I decided, since I can call the majority of my office “finished” (ok except for that one wall I still need to paint…) that it was time to write up a list of everything we did to turn a 7.5ft x 11ft carpeted closet into my dream office/studio space. The budget for this project was MINIMAL, but I had the dreamy trifecta of a hefty Home Depot gift card, lots of leftover materials from other projects, and three very productive days of free labor thanks to my handyman/contractor dad.

So let’s start at the beginning.

November 2019 - Closing & Dreaming

We had officially closed on the cabin so I finally allowed myself to make plans for my office space. There was an extra room built off of the master (aka only) bedroom that had been previously part of the back porch. It was 7.5ft x 11ft and a perfect spot for my full-time office and part-time art studio. I could NOT sleep that night (way too excited), so I got the iPad out and sketched some ideas…

December 2019 - Prep & Storage

Anyone who has the arts and crafts bug like me KNOWS part of the issue is storage. You have a ton of tools, scrap pieces, odds, and ends that just need to be shoved in a designated space until you need it. I went through EVERYTHING I had and threw away about 5 (or more) trash bags of stuff. Even still, this room has no closet (it IS the closet), but thank God it had a lofted ceiling. The only option for storage would be a big shelf, installed over 7ft high, and strong enough to hold anything and everything I needed to shove up there. Since the room was full of my stuff, installing that shelf was top priority to free up space. We decided to put it on the long wall over the doorway, so you couldn’t see it unless you were in the room (you know…in case it’s a mess up there). The shelf ended up being about 11ft x 2ft, made out of two boards my dad had in his wood shed. He clamped and glued them overnight, then smithed the brackets out of angle-iron (big money saver on all accounts). Install went smoothly and it was pretty instantly decided I would need a ladder to safely store heavy things up that high…oh but don’t worry. I had already been thinking “you know what would be perfect in here? A library ladder”. (I’m pretty sure anyone who watched Beauty and the Beast as a kid now has some repressed dream to go rolling around the room on a library ladder.) However, in the mean time, I have a step stool so the ladder will have to be an update for March…

Bare, plywood floor with nothing underneath but deck boards…yeah it was a little cold. But I could see how things were coming together…very excited.

Since we had the room cleared to install the shelf (and more stuff tucked away up there) we decided to go ahead and pull up the carpet next. It came up pretty easily but I always forget what a racket carpet is. Most of the day was spent with pliers and crow bars, pulling up staples and nails and making sure you get every last one. After that is vacuuming and vacuuming and more vacuuming. FINALLY the carpet was up, the room was clean and we could move furniture back in. I had two antique desks that I’ve become very attached to: one is technically a drafting table and stands well on it’s own, the other is a big drawer set with a long table top that had to be custom-installed for the space. Dad went above and beyond (of course) and made sure the table top fit flush around all the trim so there’s no way to lose pens, pencils, and cash behind the desk (remember cash? It’s like a credit card, but made of paper and if you misplace it, they don’t send you more). Then, suddenly, half the room was temporarily finished enough for me to work in! I was beyond excited to get a feel for working in here, despite how cold it was (shoutout to these ultra-safe radiators we’ve been using for years).

I was satisfied for the moment…buuuut I was also already picking out flooring and dreaming of the next step.

January 2020 - Tiling the Floor

Well it was a nice couple of weeks…but now it’s time to take everything out of the room, AGAIN, to mess with the floor. Remember when that desk was built-in to the wall? Dad was glad I reminded him to use a few less screws at that time, because here we are, now un-installing it. All my furniture went onto the back porch, and all my other stuff…went…anywhere else I could find a spot. I was glad it worked out for us to do this while Jesse was gone at his new job, because adding another person living in that mess would not have been fun. Meanwhile, we planned for dad to sleep upstairs in the loft so we had a solid two days to work on the tile. Dad had a schedule made for when the board / tile / grouting would happen that made the most of our time.

Tile options available at Home Depot. I still love all of these, but no regrets so far on my pick!

I’ll spare you the ordering-online-drama, because at some point it looked like their online system had sent it to the wrong location (2hrs away instead of 30mins) BUT everything worked out fine in the end. It was just a glitch in the tracking number.

Tile is a pretty permanent decision, and I had to do a little convincing to assure my Dad and Jesse that this is what I wanted. I’d had a tiled office before and knew that if I had the right wheels, rolling around in a chair wouldn’t be a problem. And since that night of our closing day, I’d been dreaming of some old-world pattern on the floor. I had a hefty Home Depot gift card from a client as a Christmas bonus, so this was the time to go all-out on something. I couldn’t BELIEVE Home Depot had pretty much the exact tile I had drawn out of my head (see original sketch at the beginning of this post). They not only had it, but had it in two options: one a really clean look, and one a more distressed, faded pattern that looked a hundred years old. In any other house, I would have chosen the bottom left, but for this very rustic cabin, I knew I had to go with the middle right. I know this is dramatic, but I definitely got chills when I saw this product photo, that was EXACTLY the aesthetic I was looking for. Right down to the chair and the lamp (typewriter sold separately). SOLD. ORDERED.

LET’S DO THIS.

We cleaned up, dad left, and I was alone in this new room. It was so beautiful. I couldn’t get over the tile. It was gorgeous and looked like it’d been there for a hundred years, not a few hours. If you’re an artist, you know that it can take a long time until you find your style (or heck, even personal style is really hard to nail down), but I knew immediately this tile was going to literally be a cornerstone for this next year. Maybe even for a decade of work. I felt so inspired by this room already.

The first time I’ve ever had a blank-slate space to call my own.

And it was coming together like a dang dream.

February 2020 - Paint & Decor

Ok now let’s take a break from the sappy “new house” feels, and skip weeks ahead where I’m already taking this office for granted and internally complaining about life. It happens.

BUT deep down, I’m still madly in love with the tile and the room continues to inspire. I had lazily been cleaning out more things and organizing drawers when I got the itch to hang up the shelves I’d been mulling over. I knew I wanted an intentional space to display all my favorite books and trinkets, but before I did that, this room needed a fresh coat of paint.

While Jesse was away, I finally went to work one night. Got out the roller, tray, painter’s tape, and paper to protect the floor (as if paint would even show up on this wonderfully distressed pattern). It’s easy to forget how long painting takes, but I just stuck on a podcast and let the hours fly by. I told myself two walls was enough for one night, but it was really because that’s all I needed to do in order to put the shelves up. Rationalizing at its finest, because I still haven’t painted that third wall…maybe I’ll finish it tomorrow?

All decorated! Aaaaand with things that are relatively light, because no studs exist in that wall…

March 2020 - TBD…

Right now, the room is PERFECT. Everything is put away up on the big sturdy shelf. My favorite things are on display. I’ve got a fully functioning design-desk AND craft-desk to swap between…it’s a dream. I really couldn’t have asked for a better little setup in the woods. Pinch me.

On the To-Do List:

Paint the Third Wall (see that blue/green? Gotta go!)
Wire In Gold Lamp (yep, it’s just screwed to the wall right now)
Install Library Ladder (SO excited for this one…wait till you see this hardware we salvaged…)

…and I think that’s it! Feels like everything went by really fast, but after writing this up, I realized it’s been an on-going project since November. Renovating on a budget usually means taking your time and finding peace in the mess! But the wait was worth it and I can’t believe how well everything is coming together. Really excited for this year and the years to follow.