Home Office Makeover: A Usable Workspace

It has been oh-so long since I first posted about my home office makeover.  And while it’s still not complete I wanted to post some progress photos because I think they’re worth posting.

I started with a very disorganized & uninspiring workspace.

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My Wannabe Ikea Fintorp Hack

I love the look of Ikea’s Fintorp Series rail and caddies and I adore their use in a workspace for organization. And even though they’re not very expensive I figured the money I’d spend on them would be better spent on something else. So I decided to shop around the house for useable items to recreate it’s functionality.

This is what I ended up with. Not too bad right? And it only cost me $3.

Items used:
An small curtain rod, a few old drapery hooks and 3 tin buckets. The rod and hooks I already had. The small buckets I scored for $1 a each at Target yesterday morning. I love the bargain bins at Target! I will be heading back today for more, I can definitely find other uses for them around the house.

The buckets come with 2 handles; I snapped off the unused side. If you don’t have drapery clips you can use ribbon or binder rings and clip both handles to your rod. That was my original plan until I found the drapery hooks. I just love the look of them.

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Home Office Makeover: Progress

prog·ress n
1. Movement, as toward a goal; advance.

Two coats of polyurethane and she is’a done! I would have have applied another coat but let me tell you that applying a clear coat with a brush is scary. I know that streaking is common if not applied properly and using a good brush is essential.  I was very careful not to go over the same spots twice and made sure that it was completely dry before attempting a 2nd coat. If you can do this confidently I applaud you. I hope to get to that stage someday soon. For now you can call me Nervous Nelly.

Because painting is a waiting game and I was getting antsy I determined I’d make better use of my time by heading out to look for accessories. First stop, Walmart. I needed to replace the black and gray stand that I used to hold my printer/scanner and I also wanted to stay away from the typical printer cart.

I came across this Parsons Desk which was on clearance for $29 and it was already a bright white! Personally I thought it was a steal at $29 and apparently others did too because when I went back to Walmart today to get another and they were gone.

The cute little floral shade is part of the Better Homes and Garden Collection, which I love and was around $9. It fit my existing lamp base perfectly. Here’s a closer look at the pattern. Cute right?

The curtains, also part of the Better Homes and Garden Collection were only $4.97 a panel! I love these curtains. They’re light and airy and they allow a lot of natural light in. I was so happy with them until I came across these gorgeous curtains on etsy:

It is almost identical to my lamp shade but I just can’t spend a $150 on them. I must find an alternative…these are stunning.

If you read yesterday’s post you may remember I mentioned wanting to paint my bookcase as well. I only applied 2 coats of Zinsser’s Cover-Stain versus the 3 used on my desk top to test Valspars coverage and I have to say the only coverage problem I ran into was the back panel of the bookcase. It seemed to absorb every layer of primer & paint. I ended up having to apply 3 coats of Valspars Premium. So would I buy Valspars Premium again? Yep. I feel confident that the issue lied with the material I was painting and not the paint itself. Just my 2 cents!

Tomorrow I put a few things back in their place, work on a few craft projects and put together a small Ikea shopping list.