5 Day DIY: Our Covid-19 Office Makeover

Like many people, my husband, Mark, began working from home in March. He had lost his home office space to our daughter Stella a year earlier (when that room became our nursery). All the rooms in the house were spoken for, BUT we had a unused storage space under the house. Mark was really excited about using this space. It had exterior access so he got to feel like he was really off to work. So on Monday, March 16, 2020, California issued a Stay Home Order, and Mark plugged in his computer and started working.

A couple weeks later, we tried to make the space feel a little better.

Here’s the clean-up space on March 19. Everything was pulled from other rooms in the house. (My husband was totally happy with this look!)

But then, weeks turned into months. Mark tried to adapt the office to fit his needs and it looked like this…

Luckily, you can’t get a sense of the dust through the computer, but imagine everything covered in a thin layer of dust. I think the walls might have only been primed so the dust settled onto everything.

That little opening to the right is storage space where I keep all our Christmas decorations.

This is pretty much what six months of Covid-19 work-from-home looks like.

We started talking about future plans for the space. About the possibility of expanding (through the wall to the left) and creating a larger office/guest suite unit. Add a bathroom. Make everything super pretty and clean.

Suddenly it hit me, though. Even if we moved really quickly that plan could be more than year in the future (and even a year would be fast for that kind of renovation project). In the meantime, this didn’t seem like a sustainable working environment.

My epiphany happened to coincide with Mark’s trip to Southern California to see his teenage kids (five days in an AirBnB - staying socially distanced from other people). I already had a handyman lined up to complete another project so we just switched gears for five day surprise office makeover.

The power of paint. The back focal wall and shelves are painted with Sherwin Williams Naval (their 2020 color of the year).

Super simple plywood shelves filled with Mark’s color coded books and accented with pops of orange.

I also created a mini tea station so that he doesn’t have to come up during the day. The little sideboard was a Target find and I filled it with large bottles of water since their is no running water in the space. (The mini fridge was a Father’s Day gift).

We also closed off the opening to the storage space. We had to cut the bottom 1/3 off the door. I put one of the bookcases in the space to create a “supply closet” so that some of the office detritus could be kept out of site.

The Details

Paint - Naval by Sherwin Williams (the ceiling and walls were also repainted: Decorator’s White by Benjamin Moore)
Office Chair - This was a last minute addition to the list. My dad insisted that Mark needed a better chair. We sat in every chair at Office Depot and this was the most comfortable. Seriously, you could sleep in this thing.
Rug - Alexander Home
Desk - live edge table from World Market
Tea Cart - from Target, super cute but a beast to put together
Electric Kettle - Bodum (I’m in love with the cork details)

The various accessories were picked up at World Market, Target and Home Goods. (My favorite is that mini orange tree found for $5 at Target!)

Backyard view of the office: That little window near the bottom is the office space.

One day, we do hope to expand out. Put in a bathroom and create a dream office space (Maybe with a secret bookcase door? Just spitballing here). In the meantime though, we made a really great space with paint, plywood and a few budget furniture pieces.