Do you have a formal living room? We had one in our old house and have one in this house, and it just seems to be a catch-all extra furniture room. It doesn’t really get used. What a waste of space! So we’re going to turn our formal living room into a dedicated home office space.
When we were house hunting, one of our major criteria was that it needed to have a separate home office that wasn’t a bedroom. Either that or a floor plan that would allow us to create a separate office that wasn’t a bedroom. My husband works from home every day, so we really need a place where he can close the door and be separate from young children going crazy elsewhere in the house. Because that’s how we roll.
Update: This project was completed in 2017. Read to the end of the post to see the progress & complete Home Office!
The Formal Living Room Before
Let’s take a look at the formal living room before photos from move-in day, shall we?
Yikes. I haven’t looked at the move-in day photos in a while. SO. MUCH. OAK. Gross!
The Formal Living Room Now
To get those out of your brain, I’ll show you the shots of the formal living room from last week when I was emptying it out to paint.
So. Much. Better. When we moved in, we had all of the oak trim painted in Benjamin Moore Decorator’s White, and the walls in BM Bunny Gray.
This house has the formal living room and dining room shotgun style, next to each other, and open to each other. The plan was always to put a wall between the two rooms, a small wall in the entryway, and add a door. Then add some built in storage along the wall and get a new desk and chair.
I’ve been planning this for 2 years now, and I’m so excited to say that we’re finally doing it! We’ve got a contractor to do some of the grunt work, like framing, drywall, tape/bed/texture. We’re tired and just don’t want to do it. We found a guy we trust that was reasonable and within our budget (though not as cheap as DIY), so we hired him.
The Design Plan
The plan is to use IKEA Kitchen Cabinet Bases to build in the built in credenza along the back wall of the formal living room. We used this method in the Kid’s Bathroom Remodel this summer, and we love them, so we’re planning on doing that in the rest of the house where we want to replace/add cabinetry. We’re also going to construct a budget-friendly wood countertop for that piece. I’ve got a few hacks up my sleeve to make it work for an office. It should look really nice when it is done, plus provide WAY more storage than we need.
We’re also going to install all of the new baseboards & trim ourselves, and then prime and paint the new walls, baseboards & trim. We need to paint the ceiling white (it is a dingy cream), and we are going to paint the built in wall navy as an accent. Sometime this summer, we’re going to build some white wall-to-wall floating shelves above the cabinets, so the navy will pop!
If you follow me on Instagram @stacyssavings, you know that I’ve already started posting sneak peeks of our progress!
I’ve got a new desk coming & we’re going to look for a new chair in a month or two. Next weekend we’ll be installing some new LED retrofit recessed lights for energy savings, and we’re going to get & paint the custom cabinet doors from Scherr’s in March. We’re just going to live with “open shelving”, i.e. cabinets with no doors, for a month or two.
Our Current Home Office
Sorry for the craptastic lighting on that shot. That room makes me twitch.
We’ve been in this house almost 2 years now, and Doug’s been camping out working in the back spare bedroom that whole time. That room has horrific honey oak built ins, but has a nice window that looks out onto the creek. He’s reluctant to give up his “cave with a creek view”, but too bad so sad, this is going to work much better for everyone!
You may be wondering what we’re going to do with that back bedroom. Well, it’s going to serve as a multi-purpose room. My parents are giving us their guest room Tempurpedic mattress (we need to buy the base platform – hello IKEA!), so we’re going to make a small guest room in there. More importantly, we’re going to rip out those nasty ugly built ins and create something really special on the window wall! It’s going to be my crafting space! It’s been years since I’ve been able to work on my scrapbooks and sewing, because all of my supplies have been packed up in that room. I’m excited to be able to finally organize everything and give it all some space!
We have about 9 weeks to get all of this work done before our newest family member arrives. Yikes! We better get cracking! We have a TON of work to do on that formal living room!
Have you ever done a room conversion before? Tell us about it! How did it go? I have to tell you, I’m ready to get to the organizing part. I can’t wait for that!
Update: This project is done and we’re so happy with it! Click through to see the rest of the progress & how we finished the formal living room to home office conversion!
Check out all of the Stacy’s Savings Total Home Makeover posts here!
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