First up on my list of projects to finish so we can sell our house was my office. In this small office makeover, I turn the unused space in my oversized laundry room into the perfect work area!
Our house didn’t have an office space originally, but when I started my full time job (I’m a medical coder by day.) I desperately needed one. Luckily, our laundry room is pretty huge and I was able to dedicate half of the space to my “office”. Looking back at this before picture blew my mind!
My kitchen makeover is definitely still my favorite, but this one is a close second.
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So here’s what I did:
First, I took down the weird fluorescent lights and removed the popcorn ceilings. This is the 4th room I’ve done this in and it sucks just as bad every single time.
Once the popcorn texture was removed, my husband retextured the ceiling and I painted it white. I also painted all the wood paneling on the walls white. I would have loved to take down the paneling but it wasn’t in the budget and I actually think they turned out pretty good.
I also added wood trim around the ceiling. Because I knew I wouldn’t be painting the cabinets pink and the walls, ceiling, and floor were all white now- I wanted to make sure I added some wood elements to help ground the space. It’s the interior design trick that I love the very most!
These few changes made a world of difference and it was already looking like an entirely new room.
Scroll down to see the full Small Office Makeover!
Next, I started on the cabinets. This part was a little time consuming but so so simple and I’m so in love with how they turned out. To upgrade the cabinets, I simply added a ply wood trim, painted them, and installed new hardware.
The color is Retro Pink from Behr. The gold hardware came from Amazon (HERE) and I LOVE it!
The countertop is actually just black chalkboard paint! I sanded down the laminate and painted a few coats of chalkboard paint. Then, I finished it off with a couple coats of matte polyurethane. I definitely wouldn’t recommend this technique for countertops that get a lot of use. This one hardly ever gets used so I wasn’t too worried about how well it would hold up.
The create the cool wood slat “backsplash”, I first painted it back then attached 1″x2″ slats evenly spaced across the entire thing. To attach the boards I used nail glue and a nail gun. Then, I stained them but I would recommend staining them before attaching them. It’s less messy.
I had plans to refinish all the cabinets in this room but I focused my attention on getting the “office” space complete first. Now that we’re moving, I obviously won’t be doing the other ones. You can read all about the move HERE.
It was important to me to make the “office” space separate from the laundry part of this room. Since I couldn’t add walls or do anything structurally to separate the two I had to get kind of creative.
Insert: Hanging plant “wall”. Definitely my favorite part of the whole room. I love that it creates separation while still allowing the natural flow of the room…. if that even makes sense. It does in my head.
I found the plant hangers on Amazon (HERE) and hung them using S hooks.
Scroll down to see the full Small Office Makeover!
Picking out the lights was not an easy feat, but when I found these ones on Etsy I knew they were perfect! They’re even adjustable so you can adjust the position of the bulbs.
Now let’s talk about the chair. I know you’ve been staring at it in all these pics and I get it. I get it. Sure, I would love to have one of those super cutesy office chairs… maybe light pink or burnt orange. But I have to sit in this bad boy for 8 hours a day so this is one of those times when I definitely chose comfort of aesthetics and I regret nothing!
The rug is from Amazon, too. (HERE)
My bestie, Maddy- you know her. She found the cool, vintage mushrooms prints in the gallery wall on Facebook Marketplace. I painted the large canvas, got the wall baskets from Hob Lob and found the cow skull on Etsy.
Not too shabby of a small office makeover for an extremely dated, wood paneled laundry room, don’t ya think? I really love how this little space turned out and I’m honestly a little sad that I won’t be working in this little corner much longer.
Ugh. These posts are making me so sentimental… but on to the next project!
XOXO
-Kari
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