Ugly Home Office Makeover – Part 2: The Decluttering

Happy Sunday!

HAVE Y’ALL seen the procastination episode of Sponge Bob, the one where he has to write an essay and spends hours looking at a blank sheet of paper?

Yeah, that was me at the beginning of Week 1 of the Ugly Home Office Makeover, also know as…

Week 1 Recap

I started Tuesday evening, and let’s just say I spent a leetle bit more time preparing for the decluttering phase of this project than I needed to.

I mean, it’s important to pick just the right font for your “Keep”, “Donate” and “Store” tote labels. [Right??]

So how does a master procrastinator (AKA “Yours Truly”) finally get motivated enough to tackle an unpleasant task?  Two words:

Time. Blocking.

This method ROCKS for those of us who have an innate ability to put off monotonous and tedious tasks for days indefinitely.

Here’s the great thing about time blocking…

Even the smallest chunks of time, when used wisely, can yield HUGE results.

Below is a quick slideshow to show you how I successfully used Time Blocking and my iPhone Timer to knock out a big project in 2 hours and 41 minutes (with a little help from the hubs 🙂 )

I’m not gonna’ lie – I’m SO glad this part is over so we can move on to the exciting stuff – you know, choosing paint colors, designing the layout, building desks and shelves!

But before we get to the upcoming week’s project, here’s a little cheat sheet to to help my fellow procrastinators overcome the mental challenge of conquering a cluttered space… don’t forget to Pin for later (i.e. *favorite* word in The Procrastinator’s dictionary!!).

I wanna’  hear your tips on decluttering a room – comment below for a chance to win this week’s HOMPOW (Home Office Makeover Prize of the Week)!

Ok, now with that out of the way, let’s get to Part 2 – Design Layout and Color Palette Selection.

Color Palette

In last week’s post, I mentioned that Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter is my current paint color obsession.

But since there are so many gorgeous grays to choose from these days, I decided it was time to branch out a little.

After sifting through the most popular grays out there right now, I settled on 3 possibilities.

• Sherwin Williams Mindful Gray – Photos at DecorAndTheDog.Net
• Sherwin Williams Repose Gray – Photos at TheCreativityExchange.com
• Benjamin Moore Gray Owl – Photos at OneLittleProject.com

Here are samples on the wall:

The SW Mindful Gray really washes out in the natural light, and BM Gray Owl looks almost white.  I’m really liking SW Repose Gray – it has the light, airy feel that I want, but you can still pick up quite a bit of the gray.

I won’t start painting until Tuesday so vote on your favorite color in the comments – OR, if you have a favorite gray other than these 3, let me know!

I also need to choose a wood stain for the desk and shelving.  I tend to go dark with stains, but I’m thinking for this project I may want lighten to things up a bit.

Comment at the end of post and let me know which of the Minwax stains below you think I should use. You’ll qualify to win this week’s HOMPOW (Home Office Makeover Prize of the Week)!.

Room Layout

I’ll admit that I have a really tough time visualizing the way a space will look with different layouts.

An interior designer I am not (although, like half the women in America, I do wanna’ be Joanna Gaines when I grow up 🙂 ).

I needed some help, but wasn’t prepared to drop big $$ on design software for my lil ol’ Ugly Home Office Makeover.

So I did the next best thing… I Googled “Free Room Design Software” and went with the first result 🙂

There was a bit of a learning curve with Room Sketcher, but once I got the hang of it, I had a blast playing with all different kinds of layouts, furniture, materials and colors!

You’re limited to 2D vs. 3D with the free version of Room Sketcher and you only get 4 design projects, but for my purpose, it worked like a charm.

My favorite feature is a little green camera icon that you can place anywhere in the room and move at different angles, giving you a view of the room from various spots.

Although I wasn’t able to capture some things like the wall angles created by the bay window, and I had to settle for the closest matches I could find for furniture renderings, the FREE 🙂 software was good enough for my purpose.

Below you can see the rendering of a view from the door (NOTE: in real life, the desk won’t be flush against the window).

And here is an actual shot from the same angle:

The next image shows the view from the front inner corner of the office.  I would LOVE to install farmhouse-style pendant lights above the desk if it fits in the $500 Budget Challenge.

In the real-life version, you can see that the window is closer to the floor than in the rendering above.  I’m really hoping to span the entire wall with the desk, but since I want to build a “high-top” desk, it will have to cover the lower part of the window.

Will that look odd?  I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments! 🙂

In the view below, you can see the shelving that represents the cute industrial shelving I’m planning to build.

I want the shelves to be floor-to-ceiling across the entire wall, with an open section in the middle for the printer stand.

And one other angle…

And finally, this last view below is from the back corner of the room.

If there is room in the budget, I would love to build this little bench with hairpin legs to go under the bay window.

What’s Next

Now that the decluttering [shudder] and layout and color palette selection are almost in the books, the upcoming week’s project is Painting the Walls.

• PART 1: Intro
• PART 2: Design Layout and Select Color Palette for Walls, Furniture and Accessories
• PART 3: Paint Walls
• PART 4: Install and Paint Shiplap Accent Wall
• PART 5: Build and Install Desk
• PART 6: Refinish “Printer Stand” Dresser
• PART 7: Build and Hang Industrial Shelving
• PART 8: Add Accessories and Wall Decor
• PART 9: Wrap-up and Big Reveal

I can’t wait to come back next week and show you photos of the freshly painted office and start planning the Shiplap Accent Wall!

And the Winner Is…

Oh, and I don’t want to forget to announce This Week’s HOMPOW Winner:Thanks, Judi, for you thoughtful comment on last week’s post.  Just email me your address and I’ll send your $20 Amazon Gift Card out right away!

For the upcoming week’s contest, just leave a comment below on anything in this post and YOU will qualify to win a…

$25 Magnolia Market Gift Card

Who doesn’t want $25 to spend at MagnoliaMarket.com??

(Winner announced next week in the Part 3 post)

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