Duo Ventures

Sunday, April 14, 2013

A Dining Room to Home Office Reveal!

Several months ago, we made the decision to utilize our formal dining room as a home office instead.  We left off in Part 1, where we outlined our general plans & inspiration for our future office.  If you follow us on Instagram you might have gotten a couple of sneak peeks along the way.  There are still several small projects that we need to complete, but for the most part the room is finished!

Let's start the beginning - here's what it looked like when we moved in:


First, we painted the walls with Behr's Creek Bend & swapped out the light fixture for a more contemporary brushed nickel fixture that we found on clearance @ Lowe's.

Next we hung some window panels from Target (Threshold Basketweave in Gray).  We also ordered a 7'6" x 9'6" rug from Overstock while it was on sale (South Hampton Southwest in Grey):

Next, we began to layer our furniture back into the room.  We added our existing desk from Pottery Barn & a pair of chairs from Home Goods.  At this point, Mel had also finished painting our thrift store dresser (we were still waiting on the hardware to arrive), & we centered it on the back wall:


After browsing through some Houzz & Pinterest inspiration, we decided that we wanted shelving units on either side of the dresser.  IKEA offered an affordable option that was available in two different sizes (Vittsjo).  The wider version seemed like it was going to be a tight squeeze, so we taped off the dimensions first.  Luckily, they were going to fit perfectly:


Here's the office after we assembled the shelving units & attached the drawer pulls to the dresser:

We added a pair of lamps & a metal mirror from Home Goods:



We love our thrift store makeover (you can see a before here):

Then came the fun part - styling the office!  We visited several different stores & picked up a bunch of goodies from Target, Home Goods, IKEA, Joann's, & several thrift stores.

We wanted to try & mix metals in this room - which is crazy seeing as we never thought we'd like anything brass or gold.  Ever.  But alas, Pinterest had some really cool looking rooms that were styled with brass accents...& we liked it!

After about 5 million different arrangements, this is what we came up with (over time, this space was edited & pared down as it felt a little cluttered):



Of course, we couldn't do a room without some DIY art.  Mel spray painted some coral we found on our vacation & framed it:









We found this tray in the kitchen section @ Home Goods & thought it would be perfect to hold those tiny office supplies like push pins & paper clips:

Before & After:




*Update*
Like we mentioned earlier, we removed & added a few items over time - here's what it looks like currently:

All in all, we are very happy with our new home office!  We've had to edit the office a good deal over time, but we finally achieved a room that combines both form & function!

Mel & Nader