Closet Office Progress

Jason  has made some serious progress on turning our hall closet into an office.  The major work is pretty much done.  All we have left to do are a few finishing touches and decorating.

A brief word about this space:  This closet is located under the stairs in our Cape Cod style home.  It has served many purposes.  When we first moved in, it served as a place for all of Imani's messy toys, like paints, crayons, games with a million pieces, moon sand etc. 

About a year ago, I moved all of her stuff out and re-claimed the space as storage for all of our miscellaneous belongings. 

Here is the mess we had going on.

When we started our guest room redesign, I decided I wanted to hide my office stuff, like the computer, printer and office accessories.  My solution was to move the office into the closet.  It took a bit of convincing, but I got Jason on board and, like always, he went to work to fulfill my wish.

The first order of business was to move all of the stuff out and find a new home for most of it.

Here is the closet when it was almost empty.

Notice that horrible cheap tiled ceiling and the strange recessed light on the wall?  Jason was convinced the light came out of a submarine.

Jason set to work, first installing beadboard up the wall and then painting it white.

He also ripped out those ugly panels on the ceiling and installed wooden planks, which he painted white.  The floor was in rough shape, so Jason sanded it and finished it with polyurethane.  Here's a picture of it just as he was finishing and I ran in with my camera to remind him he's not allowed to finish without first taking a picture!

He also added a board with sliding rails under the desk area for our keyboard to the computer.

Finally, he painted it and changed out the light fixture.  We got the lights at Overstock for $30 a piece.  I'm considering getting a table lamp to add more light to the space.  Check out these table lamps on Overstock  and let me know which one you think would look nice on the desk area.  I'm thinking maybe the Grandrich Paper Shade table lamp, but I'm still not sure.

Here's the progress.

Here is a before and after, just for fun.   Not bad for just under $125, right?

BEFORE

AFTER

We used "Cozy Cottage" by Valspar on the walls.  I wanted a light yellow on the walls and the idea is that I will also use this chair in there.

We still have to select what accessories we will put in here -- pictures of some sort on the wall, storage for office supplies, desk accessories, etc.  Any ideas you have to make this space beautiful would be greatly appreciated!

PS -- Notice my new header and button?  I am super thrilled that my good friend Ben hooked me up with these.    .  You might remember Cindy and Herb of Country Buzzins?  They are the cool folks who create antique-looking signs.  If you missed all of their great work and their cool house, no worries! I posted about them here.  Well, Ben is their incredibly talented son (who just happens to be married to one of my very close friends, Brittney . . . who I am trying to convince to start a blog.)   Ben is an artist, teacher, and an incredibly creative person, very much like his parents.  A big thank you to Ben.  If you get a chance, head on over and check out his art work!

Linking to: Feature Yourself Friday, I'm a Creative Cat, Frugalicious Friday, Finished For Friday, Show and Tell Friday, Inspired Room, Saturday Night Special