Office Nook Mini-Makeover

Good morning friends! I'm excited to share my mini-makeover for the office nook in our little apartment. If you missed the introduction for why I'm giving this area a refresh, head on over to this post and then come back and read this one :).

After the work I did on this area over the past week, I feel much more prepared to start working from home next month. It's feeling a lot more like an office area and less like a dumping ground for random stuff, which is certainly an improvement! I haven't received any of the equipment for my new job yet (like a scanner/printer, computer, etc.), so I'm sure that I'll need to make some adjustments once that stuff arrives, but for now, I'm really pleased with how things are looking.

Let's take a tour, shall we?

The desk is a piece that I DIY'd in January year using some of my grandparents' old sawhorses and a piece of plywood I upholstered with an old shower curtain. You can see lots of photos of it in this post and read about how I made the upholstered desk top in this post. It's continues to be one of my favorite projects because I could customize it to fit our needs and it was inexpensive to do.

I didn't do a whole lot to the desk, but I did make a happy-looking silver and gold mouse pad (tutorial coming later this week!) and added a few office organization items.

A new addition to this area is that small piece in the corner, which is something that my amazingly talented father-in-law built for us using an old window last year.

I found that old window near our old apartment in Richmond. I was at a loss on what to do with it, so he took it and said he'd make something for us out of it. He ended up building this cool side table and I LOVE it - the light colors of the chippy paint are so pretty to me, and the top makes for a perfect bookshelf next to the desk.

And yes, that's a piece of shellacked-on burlap on the tabletop. Such a creative touch.

I borrowed a couple of books from our living room to act as placeholders until I bring my genetic counseling reference books home from my current job because I wanted to show off these awesome brass ram's head bookends I took from my parents' house(!). My mom was planning on selling them in the yard sale we had a month or so ago, but I claimed them instead. Aren't they cool?

The best part of this office update though is the new look of our Expedit bookshelf. I took it from heavy and dark to light and bright. Before, it was very functional and had great storage, but it was a bit of an eyesore and was no longer in great condition...

Now that I've updated it, it's not just functional, it's functional and pretty! It fits much better with the "light and bright" look I am going for with this update. And I'll bet you'll never guess what I used to update it - a grasscloth-esque panel curtain from IKEA!

Much better now, huh? Not only did I "upholster" this piece with a panel curtain to give it a new look, I also took some time to reorganize those baskets in the cubbies to make some room for more office items. I'm going to leave you in suspense on details though today - a longer post with specifics on this whole makeover is coming tomorrow! :) {UPDATE: Here's the post!}

That wraps up the office nook mini-makeover tour. If you have any questions about what you've seen so far, please leave me a comment and I'll get back to you!