My Extreme Office Makeover!

I shared yesterday on Facebook that I was getting an office makeover. I thought you all might like to see some pictures of the transformation. I think it’s pretty amazing!

We bought our new home one year ago today. It was one of those homes with ‘lots of potential’, if you know what I mean. It needed a little TLC. My friend told me about an article she had read called ‘Remodeling Ideas For Improving Home Exterior Designs‘ and it inspired me to give my house a little makeover. I started with the office, then since I had some paint left over I decided to re-paint the whole exterior of the house too. The house looks so much better than when we bought it and I can’t believe I did it all myself! Well, I did hire a painter to do the exterior of the house, but the office was completely my doing!

One of the rooms that I knew had a ton of potential was the third bedroom, which we converted into an office. But I really couldn’t picture what needed to be done to make it work. So after painting it and throwing up some pictures on the built-in bookshelves, I left it alone. (Sorry for the fuzzy pictures – I took them with my iPod!)

We also used this room to store art supplies for the boys. This is a picture of our ‘storage system’. Or lack thereof.

Enter Megan. She’s my cousin and my decorating/organizing hero. She also has an incredibly generous heart and agreed to lend me her support in making the room what I hoped it would be.

And here is the FINISHED PRODUCT! Honestly, it exceeded my wildest expectations. I really can’t even believe it’s the same room. Can you?! In the future though, instead of painting rooms, as they do take a while, the option of using peel and stick wallpaper, for example, might be something worth considering, especially if I want to create an accent wall one day. With this being said, I am happy with how everything turned out!

Here is my new workspace. Can’t you just picture me sitting here happily humming while I post the hottest deals around? I KNOW I CAN!!

There are a few things that I learned from Megan about frugal and fabulous decorating during this process:

1. It’s amazing what a cute little label will do for something.
Megan found this old can in our garage, proclaimed it my new trash can, and wrapped a black outlet cover label around it with some burlap rope. An instant treasure!

2. Spray paint is a girl’s best friend.
This stool used to be a dark blue color. I never could find the right place for it in my house, so it was also in the garage. Megan spent 5 minutes spray painting it and it suddenly became the perfect accessory for my office. Eventually I would like to get a big leather office chair, but for now this stool is brilliant.

3. It is AMAZING what an $11 can of paint will do for a room.
This color changed the entire look of the room and completely brightens everything!

4. A girl can never have too many storage containers.
You can find adorable storage containers at the Dollar Store or Target for a dollar or two. Storage containers add a fun look to the room AND they will help me remember where my push pins are.

I recognize how blessed I am to have someone like Megan who is willing to lend her expertise to me for a day. But I’m hoping that the lessons that I learned will help me continue to make my home a more beautiful place.

Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to happily hum while I find you a few more great deals!