Apt. 216 – The Home Office

For this room, I really shot from the hip.  I knew that function was of the upmost importance in this room.  She didn’t really need a whole lot of storage in the room itself since the room had a large closet she could utilize.  However, she did need some great lighting and since she would be spending quite a bit of time in there working on large cases; it had to be a comfortable, welcoming space.

I started in the room with the loveseat that came with couch (see Living & Dining Room).  I liked the warm ivory color on the seat, and decided to use warm neutral tones on the walls to compliment it.  I also picked up a desk chair at the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store… it was a steal for $10.00; although it was in desperate need of new upholstery.  Unfortunately, in my hurry to cover the ugly yellow up, I forgot to get a good before pic!  Here’s the one I took halfway through the project.

Then while at the fabric store, I found these 2 great printed fabrics:

Ribert Fabrics – Candy

Tunisia Fabric in Chartruese (Not available from Fabric Resource online)

I decided to use the floral print to make a large window valance , and as an accent on the back side of the desk chair.  I wanted the Zebra print on the chair to give some room a whimsical punch.

Then I was in need of a desk.  I decided to check out Ikea since they have a ton of office furniture and desks tend to be expensive.  I fell in love with these table legs:

They showed it with glass top options, but they were on the very high side of my budget. With a little more searching though, I did find a more affordable option and it was perfect for the room.

To decorate, I wanted to use the gallery of prints my mom and I got while on a trip to Paris.  She is a huge Francophile so I knew she’d like having them displayed.  Then, I found this really cool dry erase board at Office Max.

On sale, it was $45.00 and super heavy, but anything functional and pretty deserves a place in this office!  I found a few other accessories, and I headed back to put the room together.  Here’s how it turned out…

The budget for this room was super small… but I did manage to find everything I wanted for the space.  Here’s where the money went:

Office:	Cost:	Notes:
Chair	$33.00	Restore, Interior Fabrics
Desk	$65.00	Ikea
Loveseat	$85.00	Craigslist, Ikea
Valance	$42.00	Home Depot, Interior Fabrics, Jo-Anns
Lamp	$30.00	Ikea
Accessories	$70.00	Office Max
Paint	$25.00	Home Depot
TOTAL	$350.00

Live Creatively!