Before and After: Office to Big Boy Room

I love how Oliver's big boy room came out. It's not a dramatic change - same wall color, same carpet, similar layout, and a lot of the same furniture - but that's what I think I love most about it. I am so happy that we were able to transition this room from a sunny office to a cheerful bedroom for Oliver so smoothly.

I should have taken these photos with a wide-angle lens like these office photos for a better side by side comparison, but the lens was in my office boxes that still have to be organized. Next time.

My favorite part is the dark ceiling. I want all of our ceilings dark now. It makes such a difference in the room - the ceiling feels higher and the room feels more spacious.

I still think we'll make changes and improvements to the room over time, but I'm so happy with how it came out.

An Office Cabinet in the Dining Room

While both Mike and I made our peace with moving our office to the basement, we both knew that having everything office related down there wouldn’t work for us. We needed a place to sort mail, pay bills, keep important documents close by, and also have essential office supplies on-hand. We even decided we wanted to keep the printer close by (the wireless signal didn’t work as well in the basement).

I emptied the whole top portion of the white dining room cabinet. We moved the microwave to the kitchen counter in the corner - there was a lot of wasted space there so we didn’t lose as much counter space as we originally feared. It’s not ideal - we do have less room for food prep, washing dishes, etc…. but this was the easiest solution for now. At some point we still want to move the cabinets up and do an over the stove mounted microwave, but it’s a big job and we don’t want to bite off more than we can chew when the clock is ticking. More important to get the rest of the house and ourselves adjusted to baby’s impending arrival first. Plus when we first made the decision to put the microwave in the dining room, we didn’t have the kitchen island, which has made a HUGE difference for us in food prep and counter space.

I already really like having the cabinet set up this way. Instead of working at my desk in the office on projects I now just set up at the dining room table and use the cabinet for all the supplies. I have a ton of work to do organizing the basement, but we’ll get there. In the meantime this works really well for our day-to-day office replacement.

The rest of the cabinet is still kitchen storage - baking dishes, trays, glass jars, extra mugs, etc. I had to let a few things I rarely use go, put other things in the basement and move a few other things to the kitchen. Somehow it all balanced out (though I need to go through my kitchen basement storage tubs next and decide what I should keep and let go of down there next....).

Crown Molding

Mike put the crown molding up in Oliver’s new room and it looks amazing. It was just what the room needed. The crisp white line between the two colors really helps to make everything pop. Now I love the navy blue and yellow together more than ever - it’s just perfect for Oliver’s big boy room.

What is it about crown molding that makes a room feel so much more finished?

The crown molding was the final hurdle before we could finally start putting the room together - it was really exciting to have it finished - even Oliver loves it!

Big Boy Room Bedding

Figuring out bedding for Oliver’s room was tough. There are lots of adorable options out there but a lot of them are really expensive. With a new baby coming (double daycare!) we’re on a tight budget for this room. Plus little kids grow so fast and their tastes change so quickly - just because he loves space or dinosaurs now doesn’t mean he will love it in a year or two. Even if I went with something timeless, it’s hard to spend $300 on a quilt, even if it’s gorgeous, when little kids can make such messes on their beds. Ideally I wanted to pick something out that wouldn’t be the end of the world if it got ruined from all the gross things that happen with kids.

The bedding needed to be a lightweight quilt or coverlet, Oliver is a hot sleeper and he will roast under a duvet + duvet cover combo. We were looking for a solid, stripe or classic geometric pattern that wouldn’t go out of style (I didn’t really want plaid, chevron or dots). I was also hoping it would be soft and less than $50 for a twin. I scoured sales and my favorite stores, but I couldn’t find anything that fit the bill.

I was starting to get desperate… and then we were strolling through Target and walked by the kid’s bedding isle. They had some really cute sheet sets on display for a big bedding sale, and a friend of mine recently raved about how soft and lightweight they were (her kids are also hot sleepers). We were browsing and Oliver fell in love with a set white sheets that had navy blue stars that matched his dark blue ceiling. A ceiling he was very proud of since he helped paint it himself. And while we were looking at sheets I noticed they had a few quilts tucked away - I was immediately drawn to the solid green and solid navy blue ones. Timeless and classic colors, super soft, and the price was perfect at $27 for a twin on sale. I let Oliver pick between navy blue and green - he chose green, his current favorite color.

I think the leaf green will look great in the room - it coordinates well with the yellow and navy blue. Doing the bedding and ceiling navy blue probably would have been too much blue! To tie everything together I’d like to find a navy blue throw pillow that ties the ceiling color into the bed - I think that would be the right balance.

Ceiling Paint Color

We chose a dark navy blue for the ceiling of Oliver’s big boy room - Benjamin Moore's Van Duesing Blue. It’s a lovely dark navy with slightly green undertones and looks great with the Weston Flax Yellow in person. I’m so excited to put it up on the ceiling. We’re planning on painting and then putting up crisp white crown molding. Hopefully it will make the ceiling look higher and the room bigger (since dark recedes).

The yellow feels a lot brighter in real life than it does in the swatch, so in person the colors look really good together. The navy is really dark but this room gets a ton of light all day long. The colors look good together throughout the day in different lights. It's a big change but I think it will make the room feel a lot more fun and masculine.

My only concern is that once the ceiling is navy blue - will the white ceiling fan be too white against a navy blue backdrop? We can always replace the fan down the line or paint the fan blades a darker color (like gray?), though I think we need to see the final result before moving forward.

Emptying the Office

The first step to creating Oliver’s big boy room was to empty out the office. This actually took us weeks, it was a HUGE job - we stored so much stuff in here. We had to go through every shelf, every basket, every box and rolling cart and container. Everything was packed into boxes and tubs and even bags. Some designated for the attic, some designated for the basement or other spots.

The ugly truth: it looked like a disaster in here for a long time. It's actually organized chaos, but it felt as claustrophobic in real life as it does in the pictures.

It was extra crowded because it contained both packed up office stuff and a lot of stuff for Oliver's new room including his future dresser, nightstand, some toys and kitchen set. And then some random piles of stuff as well that landed in here from regular life. It was a lot of work to clear it out, but well worth it.

Since I'm not lifting a lot of heavy things these days, especially up and down the stairs. Mike was the superhero who got all the hard work done. Oliver was a great helper who helped move smaller stuff to the top of the stairs in the hall.

It's SO much better, but still crowded for redoing a room - all that's missing is the bed! It's not going to be easy to work this way, but for the first time we don't have the luxury of emptying a room to work on it. The basement is full of office stuff and we don't want to spread the chaos into other rooms of the house. Oliver is a sensitive kid and moving him to a new room will be hard enough, so we want to keep the rest of the house and his life as normal as possible. While Oliver does want to move to the bigger room (we gave him a choice) and he is excited about it, I know he's also anxious over such a big change so we want to make the transition as smooth as possible. Our goal is to keep him involved so that he feels empowered - helping with the work, making decisions (choosing from option tasteful option A and option B) and helping to make things for his new room.

Office to Big Boy Room

Oliver has had a big year. Potty training, a new school, a new brother coming... and now he’s moving from the nursery to his new big boy room (aka our office). He’s excited, we’re excited - but I know it’s going to be another big change. It’s going to take a while to adjust and we don’t have him to feel like the new baby stole his bedroom. We want to get him fully settled in the new room loooooong before the baby arrives in May, so we’re putting this project into high gear now.

This is what our office looked like on a really good day when things were organized:

Most of the time things were not quite so organized - piles of paper, miscellaneous things we needed to find a home for, leftovers from a craft project scattered on my desk. BUT it was nice to have a work space in our house that wasn’t the basement. I’m going to miss that.

However I am excited for Oliver to be able to enjoy this space. We’re keeping the bookcase and cube shelf in here for books and toys. We decided we want to keep the wall color for now as well. Repainting such a big room is a huge task and I really love this yellow color. To make the room more masculine we thought it would be fun to paint the ceiling a dark navy blue. I’d like to think of it as the night sky and we can build on that.

Our to do list:

• Pack up all of our office stuff, downsize what we don’t need anymore, and move everything down to the basement
• Paint the office ceiling dark blue
• Add crown molding (if we don’t do it now, we never will)
• Repair the top of my old dresser (Oliver’s new dresser)
• Put together Oliver’s big boy bed, get a twin mattress
• Find bedding that appeals to him, coordinates with the room and doesn’t cost too much
• Decorate the new room (this will be a big job)
• Transfer Oliver’s stuff over to the new room

Packing up the room is the hardest part. We've actually been working on it for a while - it's a slow process. We're keeping my glass desk because it's so versatile and we can each take a side for our own. Mike never loved his desk cabinet and mainly used it for storage, it's also falling apart in the back so we're going to get rid of it. My office chair is also broken so we're just keeping the comfortable green chair. 

The Dresser in the Office

When I got my fabulous "new" white dresser, we moved my old brown dresser into the office. We need to figure out how to make room for it in here or somewhere else. It's a great kid's dresser so I don't want to get rid of it. For now it sits next to the radiator, with artwork on top.

The fabric kite print was recently unearthed from my childhood. The clouds are actually puffy. It's totally 80's and I love it. Like the dresser I have no idea where I want to keep it, but it's precious and must be kept safe.

Then & Now: Office

(This week and last week we're celebrating our 3 year blog anniversary with a long overdue, fully updated house tour)

The office was covered in pink carpet with pink walls, floral window treatments and a floral ceiling fixture. The closet needed a light and some plaster repair. Here’s the before:

Here's how bad the room got as a storage dumping ground before we began our work:

We emptied the room, painted the walls weston flax, replaced the floral curtains, added outlets to make it a working office space, changed the floral light for a functional ceiling fan, added closet lighting and made repairs, and replaced the ugly pink carpet. We set up our furniture, added some shelving. It’s not perfect but it’s a functional space to work in for now. Here’s the current office:

Office Radiator Cover

The 7th radiator cover is up in our office. I love the white cover paired with the softly spun gold walls, crisp white trim, and the breezy white curtains. It’s a huge improvement to the room. Mike does such a nice job making these.

The Office: Before & After

The office might not be fully finished, but I can’t resist a good set of before & after pictures to see how far the space has come.  It’s good motivation for the next project...

The Office: Semi-Finished

Our office has finally reached that “good enough for now” stage where we can move on to other things for a while.

There’s still a lot I want to do in here and I have high expectations for what I want this space to be, so we have a long way to go.  However, for the moment, we are as close to "done" as we're going to get.   I'm eager to get back into a lot of other projects on our to-do list, including many pre-winter to-dos that have been hanging over us for a while now.

The good news is that the office is functional.   The bookshelf and cube shelf provide some much needed storage.  Baskets and boxes contain and hide a lot of our clutter.   I have the L-shaped desk in the corner to provide two work spaces - one clean side for my computer and business, one messy side for art projects and crafting.  Mike has the computer armoire by the door that provides lots of storage for all his computer stuff.

I want this space to be both really beautiful and functional since it's going to be used as a creative space for both of us.  While the curtains, framed pictures, and decor help - things are still aren’t quite there yet.  There are too many finishes in here (black, white, cream, mahogany/espresso, medium-toned wood veneer, chrome, satin nickle) and I want to figure out ways to reduce them in a cost effective way.

Honestly neither of us are really sold on the furniture in here.  For example - Mike's desk armoire.  We've had it a long time, it was cheaply made and it's starting to fall apart.  Mike also finds it uncomfortable because he's so tall and it offers minimal legroom...  but it’s functional and stores a lot.  Another issue is my office chair - it’s also falling apart, missing screws and unattractive...  but it’s comfortable.  I’d love to upgrade my cheap black plastic supply cart to an attractive storage cabinet with drawers.   For now everything is staying, but I'm keeping an eye out for other options and solutions for this room.

The Boss

Georgia the taskmaster, overseeing the office progress from her leather executive chair.  She’s strict but fair... most of the time.

"Clear out those books so we have more room for my toys!"

"Let's put a nice cushy bed for me over there"

"Time for a snack break. I want cookies!"

Office Progress

Our office is still a work in progress, but it’s coming along.  Between all of the computer stuff, my art supplies, Mike’s music stuff, books, office supplies, artwork, etc. - it’s quite a project.  So far we’ve built the furniture (my desk and bookcases from Ikea), did a lot of organization, and began putting a couple of things up on the wall.  We still have a lot of boxes to unpack and a lot of work to do, but we’ll get there.

At least it’s come a long way from what it looked like a few weeks ago:

Yikes.