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Are you looking for cool DIY projects thats will elevate your home office? Below I will tell you about 2 easy home office projects that are sure to wow anyone that walks into your home office space next!
DIY projects are a plenty, but they are not always cool DIY projects that wow those that see your space. The 2 projects below are simple enough for the novice DIYer, yet will elevate your home office space to designer level. Week 6 of the one room challenge was fairly tame with only 2 projects completed. But these 2 cool DIY projects will give your space an elegant more custom look.
This blog post will review everything you need to know about choosing and adding wallpaper for your built-ins. Love vs. Design peel and stick wallpaper is truly custom and the possibilities seem endless! The other DIY project completed this week is painting an old Ikea piece that I had been using as a bench. I also scoured the internet for the best furniture feet to lift the bench off the ground and give it a touch of elegance. The transformation with these simple changes is astounding and ones that every DIYer needs to add to their bag of tricks!
2 Cool DIY Projects for your Home Office
1. Love vs Design Peel and Stick Wallpaper
Adding wallpaper to your built-ins is a great way to customize your space and create a more modern home office. I teamed up with Love vs. Design for the one room challenge and was gifted their incredible peel and stick wallpaper! Love vs. design has so many designs to pick from! I was hesitant about adding wallpaper because I've always heard it's a nightmare to work with! I'm so glad I took a chance and that I was so wrong!
Wallpaper in this day and age is so different than our grandparents wallpaper! I love that Love vs. Design has both a smooth and a woven version of their peel and stick wallpaper! When I was first exploring options for my built-ins, I came across Love vs design and realized right away that they were the winner.
Fully Customizable Wallpaper
The possibilities are endless because all of their designs are customizable! When you scroll their website you get to tune out the colors of each of the patterns because only the pattern matters. If you know what color you are going for, the website also allows you to filter by color. They change every single pattern to the basic color that you like. For instance I chose to filter by blue so that I could easily envision each pattern in a blue color. Once you find a pattern you like you can play with all of their color options! There are multiple shades for each color! Your wallpaper is printed just for you at the time of purchase! Their wallpaper is also backed by a love it guarantee! How great is that?!
I narrowed down my choice to the 3 patterns below (from left to right): Ikat Diamonds, Soft Geo and Diamond Maze and ordered the samples with a variety of blues! What I loved about their arrival is that they came with a full color sheet, so that you could see all colors in person! The Ikat Diamonds is in white, carolina and notable. Soft Geo is in armada, soar and white. The Diamond Maze is in white and aegean.
The Pattern
I ultimately fell in love with Ikat Diamonds! While my poll in instagram favored Diamond Maze, I loved that I could use both a light and dark blue in my choice and I liked the larger pattern.
Drumroll please....
This pattern, the colors that I chose for the wall paper: Carolina, white and Armada, and the look on my built-ins, is perfection! I'm so glad I went with my gut and not the crowd. This pattern is every bit of me and I know you'll find your perfect pattern and coloring for your space at Love vs. Design!
The Installation Process
The overall installation process was very easy for my chosen pattern. I over ordered as I didn't ask questions like I should have. This particular pattern repeats on every sheet and is perfectly spaced, and thus the directions on the website of measuring the full room and anticipating a sheet for every 2 feet did not apply for this particular pattern. I found a space in my house that I can use the remaining wallpaper, so it ended up being a happy accident! Our laundry room will be the happy recipient!
I did mistakenly have the sticky side touch down on the sticky side, which caused several minutes of work to unstick the 2 sides. Luckily no damager to the wallpaper. I want to say the 8 sections of the bookcases (I took the removable shelves out for walllpaper installation), took about 2 hours to install.
2. Ikea Hack Bench
With any Ikea hack that involves paint, it's extremely important that you use the proper primer. Ikea furniture, such as the Kallax system, Billy bookshelves and Songesand dressers, that were used in my home office renovation, requires a primer before paint. If you paint the furniture without primer, your project will be subjected to peeling and a lot of misery down the line!
The Before
The before is dark and dingy! It's also sitting completely on the floor, so it's not at a perfect height for anyone, but the cats!
The Primer
The primer you must use is Zinsser B-I-N Advanced Synthetic Shellac Primer! Trust me, it's the absolute best product! With my black-brown Ikea Kallax bench, I had to use 2 coats of primer!
I had contemplated painting the bench either the same light blue of my desk or navy, but settled on using the Ikea white instead. Looking at the bench, I figured I would still keep the colored bins in the furniture and I thought white would be the perfect color
Painting
After waiting for the primer to dry, I painted 3 coats of my Behr paint that was matched to the Ikea white. The black-brown was harder to cover than I had imagined, but I finally got it to cover.
When shopping for paint, I always go for the mid quality paint. It's always worked for me. This might have been one instance when I wish I had purchased the best quality paint to prevent all of the additional coats that this project required. I had not originally planned on painting this bench and was going to get a new one. The gallon of paint I bought was intended to be used with my home office builtins as well as my living room built-ins I plan to do later this summer/year. I still have plenty of paint, but would advise against all of the coats required for just a few more dollars!
Furniture Legs
I spent a lot of time shopping for furniture legs for my Kallax bench. Ikea does indeed now sell legs for this piece, but I wanted some brushed bronze hardware. I was undecided regarding the height and initially thought I would go for legs that were 2-3 inches high. I scoured the internet to find the perfect furniture legs.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find the exact color I wanted. My goal was to match the brushed bronze knob and pulls on the built-ins and desk that I had chosen from Rockler. However, I ended up finding the perfect furniture legs that matched the shape of my pulls. The best options for furniture legs and the best bang for your buck were all found on amazon. I snagged these gorgeous brushed gold furniture legs.
Once the paint dried, I secured these legs to the Kallax bench using the screw that came with them. They are every bit of perfection and bring the bench and office space to the next level! This was by far the easiest part of a project that I completed and added the biggest punch for a very budget friendly price! I linked my exact furniture legs above!
Our four legged girls have been loving this revamped bench too! How adorable is Bella below?! She's such a great cat model!
We are so close to completion of this one room challenge! It has been such a reward experience to participate and to get to know so many wonderful women. I love the camaraderie and creative inspiration that I am getting through this event!
Don't forget to continue to check out all of the One Room Challenge rooms! Reveal day, here we come! Just 2 weeks to go!
This post is all about 2 cool DIY projects that you can easily complete for your home office renovation!
Other Posts You May Like:
Catch up from the beginning: Week 1 Spring 2022 One Room Challenge
The Secret to Simple DIY Projects for your Home Office - Week 5 - Spring 2022 ORC
Budget Hacks: 6 Money-Saving Apps or Website You Need to Use
