Renovating our home office was part of the One Room Challenge that I had participated in the
year 2020 and it was a fun project.

Our home office is right off the entrance and I planned to go for a dark moody room top to
bottom and have some fun in this space. There’s lots of light in this room so I didn’t really mind
the dark color. I got loads of paint swatches from Sherwin Williams to decide on one.

For storage, I definitely wanted to go with the IKEA Ivar cabinets and lots of wall moulding on
one wall and a gallery wall on the other. So, I went for a mixture of traditional, modern and
vintage!
Before you go for IKEA Ivar cabinets, let me tell you that you might face these issues:

1. Some cabinets have a gap between the doors and since I am painting it a darker shade so
   hopefully won’t look bad.
2. One of the doors might hit the ground while the other door is fine.

A brief run-down of my home office makeover:

• Built a base with 2x4s
• Installed IKEA Ivar cabinets
• cut and nailed 1-3/8” base cap moulding from @wearewoodgrain in varying sizes
• nailed in 3/4” plywood on top of the IKEA cabinets
• iron on veneer to mask the rough edge of the plywood
• build shelves between cabinets to fill gap
• chunky crown moulding also from woodgrain
• primed and painted with Sherwin Williams Andiron
• decorated with art that I’ve collected over time, meaningful memories for our family and some
  heirloom antique pieces!
  All the details are saved in “home office highlights”

#wearewoodgrain

Getting to work

I started off by taking off the baseboard. A small tip for you to always score off the caulk with a
painter’s multi tool/utility knife otherwise it will damage your wall.
Then I dry-fitted the 2*4s wood pieces to put the cabinets on top. Before screwing the pieces
together, I marked where the studs are going to come and went ahead screwing it in from font
and back. I also made sure the screws are countersunk, so it sits flush with the wall.
To get rid of the wall texture of our home office, I used hardboard and put wood filler on the
seams. My suggestion would be to always get an angle finder first, measure and then cut the
boards before putting them in, otherwise it might not lie aligned.
Crown molding is hard but if you are planning to do that, and my recommendations are:

1. Determine your spring angle first
2. Calculate miter and bever angle.
3. Get a cheat sheet for how to make your cuts.
   Our crown molding is 6 inches wide, I figured out a moulding design and used blue tape to
   visualize and a level and marker to pattern out. Then, I cut the pieces for the moulding, every
   single wood piece is cut the same way- with 45degree angled on both sides. Next, I secured the
   cabinets with screw and had the base boards done. Lots of prep work followed after that like
   hammer the nails in that were poking out, put wood filler to fill nail holes and use caulk in the
   seams. Once that was done, on top of the cabinets, I used ¾”plywood cut at @loweshomeimprovement
   

Priming and Painting

Before I started painting our home office, I put primer mainly to seal off the wood filler and for
better adhesion of the paint. My walls are semi-gloss finish, so got the priming done first with a
@homerightps sprayer (Kilz sprayer). I did use a little water to thin itdown; for a 1100 ml
container, I used 100 ml water. Around 10% water should be good.
Now letting you know what I learnt the hard way, so you don’t make the same mistake-
Sanding off an MDF board is not a good idea, as the seams were more obvious on a dark paint. It
became irregular and wasn’t looking good at all. I put aqua coat which also did not help, and I
actually ended up putting a moulding to cover the seams.
Once all the hard work was done, I used an emerald line from Sherwin Williams, I used the color
as recommended and here’s how my home office looks finally.

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Step 1: Taking off the anchors from the drywall

Tips to cause limited damage to the drywall:

– first, take a bigger size screw

– drive it in a little

– wiggle out the anchor

Step 2: Fitting back the floating shelf brackets

Drill the wall with a half inch bit and put the toggle anchor in and break off the extra bit. The toggle that worked best for me is the one I got from Home Depot (Linked here). When you have a good anchor for your screw, put the brackets in and then repeat the steps for the rest. Link to my floating shelf brackets here.

Step 3: Getting the board ready for the shelf

After cutting the 2X8 inch board, I recommend using a drill guide otherwise the hole will be sloped. Always put a tape on the drill to know when to stop drilling. Now, before you buy a drill guide, make sure the drill bit fits the slot. It was frustrating for me in the beginning as the half-inch drill that I bought didn’t fit in the half-inch slot. I ended up drilling with the small drill bit, taking the drill guide off, and then used the half-inch drill bit.

I used 220-grit sandpaper to sand off the board followed by a wood conditioner. A 220 – 320 grit sandpaper is recommended to get a smooth and even finish. The stain that I went with is Minmax Polyshade in American Chestnut. You can go for an extra coat to have a darker shade as I did.

My DIY floating shelves were finally done and this time, it looked perfect!

Please check my Floating shelves story highlight for a video tutorial.

Next

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It will be fun to take you along how I designed a blank canvas to a cozy guest bedroom! Would you believe everything in the room is from Home Depot (except for the art and some small thrifted pieces)? I was honestly surprised to find such a good mix of pieces. You know I’m not a fan of matchy furniture, so I’m loving how this turned out!

Picture Before:

Picture After:

Home depot is a place I check for deals on high end looking pieces for a great price.
You’d not guess the price of this stunning bed frame. And it looks even better in
person! 

Use contrasts to make a room look more lively

When putting together a room, my number one tip to making it look high-end is to mix
and match pieces and not get a “matching set” – matching bed, nightstands, dresser etc.
It makes a room look dated and not very interesting!

What I’ve done here is, using pieces that compliment rather than match! For eg: Your
instinct would be to get a dark dresser that matches the nightstand, but the light dresser
really elevates the space and brings in an interesting design element. I especially love
the ring pulls on the dresser – details matter! 

When styling a dresser –

Incorporate pieces of varying heights play with scale like large
lamp, vase, layer art of different heights. Use books to layer and add height to smaller
pieces of decor. 

Get creative and mix patterns

Mixing patterns is another way to make a space look elevated. I used quite a few
geometric patterns – plaid (accent chair), gingham(curtain), stripe (bedsheets),
diamond(rug) and mixed in a floral quilt to break up all the lines!
A tried-and-true formula to design a room – try to incorporate geometric pattern,
floral/organic patterns and pops of solid colors. 

Add a cozy spot

A chair in a corner makes for a cozy spot to read. Make it a nice “moment” by adding a
floor lamp, a small pedestal table and some art.
I hope these tips are helpful when you design your bedroom! 

Products Used:
Antique White Ceramic Contemporary Table Lamp with Shade
Navy/White Swirl Glass Table Lamp with White Shade (Set of 2)
Brushed Brass Arc Floor Lamp
 Antique Bronze Queen Poster Bed
Graphite/Blush 8 ft. 6 in. x 11 ft. 6 in. Traditional 100% Polyester Pile Area Rug
Blue Upholstered Accent Amchair with Plaid Pattern
Arch Black Wall Mirror
Round Dark Bronze Metal Accent Table
Nature Wall Art Print 
Petite Floral Handcrafted Multi Full/Queen Cotton Quilt
Stripe Navy Cotton Percale Queen Duvet Cover
Stripe Navy 200-Thread Count Cotton Percale Standard Sham
Grantley Ivory 6-Drawer Dresser
Buffalo Check Rod Pocket Room Darkening Curtain

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This post is sponsored by Home Depot. Ever since I started working on our guest bathroom I’ve been dreaming up our guest room makeover and for it to really compliment each other!

Planning

Our Guest bedroom is very basic and I haven’t done anything in there yet. It has an angled ceiling and I want to make the angle part of the wall which will make the bedroom look taller. I also want to do a ceiling detail just for added omph! Since our guest bathroom has Beadboard, I wanted to use that detail in the bedroom ceiling to tie in both spaces. For the walls I went with recessed panel molding.

What helped with the installation

To me, the ceiling is the fifth wall and I always consider it when doing a space. The last time I did a ceiling treatment was for the girls’ bedroom and I used wallpaper for added texture. It wasn’t a good experience mainly because I had a basic aluminum ladder which wasn’t sturdy!

So this time I knew I will not go through that and got myself 2 fiberglass Werner ladders available at home depot – they truly made this install a breeze! The oversized foot pads mean I can run up the ladder Needless to say, I’m a HUGE fan!

Here are some of my favorite features that make this Werner ladder from home depot a great option for DIY projects:

• Multifunctional Holster top with hardware bins and magnetic strips 
• Heavy duty internal spreaders for easy opening and closing 
• EXTREMELY stable with slip resistant traction-Tred steps for safety
• 300 lb load capacity

Getting this ladder is a no-brainer for your home projects! Now I will be confidently doing more ceiling treatments around our home! Once I set up both the ladders on either side of the room we put some liquid nails on the tongue and groove beadboard and attached it to the ceiling with a nail gun. 

For the recessed panel molding, I first nailed in the 1×4 and then used a base cap molding (similar to the one in our home office) and framed the inside of the boxes!

Read the next blog here!

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