A Colorful Home Office in Progress

You've barely heard a peep from me about our home office in the last year and a half.  So far, you've seen the Expedit - twice (after the Expedit hack, round two and when we made the plywood magazine files) - and the closet-turned-nook.  But that's all I've shown you - for good reason.  The office was our dumping ground when we first moved in.  When it was cold outside and we were working on the kitchen makeover, the office became tool storage (the garage seems so much farther away when it's 35 below out).  When the kitchen was done and order in the house was once again restored, the office took on a new role: acting as guestroom for a visiting friend.  (I drove to my parents' house with my truck and literally stole a bed from their guest bedroom).  You might recall that last year I wanted to use the guesthouse for our Etsy shop, but it became too expensive to heat, so the guest bed was sheepishly returned and all of the Etsy merchandise moved into my office.  Eventually I set up shelves in the basement, and now the Etsy goodies are organized and orderly, but before I could finally see our actual plans for the office come to fruition, it started housing the displaced dresser and chair from our bedroom. 

We really have big plans for the space - I swear!  It won't remain a forgotten room forever.  I'll detail our plans, including the crazy thing we intend to do with the nook, soon (I want to get your feedback on some DIY desk designs too).  Today, though, I wanted to capitalize on the cleanliness and give you a tour, so you can see the space.  I recently dealt with the paperwork crowding my desk, washed the floors, and even hung the drapes from the bedroom - just until my Mom and I sew the new aqua tweed ones.  One day this room will be more than simply where furniture and accessories come to languish.  But today it's clean, so take a peek!

This is one of my favorite paintings by Hubby's Grandpa.  Hubs had this already when we met - reason enough to marry the guy ;)

 

Even if they are temporary, I'm loving curtains in here.  I'm embarrassed to tell you how long I've been staring at an empty curtain rod...

You have no idea how tempting it is to pack those dresser drawers full of stuff!  The dresser is going back to my Mom's, as soon as she makes room for it.  After I stole it (having a truck makes me such a furniture thief), she rearranged all of her bedrooms and no longer has a spot for it.  She's getting the last laugh.

A softer pair of Bert's paintings hang above the dresser, where they will stay when we build new desks.  It's hard to tell in photos, but there is a lot of soft aqua and pink layered in.  The paintings are more colourful than they always look in photos.

The Expedit looks largely the same, except the top shelves are getting a bit crowded with framed prints I can't seem to find a home for; I just stood them up behind my pottery to keep them safe. I stashed my sewing machine up there one day, also hoping to keep it safe, and there it has stayed.

The nook needs some work - melamine shelves are awfully weak.  Sometimes in photos it looks like shelves are sagging because of lens distortion, but these shelves are actually sagging.  We are actually thinking of using this space in an entirely different way...

There you have it, a look at the mysterious second bedroom!  On the horizon: DIY desks, luxurious office chairs, a more practical nook, fabulous tweed curtains, a decluttered Expedit, plus clever ways to hide unsightly tech stuff (looking at you, hulking printer).  For a little walk down memory lane, here's what the room looked like when the former owners were using it as a bedroom, and then when it was empty:

DIY Plywood Magazine Files

UPDATED: Exciting news!!! This project was chosen for the January 2015 edition of Bob Vila's "Thumbs Up" Competition.  I'd really appreciate it if you could hop over there and vote for me, no registration or anything required - just click "Vote" (over my project, preferably).  Click here :)  Thank you so much!!

I have ignored our home office for so long, that a few readers have actually asked if we even have one!  So far you've only seen the closet turned into an aqua nook and my Ikea Expedit Hack 2.0.  I recently unearthed my desk and spent a good long time making the office moderately presentable, only to have the Etsy shop explode in it and make it messy once again.  I'll clean it up (again), snap some pictures and share our plans soon - we have an ambitious idea for matching DIY desks sketched out (there's woodworking and welding involved).

In the meantime, we turned our attention back to the Expedit to wrap up one last project.  Last time you saw it, I was mooning over my colour-coded books (which traumatize my colour-blind Dad).  Hubby and I had made a simpler version of my Expedit hack so the bottom row - full of photo albums and ugly binders - was successfully hidden.  With it's jumble of painted/unpainted magazine files and coil bound course packs, the fourth row was the last hold out in my pursuit of orderliness:

I decided I wanted fifteen identical magazine files and spent a long time searching for the perfect ones.   What caught my eye was either really spendy (I ogled some $20 a piece Lucite ones) or seemed really flimsy (Ikea, looking at you).  We decided to just make some out of plywood.  At the last minute I decided that making five larger versions would be easier, faster and look cleaner - and solved my worry about staggering heights if we accidentally made some taller.  Here is the finished product:

I'm so pleased with how they turned out!  We started with the same kind of doodly sketch that precedes most of our projects:

We used 1/4" Carribea pine plywood (the same plywood as the top for the floating Ikea credenza, but thinner).  Once we had an idea of what we wanted - and what size - Hubby used this online cut list tool that he really likes (we used it for our DIY plywood pantry as well).  It helps figure out how much material we need, and helps us efficiently cut up a sheet of plywood.  We worked on another project at the same time so we can't remember exactly how much plywood we used for these, but we think it was about a sheet and a half.  Here are all of the pieces cut out for one magazine file:

For anyone looking to make the exact box with the same dimensions (which are completely customizable), I've updated this post with more detailed information on the cut list - thanks to a reader's suggestion:

Hubby used a table saw to cut all of the square/rectangular shapes:

And a bandsaw for triangular cuts:

He edge glued and clamped the boxes together (applying wood glue to both sides of each joint).  Once dry, he glued the internal dividers into place. Without dividers, these would make great storage bins for the Expedit.

We made these in Hubby's Dad's wordworking shop, where Szuka tormented the local pups. She's adorable, no doubt, but when she's with other dogs she can turn into a real jerk.



Back to the files!



Once the glue dried, we sanded the finished magazine files smooth.  I was definitely tempted to paint them aqua (everything turquoise!), but for some reason I'm really smitten with the Carribea grain.  I decided to paint the inside the same turquoise as the closet nook and hanging canvases (semi-gloss in this colour).  To help insure no paint bled onto the fronts, I didn't paint the edge - only the insides.  While I love the Carribea grain, I don't love the natural colour of pine.  Three coats of my favorite white stain helped tone down the yellowness.  Here they are painted, but un-stained:

Once the stain was dry, I applied two coats of low lustre varnish, lightly scuff sanding in between coats.  You already saw my pretty, vintage hardware given a makeover with rub 'n buff, which we installed - centred - with the help of a small metric bolt and washer.

Finally, we added some felt feet to the bottom of each file to keep it from scratching the Expedit - they're smooth on the bottom, but I find the white scuffs easier than the espresso finish I had before, so I try to be extra careful with it.  I actually think that adding two strips of adhesive-backed felt to either edge will be a better solution, but I have yet to pick some up. 

When you make something yourself, there's always a chance it won't turn out/hold up.  So far, so good, but there's always a chance the construction won't bear the weight of the magazines, so I'll keep you posted on how these wear.  When they're packed full, they're a bit heavy but it's nothing I can't manage.  Truthfully, I don't look at back issues of my magazines that often, but I just can't bear to get rid of my old Domino issues or Style at Home.  Hubby also hoards his favorites.  When I'm home sick or planning I project, I'll take them all out and leaf through, but ordinarily they stay put.  If you're someone who is constantly referencing magazines, you might not enjoy one mega file.

The magazine files are wider and taller than the canvases I used for the Expedit hack and the balance bugs me a bit.  When I have a chance, I might re-do the Hack with plywood pieces as large as the new files, or I might get used to the change. 

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Artful Expedit Hack, 2.0

My artful Expedit hack - canvases (with abstract paintings) hung on small hooks to act as "doors" - has been one of my most popular DIY projects.  It's been exciting to see so many people try this project for themselves (see here and here for examples).  Now it's my turn to tackle a simplified, and less artful, version.

For my second version of the same hack, I just painted some canvases the same turquoise as the office nook.  So easy!  I hung them in an orderly row on the bottom, which is a change for me.  To underscore the orderliness, for the next row up we will be building 15 magazine holders that will perfectly fit the cubbies and house our burgeoning magazine collections. 



If you're curious about what's lurking behind the swinging doors:

You might have noticed that I have a new Ikea Expedit - my fifth.  I've always wanted a white Expedit but the floor models always look so beat up - more so than the dark brown, which is what I always end up buying.

The first two Expedits I bought stayed in my childhood home and my parents now use them in the store they own.  When my Dad said he wouldn't mind taking the two brown ones from the townhouse as well (seems he's as keen on them as I am), I figured it was finally time to buy a white one.  It's creamier than I thought it would be, and nicks and dents do show up more than on the dark finish, but I love it.  The dark one took up so much visual space and was really imposing.  The white doesn't close in the room as much, even though it's just as large and just as packed with books.  I wish I'd trusted my gut years ago and chosen white.

You already caught a peek of the colourful books.  We pared down our books a lot before moving because we knew we'd be collapsing two bookcases into one.  We keep most novels elsewhere because we typically read those and pass them on.  This bookcase largely houses reference books, cookbooks, and novels we read again and again.  I used to organize my books by colour but in recent years I felt pressured to organize them by theme to be more "scholarly," but a) we have so few books that I find them in seconds, no matter how they're organized and b) I now have a PhD so I no longer feel the need to conform to ideals of scholarliness (I also reserve the right to make up words) (and overuse brackets).  The new system - a rainbow of books, tightly confined to two rows - is strangely soothing to my frenetic brain.  Ahhhhhh . . .



My colour-blind Dad was visiting recently and spent a long time looking at the books.  Eventually he looked at me, totally confused and sounding kind of helpless, and asked, "how are your books arranged?".  I looked at him, then at the books, then at him and then realized - of course - it must look like total chaos to him! 

The top row of cubbies has been reserved for breakables; Szuka's swishing tail makes most surfaces dangerous for anything more delicate than a rock.

Onward with office progress.  In the meantime, has anyone else tried my Expedit hack? 

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