Office Cabinet

There's a huge feeling of satisfaction that comes from upcycling or making over an old, neglected piece of furniture. But the same satisfaction can come from tweaking a new piece that just wasn't right when it came home from the store.

I bought this cabinet from Jysk on clearance for $150. It had the proportions that I needed to hold our office copier/fax and printer, and had some handy dandy storage. But it was a pretty blah colour. Just lacquered pine.

Mr. Mel had the clever idea to paint the pieces before I assembled this unit...gosh he's a smarty pants.

Mr. Mel gave them a light sanding (that's right, folks, I put him to work),  then I primed and painted with the same gallon of mistint paint I used on the cubby desk. Mr. Mel was itching to help, so I volunteered him to put it all together!

I replaced the hardware with a couple of knobs I had from an old dresser.

A quick update for a stock piece of furniture, and now she's all ready for business!

Cost breakdown for this project:
$150 for cabinet 
$0 for primer and paint
$0 for cabinet hardware
Total cost = $150

Cubby Desk

** I apologize in advance for the craptastic photo quality...we're having camera issues over at the White City Project **

Our home office project is well under way, but one item was holding things up. I searched high and low for a small desk to fit in our 39" alcove to no avail.

A second workspace was a must for this space and the alcove seemed the perfect place to tuck one away. I wanted to do this room on a relatively small budget so it limited my options to buy new but, no matter how hard I looked, I just couldn't find anything used that would fit.

I finally decided to just build in a worktop and I found a great photo of just what I was thinking of.

I started by drawing up a sketch with your measurements. Don't skip this step or bad things will happen. Bad, baaaad things. Not that I would know from experience, of course. It's just what I've been told ::whistling::  Once you have a drawing, it'll actually be easier to improvise a bit, if you're so inclined wink wink 

The height of my desk will be 30", including a 1/2" thick MDF desktop and 24" deep. I mounted 2x4 lumber to the walls at 29 1/2". I painted these the same colour as my walls before I moved on. I didn't bother filling the screw holes because no one will see them anyway.

Then I mounted a 1x4 apron to the ends of the 2x4s across the front of the desk.

Here's my favourite part! I bought two 4" corner blocks and two fancy shmancy polyurethane corbels from Rona and mounted them on each end of the desk using brad nails. These are purely decorative so don't need any heavy duty fasteners. I filled in the space between the blocks with another piece of 1x4 so the profile of the apron would be even. I used liquid nails on the tops of the wall mounts to attach the 1/2" MDF top.

After filling and sanding all of the visible nail/screw holes, I gave the entire desk a prime and coat of a greeny-taupe colour mistint I had kicking around my paint stash, followed by a few coats of Varethane to protect it.

I used a hole saw (one of the most rad drill attachments ever, in my humble opinion) to make a cut for a desk grommet that I bought from a local office supply store to keep my cords organized.

I am thrilled with how this desk turned out! And I was so tickled when Mr. Mel saw it and said simply, "Honey, I love that desk". Awwww, thanks, hun.

Before anyone feels it necessary to point it out, I am well aware that there are a few gaps around the desktop. Geez Louise, nothing is ever square! But in the end, all I needed was a spot for me to plop down and do some bloggin' so I am not concerned with the little imperfections of it. If I had it to do over again, I would have made my own cuts of the desktop (not have the hardware store do it) to ensure a perfect fit. Ya live, ya learn.

Cost breakdown for this project:
$53 for corbels and decorative blocks
$39 for lumber and MDF (I had to buy an entire sheet of MDF so I have a bunch leftover)
$3 for desk grommet
$0 for paint
Total cost = $95 

Home Office Inspiration

Mr. Mel and I always planned to have a dedicated home office space. But we figured that we'd wait til the basement was done, then relocate the guest room downstairs and make the upstairs third bedroom into our office/craft space. It all seemed to be going swimmingly...until Mr. Mel decided to work from home!

Mr. Mel is what I like to call a "dabbler". When people ask me what he does for a living, I usually say, "he's a businessman". Truth is, he directs several companies, does financial and corporate consulting, accounting, and real estate investment. He's a busy boy!

So the plan to do the office was sped up. Time to get to work!

This is the room now. Besides plunking the furniture in it when we moved in, we haven't done a thing to it. It's not huge, just over 10' x 10' with a small alcove. It's the guest room but has quickly become the drop zone  for random crap. What...like you've never seen kitty litter boxes and a carpet shampooer before?!

The wall colour will stay as is, Benjamin Moore Limesickle. It's a fairly neutral colour and can look more grey or green depending on the light and accent colours.

Mr. Mel has given me carte blanche with this room. He's happy as long as he has a place to sit and work. Ok by me!

I made a list of what this room needs:

• two workstations/desks.
• desk large enough to use as a sewing table.
• credenza or buffet. The room has a double closet so we have lots of storage space, but I want something that can hold printer, copier, fax, random office supplies.
• chairs.
• desk lamp(s).
• curtain panels.

These are some room schemes that have inspired me and will work with my wall colour:

Kendall Wilkinson Design

Liz Carroll Interiors

Muse Interiors

Photograph by Keith Scott Morton

I hope to have this room together pronto as I need to reclaim my kitchen table!