, I used about five yards of a very wide fabric (the bolt was probably more than 54 inches) to make this skirt.

I didn't take any photos of the beginning of skirting the desk, so refer back to the post on the tables for that. Basically, I stapled the top of the fabric around the edge of the plywood, creating a crease in the middle where two pieces of fabric meet.


If I had a sewing machine/knew how to sew, I would have hemmed the bottom first. Instead, I'll use my fabric glue to hem the bottom, using the floor to help me keep a straight line.


To make a pleat at the sides, I wrapped the fabric around and stapled at the corner, and then again about two inches from the corner.


Then, I folded the fabric back and brought the folded edge to the corner and stapled it down. I made sure that my fold wasn't too deep that the rest of the fabric wouldn't make it to the end of the side.

When stapling the skirt to the top, it's not necessary to staple to the very edge of the desk, or to staple super close together. I put about one staple every two-to-three inches.


To cover the top, I hung the fabric face-down on the front of the desk, and stapled as close to the edge as possible, as often as possible.


Then I folded the fabric back toward the back of the desk and secured along the back with a couple of staples.


To make the sides neat, I trimmed the fabric so there was about three-quarters of an inch on each side, then folded it under and secured it with fabric glue.


And there you have it! All that's left is the finish the bottom (which could be interesting) and have a piece of glass cut for the top to make a better work surface, and to protect the fabric. I'm thinking about putting a trim tape along the bottom of the skirt -- maybe Greek key?


Next, I think I'd like to try a round or hexagon-shaped table for our breakfast room. This table (in a foyer designed by Tom Sheerer, spotted yesterday on La Dolce Vita) is my inspiration.

Day 765's paint story

You may remember that we've painted the office before. We went back and forth on a colors for months, and finally settled on what we thought was a dark gray. It turned out to be kind of blue -- denim, almost -- and very, very dark. It didn't take long to decide that we don't "do dark." Our rooms are small and the office started to feel cave-like. I know that is appealing to some, and I love to see it in print, but it just didn't work for us. Lesson learned!

Wes was dying to re-paint, but I had a little list of things I wanted to get done before we re-did anything. He patiently helped me through that list and before I knew it, it was time to focus on the office again. I eventually got a vision for it, and we settled on painting it green.

Green is tricky. The first green we tried was Ben Moore's Guliford Green. I didn't think you could go wrong with the Historical Collection, but, oh, you can! I wasn't quite green enough, and actually looked a lot like the yellow-beige that was on every wall in the house when we moved in. Ugh.

Wes came to the rescue and chose Saybrook Sage and I must say, he did a great job! It is perfect and exactly what I was trying to get in the first place. It's definitely green, but it has a little gray in it, and isn't cheesy, which is easy to get with green.


In between coats of paint, we built a new desk for the room. We used lumber left over from the tables we built for my sister's wedding, and I took the fabric off of them to use on the desk. I still need to finish the hem, but I am so pleased with it. And it really was simple. I took lots of photos of the skirting process and will show them soon, I promise. Not bad for a weekend's work!

Day 762's pretty

Photo by House Beautiful

I'm looking forward to a pretty easy weekend at home. We're going to hit a church-wide yard sale and the farmer's market on Saturday morning, and then work on whipping Wes' office into shape. Here's hoping we'll have some decent progress to show you next week!

Happy Weekend!

Day 668's office space

Yes I know, we're in the middle of getting the guest bedroom in order, but Wes is having a sudden urge to change his office. We have totally disagreed on nearly every aspect of this room, so not much has been done. We painted it, but that's it. I agree that it needs some help (both decorative and functional), but we need to cross a couple things off the list before we start on another room. In the meantime, how great is Kevin Sharkey's office, which was recently published in Martha Stewart Living?

The desk is Parsons-style, and is painted with a faux bois finish. I love the gray painted Chippendale chairs, too.

How wonderful to have a collection of your favorite things in your office?! All of this blanc de chine is much prettier than the collection of magazine photocopies that adorn my (cube) walls. I think I remember that mirror from an issue of MSL, too. It was sitting above little blue chest.


And who wouldn't want to delve into this bookshelf?! I love it when workspaces are as carefully considered as living spaces. Which probably means I should get my tush in gear and get going on our office, doesn't it?

Day 423's before and after

I was out of town (again) over the weekend, but Wes didn't seem to mind. Stuck indoors because of relentless rain (again), he busied himself by painting his massive desk.

Before:

And now, after:


It's a pale gray, and he's probably going to give the handles a once-over with black spray paint to glossy them up and make them darker.

After that, I've offered to tackle the extreme cord problem that's plaguing the room, then we'll add a couple of accessories to jazz things up.


This lamp is much more suited for a desk. Antique brass, please! And hey, the "smart" version is on sale for cheaper than the regular version -- I'm solving the cord problem already!


On the floor, I'd like to add a preppy-meets-practical rug from Dash & Albert. You'll notice Wes has an affinity for plaid by the background of his laptop.


Next, I'd add some reproductions of vintage cycling posters, here and here.

Wes has his own ideas for the office, so stay tuned for those and let us know what you think!

Day 415's project

I doubt that this will surprise many (if any) of you, but we had another busy weekend! We've been debating about what color to paint the office for weeks (months, even!) and finally bit the bullet on Saturday.

Wes originally wanted blue, but we couldn't agree on a shade, so we opted for gray. Ironically, the gray he chose turned out very blue! I swear we couldn't have chosen this color "blue" if we tried, so I'm glad that we took a chance and we both really like it. It's definitely dark and a departure from the rest of the house (which is what Wes wanted), and I think it will be really sophistocated in the end (which is what I wanted).

Well, it's looking gray in the photos, so who knows! And ick, that blue chair does not photograph well! A slipcover is on "the list" but might have to be custom as we're having a hard time finding one to fit its boxy shape. And we're thinking white roman shades (perhaps with greek key trim) for the windows.


We moved a more feminine dresser my dad gave us into the guest room, and brought Wes' old dresser (which he painted white) into the office. I love the way white pops off the dark walls. And clearly we need doors for the closet, but since Wes organized his clothes according to Roy G. Biv, it's kind of fun that it's open!


Wes discovered the wonder that is spray painting this weekend, as he spray this lamp and an A/C vent black.

The next project in the office is this massive desk. I've tried to get rid of it on a number of occassions, but it has managed to win me over. It is big. The finish is not pretty. Should we paint it? I'll have to take another picture so you can see.

Through the office door, you can see the lovely butter yellow that used to cover the office walls (and every other wall in our house, for that matter!). And yes, that is sheet rock mud on the wall in the hallway ... the to-do list is never-ending!

Day 249's blue room

Interior Design by Todd Romano.

When Wes and I were registering for wedding gifts, we found out a lot about each other. One thing I learned about Wes, is that he loves the color blue. I thought I already knew that, but I had no idea about the extent of his love for all things blue. He wanted everything to be blue. And not just any blue, navy. Dark, preppy, sporty navy blue. I like navy just fine. I like to wear it (I'm wearing it today, actually). My favorite team's color (one of them) is navy, but did I want navy blue dishes (and everything else, for that matter)? No.

I think we've come to a good compromise. Our house does and will have a lot of different shades of blue, but nothing so far is navy. So this is for you, Wes. No, we're not painting the baseboards Carolina Blue to coordinate, but here's a navy blue office (ahem, man space) for us both to lust over. For you, the blue. For me, the beautifully composed vignettes, the chic chairs and the zebra rug. Now that's what marriage is all about!