Another room transformation – this time it’s the office – and creating an entire bookshelf wall! Originally, this room was intended to be the “dining room” in the house. That’s why in the before photo, it has a huge, dated chandelier and tray ceilings.
Our house was built in the 90s, when they weren’t building dedicated office spaces as part of the floor plan. Instead, there were 2 living rooms – one “formal” and the other casual (growing up we called it the living room and the family room). We could have turned the more “formal” living room into the office, but the room was wide open and immediately to your left when you walked in the front door. There was no way to add a door or close off the space because of the stairs. I didn’t want our office, traditionally the messiest room with all the paperwork, printers, monitors, etc in everyone’s face when they walked into our house. That’s why it made sense for us to just switch the dining room and formal living rooms (aka office). The dining room has more of a closed off space (to the right of the stairs when you walk in), and we will be able to add french doors to it at a later date.
Anyway, the room desperately needed a storage solution for all of Ross’s books. We decided on a statement bookshelf wall, with a mini desk area. Eventually, we will add cabinets to the bottom shelves, we just didn’t finish in time before my dad left and it’s not 100% necessary.
OFFICE BOOKSHELF WALL DESIGN
Basically my dad and Ross did this entire project – I do not have a full guide ready yet! Ross will have to write it with step by step instructions. Overall, Ross sketched out the design on paper with real dimensions of the walls. Ross new he wanted a style with a desk in the middle, and also measured for proper desk height dimensions in his sketch. Based on just the wall length and depth, he was able to calculate all the wood shelf measurements. I will not be able to give you the size wood you need, because you’ll need to measure your own wall! I will say, they did not buy enough wood at first and made a couple trips to Lowe’s for more! They also used a table saw at home to cut wood boards to size.
Ideally, you want to paint everything before installing, but since my dad was only there for 3 days, we didn’t have time. We installed first, then painted. We were able to paint the last few shelves in the garage before installing though, which was nice!
NAVY PAINT COLOR
Why did choosing a navy seem like such a daunting task?! Originally I was thinking Sherwin Williams Naval, but then Benjamin Moore was much closer to our house. My mom also had experience using Benjamin Moore’s Advanced leveling paint, and highly recommended for cabinets so the wood grain wouldn’t show through. The closest color to Naval was Hale Navy, and I almost second guessed myself! Hale Navy seemed so dark, but we knew we were only doing one wall and it would have natural light. We tried a few different lighter blues, and still went with Hale Navy. I’m so happy we did! It was highly recommended by the guys at Benjamin Moore too as a top navy color.
Unfiltered Color Images of Benjamin Moore Hale Navy (Glare from Tape on 2nd one):
Filtered/Edited Images
SPUTNIK LIGHT FIXTURE
I absolutely love our sputnik light fixture! It took many google searches, customer photos, and reviews – but I finally pulled the trigger. This one is very large – it’s meant for a dining room or kitchen area, not a standard size bedroom. If you have a huge master with elevated or tray ceilings, it could work there! Since we had tray ceilings, it worked perfect for the room and is such a statement piece.
The main difference with this one than most is the sputnik part isn’t exposed light bulbs – they are actually glass globes with lightbulbs inside. I loved the larger globe look which is why I ultimately went with this light fixture!
OFFICE DECOR
This part we haven’t really gotten to yet – right now its serving as a functional space with storage for books, speakers, photos, etc. The desk is discontinued from Haverty’s, but linking similar options below! A new desk chair, a cozy nook with 2 leather chairs and a mini table in the bay window will be next up to complete the space!
DESKS
I’ll follow up with another technical DIY post with instructions on how to install the bookshelves, and when we buy more office furniture to complete the room!
