Bedroom Restyle Part One: Office Nook

Whew.  It was a long weekend for us as we got our new office nook all put together. Now normally, I am not a person who advocates having a computer in a bedroom.  I believe the best place for a computer is in an open, common area.  But right now that isn't an option for us. We have an unfinished basement and have tried before to have our office area there, but it just didn't work out.  I know once we finish our basement we will spend a lot more time down there and are planning on putting an office area in. So our solution for now, is to have a corner of our master bedroom dedicated to office space. Our bedroom has been the big eye sore in our house.  Its full of mis-matched furniture, dated bedding, and was still sporting builders grade white walls...oh and my elliptical resides there too. This picture isn't a true "before" picture.  Where the desk is in the corner used to be an old red La-Z-Boy. Super stylish.

My husband and I tried to do this restyle on a tight budget.  First off was the desk.  We picked it up at a local thrift shop for $30, and it rode home strapped on top of the mini-van. Yep, we're cool like that. My poor husband really misses having a truck. On our way home we stopped off at Lowe's to grab some primer and new pulls.  After wood filler, a few screws, and two coats of primer, I painted it with some left over paint I had from my hutch.

When putting it all back together, my husband reversed the order of the drawers and now calls it the "Happy Desk." Dork.

Next up was the chair to go with the desk.  I inherited this yellow chair from my Grandma at the same time I got my hutch.  It had been sitting in my basement waiting for me to fix it up.  It also received some wood filler, screws and a coat of fresh black paint.  I pulled the cushion apart and re-upholstered it with some fabric I bought a few years ago for some curtains that were never made. This was my first time attempting any upholstering and I found it was super easy.

 Next up was a bulletin board.  I knew I wanted some way to pin things that I needed easy access to like my son's basketball schedule.  I went on the search for the perfect bulletin board and found it...but it was $70.  There was no way I could justify it, so I looked again and found one at Hobby Lobby.  Did you know that if you have a smart phone you can pull up a 40% off one item coupon on Hobby Lobby's website?  That what I did, and snagged this for a little over $20.

The next item I went looking for was a way to organize our paper mess.  I went to IKEA knowing exactly what I wanted, but unfortunately they were sold out and wouldn't be getting any more for two weeks.  After looking around at a few other places, I went back to IKEA and bought this organizer.  I love it more than the one I originally wanted.

The last thing I needed was a desk lamp.  This corner tends to be pretty dark at night and I wanted a light I could turn on while the husband sleeps. I found this stinking cute lamp (and picture frame) at Target. In fact the bird and pail are from Target too (the dollar section).  Love that Target!

I had a gallon of gray paint left over from when I painted my living room a year ago, and I used it to cover up our plain white walls. Lastly, I hung up hubby and my's (ha, is that a word?) degrees.  I worked hard for that piece of paper so its not just going to sit in a box!

The finished product...

It's so nice to have an office space again! This re-style cost me next to nothing out of pocket since it was funded mostly by me selling off our old junk!