Another Installment in Home Remodeling on a Budget

When we moved to Indiana, we downsized by over 50%, which meant giving up my office. And the bedrooms were too small for me to put my computer desk in. And you saw in yesterday's Tackle it Tuesday what happened to the small secretary's desk in my room. I tried to use it for my computer but the height was wrong and it hurt my wrists. Which meant I was relegated to the living room.

But that ended up driving me crazy. The chair, while comfortable, wasn't great for my back and I needed a space of my own. I was contemplating the garage for awhile but it was either too hot or too cold, and frankly too dark and dreary.

As with most houses, especially older ones, there are spaces that make no sense. For example, the one bathroom in our house has two doors. One goes to the laundry room. I don't know why. There's another perfectly good access point to the laundry room. So this second door to the laundry room has a shallow closet with a door but no rod or shelves. While my cat was alive, it was her room. Once she passed on to kitty heaven, I saw potential for it to be my room.

It started out looking like this. I took the closet door off the hinges and I found a quart of "oops" paint at Lowes for $3 in a nice sage green. I'm standing in the bathroom taking the picture and the laundry is just out of sight to the right.


I bought a 10" laminate shelf ($9) and braced it with some scrap wood and that became my desk surface. I had some shelves already that I trimmed to fit and added above.


I found an old curtain and hung it so I couldn't see the laundry while I was in my office. Once I brought in a bookcase, my white board, a lamp, and all my fun office stuff it looked like this.



This is the furnace which I make good use of as a magnetic board, posting pictures the kids have done for me and those inspirational magnets.


This is a close-up of the desk. I put self-stick cork tile below the shelf so I could pin up reminders and fun things. And you can see the desk top is just wide enough for my lap top. I made sure to install it at the right height for me to use comfortably.


So for $12 and a weekend's worth of work, I found a room of my own. I'm liking it very much and getting a lot more work done in my "office."