Closet turned Office — Making Me Too

When we were first looking at our current home before deciding to submit an offer, I was smitten with so many aspects of the property. The back yard is to die for, the curb appeal was charming, the details caught my eye. I just had this feeling that this was THE HOUSE... until we toured the master bedroom. I opened what I thought was the master closet door and found the TINIEST linen closet size space. I about died. Okay, that's dramatic but that's how I roll. This space would definitely not be sufficient for my clothes, let alone my husband's wardrobe as well. The man is fancy.

My husband called out from the bathroom that he found the "real" closet. They had done some remodeling and took space from the master bath to put a walk in closet where I'm assuming a garden tub used to be. I was REALLY grateful that we didn't have to walk away from our dream home because mama needs the closet space. We of course then jumped on the home and have been here living the life for 2 years. That random baby closet in the master was always a thorn in my side though. I don't like "junk drawers" or rogue closets filled to the brim. That whole "out of sight, out of mind" works for most people and myself some of the time. However, 99% of the time even if it's out of sight, my brain is visualizing the chaos and it just gives me hives. (I.am.constant.exaggeration.people.)

After almost two years of cleaning out and organizing and switching items out and just not being able to find a good use of space for our extra closet, it finally hit me. I needed an office. We actually have a beautiful designated room downstairs for our office. We run our family landscaping business out of it (Shameless plug for Orlando locals. GUTI LANDSCAPING & MAINTENANCE 407-949-1081) and it has beautiful built ins and pocket doors for privacy. Often times though my blogging business is thought of as an afterthought by everyone (myself included) because it isn't the bread-winning business in our family. I felt like having a designated space JUST for me would legitimize my efforts and help me, and everyone else in my family, take it more seriously.

So I did just that... the hubs and I turned our wasted space into my brand new office for this here blog. Here it is in all it's glory, MAKING ME TOO headquarters. ;)

I didn't get "before" pictures but just imagine. An empty closet. Not too hard. I had full big boards cut down to 8 inch strips by the lovely people at Home Depot to save money instead of buying the pre-made shiplap strips. We measured the back wall and then the hubs cut each strip to the exact length. We used pennies to space between the boards and just nailed them up to the wall starting at the top so if it wasn't an exact fit the smaller board would be under the desk (if that makes sense). I didn't shiplap the side walls because I didn't want it to feel like it was too busy and a cave. I figured just highlighting the back wall would add the illusion of depth. The side walls are painted the same colors as most of the walls in our house and the ship lap wall is painted a basic white from Home Depot that matches our baseboards.

For the desk top I used an MDF pre-made white board. Not sure the exact term for this but it is used for DIYing closet built ins and such. They also cut it down-to-size for me in store. We used extra wood we had in the garage as supports to hold it up to the appropriate height. We would've done one along the back wall but I didn't think it was necessary since this desk won't be doing any heavy lifting. You'll need a strip of the same material to cover the front of the MDF desktop. It was in a bin sold right next to the board options. I simply cut it to size and then ironed it on to stick.

I added two shelves to hold my craft machine and book collection. I love a good self help book and needed them all easily accessible when the mood strikes for inspiration to write. The shelf brackets are from Home Depot as well and I went with black to add the perfect interest like a good eye liner and match a metal chair we already had. I used weather grey to stain pertained pine wood boards that were pre sanded. they were the most expensive part of the whole project because I wanted it easy by this point. I think they were about 30ish dollars for the two of them.

The rest of the items used on my desk top, and that filing cabinet shoved underneath, are all things I shopped around my house for. I got that filing cabinet for free from my mom and DIYed it years ago.. before I blogged. It's just spray paint and modge-podged paper on the front. EASY. PEASY. I wanted to feel like a legit creative person so I bought a pack of pretty sharpies from Costco. #madeit Overall, it has turned out to be the perfect solution to dead space and a fulfilled a need in my own heart to say "you are worthy of something just for you".

If you're waiting to create a nook for your own peace of mind.. don't. It's like a secret only I get to hear and it cost less than $100 to make it happen. Done is better than perfect and one day will almost never come. It doesn't have to be a huge space to fulfill its purpose and who knows maybe it will push you to fulfill yours!?