Office room transformation!

​I know it was a while ago we did the office but things got in the way of sharing the updates! So here we are!
 
Originally the office was going to be the second biggest bedroom (I was super excited) but after much thought, it did make more sense to turn the smallest room into the office. Now, when I say small room, it’s not exactly a box and I count myself very lucky to have this space for my office. Sorry. ‘Our’ office. I am repeatedly reminded that the office is a ‘shared space’. Insert eye-roll here. To be fair, with the current national lockdown restrictions, there are some days my husband works from home and he is doing live lessons so I actually can’t share the space with him. 

​So, our shared office space became one of the first aesthetic projects in house. We had other projects like the leak in our garage which resulted in digging up concrete but let’s not go there. I’ve obviously scoured the internet for ideas of what I’d like for an office. It’s not quite the fully ‘zen’ environment I’d like but I NEED things on my desk. My shelves are haphazard with miss-matched files and paperwork that needs sorting. It’s made me realise that all these Pinterest worthy images have got to be a little bit fake, right? Maybe behind the camera is a terrible mess? Maybe they have an actual functioning room elsewhere and that was for show? Maybe they have a big budget to by all new files etc? Maybe they put everything away from their desks for pictures but then where’s the practicality? We needed the room to function and it does. 

​Want to see some pictures? To begin with, all of our son’s old baby stuff was in here, including a wardrobe and so it all had to go . . . into his massive built-in wardrobe. He may be 19 months, but his clothes are tiny; he doesn’t need the massive built in wardrobe space. We kept the carpet as was mostly because of time and money and it was sturdy decent carpet. We did paint, however. The colour before wasn’t an offensive colour or anything like that, but it was a cream colour. We’ve lived with cream for years and so I wanted grey! I love grey. In our old house when painting our son’s nursery, we decided to do our room at the same time and literally looked online, picked a colour and by god, it’s the best colour paint we’ve ever chosen. Normally we agonise over paint, getting samples and putting them up around the room. This time we just went ‘that’ll do’ and it was gorgeous! That was our old house so I chose the same colour for the office in our new house. It’s a light grey, airy and warm but doesn’t close you in. It’s neutral without being beige and makes me feel peaceful and calm. Winner for sure.
 
The desk is arguably the most important part of an office renovation and I think we smashed it. We didn’t want to spend absolutely loads on a desk and some of the ones we looked at were coming in at hundreds of pounds. Like, no. Eventually, my husband just said to send him some pictures of things I like and he’ll put something together. I was dubious. ‘Put something together’ was definitely code for ‘I’m not paying out for a desk’. The next thing I know, he is showing me pictures of items in an online ikea basket and I could see his vision. 

​The desk: we have two long desk tops (I think one is 2m and the other 1.5m), a unit of drawers in the middle and a couple of legs to support the left side. My husband used some wood he had to brace the back and side attached the wall at the other end and managed to add a few more screws to secure where the two desks meet on top of the drawer unit. He then sealed the join in the middle and where it fixed against the wall. He did a fab job! Two workstations and plenty of space. I hate feeling crowded and I feel like I have a lovely big open space to work with. When we do work-work, we have plenty of space for laptop/computer and books and resources so it’s great. When I’m writing I can spread my notebooks out, my planner etc.
 
I now also have my planning board and plotting board above the desk space which is great for a quick look up to reference against. We repurposed an old DVD unit we had in the living room of our old house to become a book shelf, and bought a large bookcase for our files. I have a chair to sit on in the corner and my book covers displayed on the wall. I would love a new office chair – especially with my back problems – but they are just far too expensive to grab a decent one and we’ve just purchased much needed new sofas and a new bed. These were needed purchases due to the age of the items we had, but I can’t deny the benefits to my back! A new desk chair will be purchased eventually.

So here is our beautiful office; beautiful for us. A perfect working and practical space. I don’t always get to use it on the days I’m with my son. I’ll just bring my laptop downstairs so if he goes off to play on his own or wants to watch some TV I have a few minutes, but I do spend time in here other days to make use of the amazing space!
 
If you’re interested in checking out the Bloodline Alliance trilogy then have a look at the book page for the blurb and links to amazon. In the meantime, come and follow me on social media – I’d love to see you over there.