Closet Workspace

We use our formal living room as a craft and office space. The only downside is that it's open to the rest of the house, so when Zach is studying he's distracted by everything going on around him. To solve this problem, we converted the guest room closet into a workspace so he would have a quiet place to study.

Thanks to Zach for allowing me to make his study space a touch feminine, so it would fit in with the rest of the room.

 Before

I didn't remember to snap a before photo until after we removed the two sliding doors, but you get the idea.

After

First, we removed the doors. Next, I covered the walls with burlap. I sewed a few pieces of burlap together to create one large piece for each wall. Then I simply stretched the burlap tight and secured it around the edges with a staple gun- no paste or glue required.

I used 7/8" natural twill tape to cover the staples, and secured it in place with upholstery tacks spaced 2" apart. I wanted the twill tape to be a little darker, so I dyed it with tea before tacking it up (the same technique I used to dye her Halloween costume).

 Zach made the desk from a hollow core door we found on the curb. He cut it to size, reinforced it,  trimmed out the front with a board and turned the hole from the doorknob into an opening for cords.

 

 

We primed and painted it with two coats of semi-gloss paint before installing it in the closet. To mount it in the closet we screwed 1 x 4's horizonatally into each of the three closet walls and rested the door on top.

The lamp, desk chair, magnet board, file sorter and curtain rod are all from IKEA. We already had the curtain panel (purchased from Pier 1 a few years ago), which matches the other two curtain panels in the room.


I even made Zach some science-themed magnets for his magnet board. The three molecules are serotonin, bilirubin, and Verapamil (an inside joke). There's also a little beaker and flask.

Custom Shelving and an Ode to Mr. Williams

We just finished putting shelves in the office to create more storage for my craft supplies. Between our two desks, there's not a lot of floor space in the room, so we need to utilize the vertical space as best as possible. Zach designed and built the shelves himself, to fit my many craft bins.

Here's the space before. The bookshelves and file cabinet are from here. When we ordered them years ago we chose the antique cream finish, expecting something off white, but they're really more of a buttery yellow color. And yes, that's a light saber on top of the bookshelf. Can you tell this is Zach's side of the office?

Zach created a template for the shelf brackets, cut them out with a jig saw, then gave them an ogee edge with a router. He also routed the edges of the shelves with a round over bit.

Most of the bins hold fabric, the color of which is shown in a nifty little label window. I just cut out a small swatch of fabric from each bin and used that instead of a paper label.

In our old office we had room for a second file cabinet, which we painted to match the bookshelves and existing file cabinet. We used Behr semi-gloss and had it color matched at the store. Color-wise, it was a decent match, but we soon found out that the paint stayed tacky after drying, and anything we set on top of the file cabinet would stick and leave marks. So when we decided to paint the shelves to match the rest of the office furniture, we opted to try out a different brand of paint. After reading reviews online, we went with Sherwin Williams ProClassic interior latex in semi-gloss. We debated whether or not to use oil-based paint, but in the end decided against it because of the odor and the tendency for it to change color over time. I've always heard that Sherwin Williams made good paint, but one paint stroke proved it. ProClassic is the best paint I've ever used. Which is obviously no secret to Sherwin Williams, who prices a quart of the stuff at $20, similar to what you might pay for a gallon of another brand. But it's worth it. Coverage was excellent, it brushed on smooth and dried flat, not to mention the color matching was dead-on, better than Behr. In addition, the semi-gloss finish is less glossy than other brands, which I like. But the best part is that it dries hard, so objects don't stick to it.  And maybe it was just my imagination but it even seemed like the paint rinsed out of the brushes and rollers more easily. (I wasn't given any compensation to gush about ProClassic, it's just really good stuff!)

The shelves may be painted and up, but we've still got a bit of work to do in this room, including organizing, buying desk chairs, and painting the walls. We're thinking about painting them a warm gray but haven't quite made up our minds.