Office/Spare Room Makeover!

When we found out we were pregnant with this little one, we knew it was going to take some effort to get rooms cleaned up and organized to make some space. When we first bought this home, we left one room completely empty, hoping to fill it with a sweet baby soon, and eventually (2 years later) we did just that. However, the other three rooms were full- the master, an office and a spare room/media room.

The office was a COMPLETE disaster. It had been the catch all for all things crafty and office-y for the last 4 years and hadn’t really been cleaned up or out since then. But that was the room that needed to hold it all because it is in the front of the house with a window facing our front porch, and I didn’t feel comfortable putting the new baby in there, so we decided the new baby would go into the spare/media room and the office would be our spare room/office/media room.

Thankfully the spare room had stayed pretty clean over the years. We had a futon bed, a television and all of our DVD, music and game storage in there. So first thing was getting the trundle bed cleaned and updated. I wasn’t a fan of the light wood, so I decided to paint it to better match the shelving system we bought from IKEA.

(Before: this is the spare room, which will become the new baby’s bedroom)

Sanded and wiped down, ready for paint.

All painted a pretty gray color with a new navy slip color to replace the old black one

The day before, hubby and I left E with Nana and made a four hour long drive the the SF bay area to the closest IKEA. We knew in order to get all of the storage we needed and wanted we were going to have to buy some sort of huge shelving system. IKEA was the most bang for our buck. We did a little research on some of the shelving systems and found we liked the Hemnes system the best. So while we were there we looked around at some of the displays, picked our color and bookcases/storage needed and bought some other fun storage items to match, loaded up and 12 hours later made it home.

It was a LONG day, but the next day we jumped right in. It one of hubby’s last weekend off before school started, so he got to building everything ASAP. But first I had to get everything cleared out of the office!

I don’t even know what to say about this room. It was just a mess- our printer had been sitting on a cardboard box since the day we bought our new iMac, I don’t even know how long that folding chair had been there, we didn’t have enough storage, we never really got the room organized the way we wanted it when we first moved in, and so it turned into this giant catch all!

So we piled and cleaned, we moved the black shelf that you can’t see into the closet to hold all of our books, binders and folders that don’t need to be out on display, we moved the desk, moved all of the storage containers into the other room to be able to sort through and started building so that we could start organizing.

So that was the before! After hubby built the shelves, we brought in all of our DVD’s from the other room and organized them alphabetically, placed the rest of our storage, brought the futon bed in and just got everything where it needed to be and gave everything a home!

And finally, the after! WE LOVE IT!

The curtains are from Target and have this great soft feel to them. I already had the rod but hadn’t used it so it worked out well. The canvas and globe were already hidden in the office somewhere. The futon replacement cover is from Amazon and it works great! The pillow is from Costco 🙂

Moving around the room, our office/desk area. This is where I do all of my design work for Stephanie G Designs, so it is nice to have a clean area. The printer finally has a home! Our diplomas are hung in pretty frames, and you can see some of our DVD and book storage. We decided to only display the books that we had collections of or really enjoyed. Most of my reading is done on my kindle now anyway.

Here is the beautiful system from IKEA. There are four pieces, the two bookshelves, the TV console, and the connection wall shelf above. The clock is also from IKEA as well as the cream and blue canvas storage bins you can see.

We decided to get rid of our old tube TV that was in the spare room and buy a small flat screen for this room. It’s the perfect size for this room and for our guests. My nephew stays with us every Thursday and we always have people housesit whenever we are out of town, so we wanted to make sure and have something in here for our guests. We bought it from Costco and it is a smart TV so we can stream our Netflix instantly on it without any other hookups!

We are SO ecstatic with the outcome! We come in here all the time and just sit and think how nice it is the have a functional room! E also loves to come in here and watch Pooh and we made sure all of the Disney movies were at her level so when she is old enough she can see them. Next up, the new baby’s room!

It isn’t in too bad of shape. We are going to leave the carpet because it is in pretty good condition. When we find out what we are having on Wednesday (EEK!) we will pick out a paint color and start getting things put together!

Thanks for looking! Here is the breakdown of items again, in case you saw anything you like.

Shelving system– IKEA Hemnes in grey brown– we LOVE the color, it doesn’t show dust and the shelves are REALLY sturdy.
Clock/Canvas Storage– IKEA
Futon Cover– Navy Full Size Futon Cover for Amazon
Pillow– Costco
Curtains– Target Grey Scotland Home Panel
Television– Costco