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Our Tiny Home Office – Part 1

Who’s ready to dive into another room remodel? I know I am! This one should be super quick and satisfying too, since it’s a teeny tiny room.  Also, just to throw things off track right at the beginning of a post… I have no idea what to call what we do these days. We are not remodeling, since the house is new. And it’s not a room makeover, since we are starting from scratch. Help me…words are hard.

ANYWAY, the room we are conquering next is our home office. I’m really excited about this space, since this room is right in the middle of our home and has just been an empty room full of random crap and loose paperwork for (*hangs head in shame*) almost four years now. And you want to hear the worst part? Once we actually started in on this room we finished the bones of it in one weekend. ONE WEEKEND. Why did we wait so freaking long? Our life choices are questionable at best.

So here is the office in the grand scheme of our house –

tiny home office

The office is right off of the living room, tucked under the catwalk between the dining room and entryway. It’s 4.5 by 9 ft, so less than 40 sq ft. In that small space we planned to put two small desks and filing cabinets…one for our home office, and one for me and my blog stuff. Usually this is where I would post the grid paper sketch of our plan for the room, but we skipped that part this time and just dove right in. Here are a few pics of the room along the way instead.

building a custom home
how small is too small for a home office?
white sliding door on shiplap wall
small home office

We finished the outside of the room years ago, you can read more about the living room shiplap HERE and green barn doors HERE. (Also, if you’re super into shiplap, I have more posts about it here and here, plus a budget-friendly version here.)

The inside though, not so much. Somehow it was both completely empty and useless but also full of crap all at the same time. It wasn’t a great look. You’re going to have to take my word for it though, since I don’t have a picture.

Anyway, a few weeks ago Adam got a wild hair and just randomly started building wooden countertops for the office (gotta love him). So I got home from wherever I was and was like “Oh…I guess we’re doing this!”

I wanted a really quick turnaround on this room, so instead of Adam building custom filing cabinets like he normally would, I just bought two of the ALEX file cabinets from IKEA. They just built an IKEA in San Antonio and I was looking for an excuse to go…this was my excuse.

Turns out IKEA doesn’t sell furniture though….they sell materials for building your own furniture. Big difference.

Ikea furniture assembly is the worst

After we assembled the two file cabinets and surpassed our allotted amount of curse words for the month, we tossed those babies in there under the wood counters…. and suddenly, we had two desks. With storage. Somewhere to keep files, stamps, pens, the printer…like a real house!

IKEA ALEX file cabinet

Next I ripped out the drywall returns around the window so Adam could trim it out (obviously these pictures are not in order, haha. You’ll survive.)

add trim around a window that has drywall returns

Next came the floating shelves. If you are curious as to how we made these or want to build some for yourself, here is a detailed tutorial!

A bedroom with a large window

I wanted three above the desks, which worked perfectly on one side of the office.

floating office shelves

The other side had a bit of a roadblock though. The breaker box lives on that wall, along with this white metal square thats purpose is a mystery. I wanted to cover both of these up completely, but I also need to access the breaker box easily. The solution I came up with was to get a giant whiteboard calendar, then build shelves boxing it in.

covering a breaker box

It worked perfectly….hides the ugly stuff, is easily removed, and serves a legit practical purpose. Boom.

office calendar

I love how this room is coming along, I walk by it and smile 847 times a day. I think it’s going to be extremely functional and just the right size. And now comes the best part… organizing and decorating it! I’m thinking a round rug, wooden roman shade, leather office chairs, some cool lamps, and lots of art and plants in terra cotta pots, of course.

small home office
DIY floating desk

Finish out. The words I was looking for when I started writing this post is finish out. Sometimes you just have marinate on something for a while and then it will come to you, lol.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FINISHED OFFICE!

Home Office Source List

  • Wall Color – Silvermist (SW)
  • Trim color – Alabaster (SW)
  • Barn door color – Oakmoss (SW)
  • Barn doors – vintage find (post here)
  • Barn door track – Amazon
  • ceiling light – vintage find
  • File cabinets – IKEA Alex
  • Whiteboard calendar – Amazon
  • Wooden countertop – DIY (tutorial here)
  • Wooden ceiling – post/tutorial here
  • Floating shelves – DIY (tutorial here)

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15 Comments

  1. It’s perfect! I couldn’t envision two desks and two filing cabinets in such a small room, but it is exactly right.

  2. I’ve been so excited to see this room finished. I do have to ask though, did you ever replace the missing glass in the door? And could you do a tutorial on it or a quick overview of how to do it? (Guess who has to replace some glass and has no idea how to do it…)

    1. I did. I had a piece cut at a glass shop and secured it in with some clear caulk. No problems so far, and my boys slide and bang the doors around on a daily basis!

  3. Looks great! We got the white floating shelves from Ikea, which look basically the same but can’t hold as much weight…boo! Wish we’d been able to go that route instead.

  4. The Collection Of Home Decor Items On Khirki. Check out our collection to see our exclusive deals.Paintings, wallpapers, photo frames, personalized gifts, quirky art & photo gifts like cushion, mugs and more.

  5. I’m very impressed. I found your penny countertop and loved it very much and now I found your home office or yard furniture and you made such great use of the space. I love it! Thanks… Looking at this post-https://www.bestitemes.com/best-canopy-swings/

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