...design challenge: office remodel...

I mentioned the other day that I was doing a design challenge to build a home office for Sean (me;).  My goal was to obtain everything, or at least most things used and to spend under $150 for the entire thing.

My one big mistake was that I forgot to take before pictures!  I think I actually did take some but lost them when my computer crashed.  But it was a small room painted matte tan with piles of paper in the corner, an ironing board and one metal shelf that held my entire graduate workload along with some other random mess, overall not a very welcoming room.  I began with painting, I wanted it to be a surprise for the man-friend so I did it while he was in Charleston for a weekend.  I painted it a soft creamy white, and then it sat for a few weeks still a mess but with nicer walls!

I had been scouring craigslist for a table to use as a desk and each time I e-mailed someone I never heard back from them.  I waited until Sean went to Florida for a weekend (he abandons me a lot) and after my Saturday yoga classes I found a table that had just been posted, called and immediately went to pick it up.  It was not my most favorite, it was a laminate top, solid wood legs and some random holes drilled in the top, but it was a nice shape and cheap so it fit into my budget- sold!!

 Here it is as I put it together on our patio, it is definitely sturdy and you can see where I began to patch the drilled holes with wood filler...

 

The holes before...

 

 The holes after, I put the filler in really thick and then sanded it down later in the process...

 All put together, at which point I began to think about how much easier it would have been to get into the house and up the stairs if I have waited to put it together...

 Viva Cindy came over and helped me to cover this bad boy in spray paint.  I visited my neighborhood Ace Hardware and they recommended a spray paint that is used for plastic and metal since the top was laminate, it has some kind of adhesive already in the paint.  I went through two cans and got the legs well but the top was just eating up the paint and not getting very good coverage.  Cindy was adamant that I should use a roller on the table top so at this point we carried the table upstairs together and I let it cure for 24 hours before beginning the process again...

 This is the table in its spot, you can see how the top is not so fully covered here...

 I saved some money here by using the gloss white paint we used for the molding in our house to roll the table top about 20 times, until it had a nice solid looking shine to it... what a difference...

Then I went to goodwill and a couple other places looking for office supplies but I didn't find anything really so I ventured over to target and got the cork board, lamp, boxes (for .82 cents on clearance) and the shelves.  I had hunted for shelves all over craigslist and they were all about 30 dollars, they were solid wood but then I would have had to buy paint for them and this nice white bookshelf from target was $29.99 so I went for it...

I can't say it was a breeze to put together, nor will it last a lifetime, but it looks nice right now and certainly does the job!

Behold the table with the finishing touches on it, I did use a very fine sand paper after all the layers of paint to smooth it out and that also helped to make the top less tacky...

I really like the lamp (target) and the geode (tj maxx)...

The geode actually put me $10 dollars over the budget but isn't it worth it???!

I feel so official now when I am job hunting...

Aphi likes to keep me company...

 

Although, she may love the sun more than me....

Here it is!  I came in around $160:

Wall paint:  Valspar $25

Table:  Craigslist $60

Spray Paint: 2x $5.99

Geode:  $8.99

Shelf:  Target $29.99

Lamp:  Target $14.00

Cork board:  Target $5.00

Green Boxes:  Target 2x $.82

TOTAL:  156.60