Revamping our workspace to meet our remote-working needs. Our home office updates include painting the room and building a new desk set-up! These simple steps did the trick!
When we originally purchased our home, we were unsure what to do with the spare bedroom. Slowly, over time, we decided it would be useful to have a functioning desk for personal computer time and blog work.
Officially deciding it would be our home office, we were super eager to get things rolling. We painted the walls a natural cream color and took a trip to Ikea to create a dual desk setup. It was a quick put-together, but, at the time, it was all we needed.
When our jobs turned into a remote workforce at the start of March 2020, we were so grateful to have the room already done and ready to go. We figured the setup would do until we had to go back to the office...
Now, after two years of working from home, Joe and I felt like we needed a change in our home office. The desk was starting to feel cramped and the color in the room was starting to put a damper on our mood. It lacked the creativity and motivation we needed to sit in there for 8 hours a day.
As we normally do, we started to map out what we wanted and dove headfirst into our latest DIY home project!
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Our Home Office Updates: Painting and Building a New Desk
Picking a new color
This task is always a hard one for us. Joe leans more toward subtle and neutral colors, while I love bright and colorful tones. After looking at multiple paint swatches, we surprisingly both agreed on this shade of orange: Rusty Gate by Behr Paint.
It paired perfectly with the black and wooden furniture we already had in the room and the wooden desktop we were planning on using for our new desks. It also makes our greenery pop up even more and went well with Joe's New Jersey Devils' memorabilia.
Updating the desk
Our desk was starting to feel cramped as we continued to add stuff to make our work-from-home productivity more efficient: two screens, notepads, keyboards, etc. The wiring was also starting to get out of control, which was frustrating Joe so much. Since a lot of the desk options online didn't quite fit our two-seater setup, we took on the project to build one for ourselves.
We started by purchasing hardwood plywood at our local hardware store. It was recommended to get maple or birch for a wooden desktop. Once cut to the length and width, we bought the plywood home for the next steps. Joe cut holes for the wires and then sanded and stained the surface. For an added touch, we put a decorative molding around the trim to give the wood a more finished look.
Using corner braces, we drilled the desktop onto the filing drawer cabinets we kept from our last desk setup. Joe also added cable management trays under our desk to better organize our wiring.
We also updated our two-screen setup with one ultrawide monitor for each of us. Our duel screen setup was starting to feel clunky and we felt like the screens were too close to our faces. It was starting to bother our eyes halfway through the workday. The ultrawide monitors still gave us the capabilities we needed, while allowing us to mount them on the wall. The additional benefit was extra desk space too!
After a month of working with the new setup, we are so much happier with the look and function, Overall, we are so proud of the result and ready to tackle the next house project. Any guesses about what we will be working on next?
Before:
After:
Duchess loves the new look too!
