Home Tour: The Study

The tour of our home continues with one of the first rooms you see when you walk in the front door, our study.



This home office has come a long way since it’s first makeover several years ago.  What was once a dark, outdated room, is now a cheerful spot for us to work & study.



The transformation began by detaching part of our “L” shaped desk & building the “X” base desk in front of the windows.



My son mainly uses this spot for his homework, but it’s nice for my husband to have a place at home to work on his laptop if he needs to.



The remainder of our once “L” shaped desk was painted white to brighten the space.



Since the room is small & lacks a closet, magazine & file storage was added above the bookshelves.  Some paint & decorative tape dressed up cheap Ikea storage bins.



The shelves are mainly styled with our books.  Despite being mainly filled with paperbacks, I still think the shelves look pretty.



I achieved this by choosing to leave a few shelves open for styling, & laying some books horizontally to break up the books.



I totally forgot that I was using one of the vases (below) in the family room!  I didn't notice it until I went to take the following photo! 



I am still loving the Ikat bulletin board we made to go behind the computer monitor.  The “drawer” below the monitor is a pull-out tray for the keyboard & mouse.



When we removed the writing desk, we had to find something to do with the base piece.  I decided to use more Ikea storage boxes to stash my craft supplies.



The small loveseat fits the space perfectly & provides a comfy spot to relax.



In case you didn't see what the space looked like before, here it is:



It’s hard to believe the only new furniture we purchased was the desk chair to achieve the look below:



For more information on the sources used in this room, please visit the original post here. 

The tour continues next Tuesday!

I'm linking up for the Best of the Nest at Driven by Decor!  Please stop by & check out some awesome projects!

The Study Revealed

I just “finished” (I use that term loosely…) a makeover of our home office.  When we first moved in, I wanted a very formal & “rich” look for this room…

A few years later, I realized this was not “us”.  We are definitely not formal people!  I decided a lighter, happier look would fit our personalities a little better.

Here are the results:

DIY X Base Desk (Made from the original “L” shaped desk), Ikea Barometer Lamp, Ikea Sanela Curtains, Trinidad Office Chair

Ikea Frame, “Choose Happy” free printable, Ikea Orchid & Vase, Ikea Candle Holder (holding pencils)

After my husband created the “X” base desk from our original “L” shaped desk, I painted the bookcases Delicate White (by Olympic).  The walls are painted Quill, also by Olympic.

I added some magazine & file storage on top.  To break up all the white, I painted a couple solid blue (Misty Surf by Olympic) & added some stripes on two more.

Ikea Magazine & File Boxes

To lighten up the bookshelves, I chose to leave the second shelf mainly clear of books.  I added some faux flowers in a thrift store vase & a Dollar Tree frame. 

Again, I decided to break up the book spaces by having full shelves of books diagonally & accessorizing the other shelves.  Having the books go both vertically & horizontally helps also. 

Free Flamingo Printable, Dollar Tree Frame, Thrift Store Vase

Thrift Store Bowl, Free Printable (by Clara)

I added a memo board behind the computer using this tutorial.  I ended up just hot gluing on the fabric.  The edges didn't turn out great (we had some trouble fitting it tightly) so my husband added some trim around it.

Fabric, Dollar Tree Frame, Computer Wallpaper, Michaels’ Pencil Holder

Orb Vases from Michaels, Thrift Store Frame

The left hand side of the desk base has open shelves.  Originally, this is where the “L” shaped desk attached & the shelves were hard to get to.  Separating the desk gave me three deep shelves to store all my craft supplies, which were previously housed in the basement.  I added some Washi tape to the labels.

Ikea Boxes

In college, I nannied for an artist who did a head study of Mark & I as wedding & anniversary gifts.  Before, they were in very ornate frames, which didn't go with the style of the room.  Mark made some more simple frames for them now.

Love Seat, Pillows (I remade one large pillow cover into two smaller pillow covers with a white back.)

Here are a couple of pictures to show the room’s layout.  Close up shots are great, but when I see a room reveal, I like to see the big picture too!

Fiddle Leaf Fig

After living with the bookcases in the morning room for at least two months, I am so glad to finally have this room finished… for now!  I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Sharing here:

Evolution of Style

I Heart Organizing

Remodelaholic

Home Stories A to Z

Study Updates

We have been whittling away on the study for a few weeks now.  Here are some pictures of the progress:

Ikea finally had Fiddle Leaf Figs when I went there a few weeks ago!  I grabbed one in hopes it can add some greenery in the study!



I bought this chair from Wayfair & I love it!



It looks great sitting by the X desk we built!  (More on that on Friday!)



I bought this love seat for the living room after this fiasco, but once we got the new couch it moved to the study, along the wall of bookshelves.  Since we took the L desk apart, I plan on centering the bookshelves, & this love seat will work much better in this spot!



We took the bookcases out of the room to paint white.  I think we’re going on two weeks now, & I still haven’t started painting them.  I am so not looking forward to that task!



The walls are now painted Quill by Olympic Paints (from Lowes).  We also added trim around the windows, but you can’t tell it from my pictures!

Despite the fact that it is far from finished, I’m already loving it!  It’s hard to believe it looked like this just a few weeks ago!

DIY “X” Base Desk

As part of our study makeover, I decided to split up our “L” shaped desk & create two separate work spaces.  Here are a few pictures of how we created this desk…



from this…



First, my husband, removed the writing desk from the bookshelf area.  Then, he removed the sides & back & replaced them with pieces of finished plywood.  Then, he created the X legs by tweaking Anna White’s plans.

He did have to remove the track from the drawers from the sides he removed & glue & staple them back on the sides he added.

Here is the front before I painted it:



…and the back (sorry for the blurry picture).



And here it is, at home in the study!


I really love the way it turned out!




Sharing here:

Study Inspiration

Now that I think I've finally found my design style and really like the direction the entry, living room, dining room, & family room are going, I've realized the study in this house is out of place.

The cherry wood, dark draperies, & formality don't blend well with the design in the rest of the house.  Most of the other rooms on the main floor have neutral walls, lighter draperies, & pops of bright colors.  In an effort to make this room more cohesive with the rest of the house, I decided to do a little makeover.  Here are some things that are inspiring me:

I love so many things about Shelli's office (which is now a playroom)!  I love the pops of turquoise, the bookshelf styling, the desk in front of the windows, & the white office chair.

Source: alamodemaven.com via Wendy on Pinterest

I'm hoping to incorporate a nail head cork board like this behind the computer.

Source: highstreetmarket.blogspot.com via Wendy on Pinterest

I really like the lines in Megan's X leg desk:

Source

This warm gray should be a good paint color for the room.  It's Quill by Olympic.

Source

I recently spotted this lampshade at Target that would be perfect in the room & integrate the other colors from the main floor perfectly!

I'm thinking these fabrics would go great with it:

Source: fabric.com via Wendy on Pinterest

Source: warehousefabricsinc.com via Wendy on Pinterest

I'm sure things will change once I actually start purchasing items like accessories, but this is a good start on the direction I'm hoping this room takes!

Sorry for all the wonky pictures in this post.  I obviously don't understand HTML!