Before & After: How I Designed The Shared Home Office

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I'm so happy to be able to finally reveal to you the home office revamp that I have been working on since the start of the year! As I've mentioned in previous posts, me and my husband share this work space in our home and it just wasn't working for either of us. It was the only room in the house that remained decorated by the previous owners, and although the statement red chimney breast and biscuit coloured walls were inoffensive, they weren't exactly great either. Our artwork had been randomly hung all over the place just on the hooks left by the old owners; and with me and my husband working daily in this room, storage was a problem. As you can see in the pictures below, there was no-where to put anything and stuff had just started to build up until it was a TOTAL mess.

BEFORE:

Before: biscuit walls and beige curtains, art hung randomly, stuff EVERYWHERE!

Together with my husband we agreed on the below mood-board. The brief was a contemporary, masculine room which was also appealing to me. We already owned the walnut desk, plain rug and Ellie Vandoorne artwork (available from Rise Art - an ace online art marketplace selecting emerging and established artists), so we decided to choose colours that complemented these existing pieces.

The agreed final mood board for the room.

My husband really likes blue, so I decided to paint the chimney breast and the opposite wall in 'Railings' by Farrow & Ball. I'd been wanting to use darker colours in the home for a long time, so this was the perfect opportunity to use this dark navy blue hue. The colour on the chimney breast really made the Ellie Vandoorne artwork pop with its yellow background. While on the opposite wall, it was used as a background for a gallery wall to display all the artwork we wanted up in the room in a coherent manner (unlike how they were randomly hung before).

AFTER:

The colour on these walls is 'Railings' by Farrow & Ball. This is the Modular set with ash base from LSA International.

I did not want the room to be completely dark, preferring the chimney breast and gallery wall to be a 'feature', rather than blending in with all one colour. Instead, I painted the far end wall where the desk was placed in 'Clunch' by Farrow & Ball, which is a white that I prefer to others as in our house it always comes across more as a soft grey, rather than a yellow-white.

In the small space that existed on this end wall, I placed a really cheap shelf ladder that I also painted in Railings to blend in. On the shelves I put wire storage baskets for all my paint samples and documents to be tidily contained in one area! To DIY this gold mesh wire notice board click here.

These bowls with beech handles are part of the Disc Collection by LSA International.

In the shelving alcove I pasted in this Cole & Son Hicks Hexagon Wallpaper. This created an extra dimension in the room, as well as being a cheaper way to introduce designer wallpaper as this alcove used less than one roll. The black/gold/white colours of the paper tied in with the Railings, Clunch and gold notice board in the room.

With the left over Hicks Hexagon I covered old filing boxes and magazine holders that were going to be used in the room, to keep the room consistent.

Another budget DIY that I carried out to keep costs down was to dye the beige curtains with fabric dye. The existing curtains were in absolutely fine condition, they were just beige and didn't match the new decor. Ideally, I'd have opted for thick, opulent, dark velvet curtains, but I couldn't spend that sort of money when I had perfectly good quality lined curtains in the room. Instead, I brought some navy fabric dye from Hobbycraft and dyed the beige curtains dark blue. The curtains had a polyester stripe in the pattern which did not dye, but the cotton part and the lining dyed perfectly! I was really happy with the outcome.

This is the Axis Vase Trio with Ash Base by LSA International that I am using to store my multitude of gold paperclips!

To keep the room masculine, I used a lot of stationary containers by LSA International made of material such as glass, leather and wood. These LSA pieces not only look beautiful to be on display, but are totally practical! I found that by using 'display-worthy' storage on shelving units, you could fit a lot more in one place and it looked tidy and stylish, not chaotic and cramped!

Amazingly, me and my husband now have a work room which suits both our tastes! Craft items co-exist with music equipment, and thanks to choosing the right pieces it all works.

What do you think of our new he-she office? Leave your comments below!

* Huge thank you to Farrow & Ball, Cole & Son, LSA International, Rise Art and Sainsbury's who gifted items featured in this post. Please note that this post also contains some affiliate links, which basically means if you shop this look via this post I'll get a small commission.

How To Reupholster A HeadBoard & Create A Tufted Effect With Buttons

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My mother-in-law recently asked me to cover an old headboard in her guest bedroom and add in tufted buttons (that trick which creates the plush diamond pattern effect). I'd never upholstered a headboard before, but spurned on by how well my pink velvet bedroom bench came out, I watched a few YouTube videos made by an American upholstery company, made notes, then went about sourcing the items required to do the job.

This wallpaper is called Azul by Harlequin.

To upholster a headboard you need the following:

• Upholstery fabric big enough to cover the front of the headboard and be wrapped around the back (around 10 cm from the headboard edge.)

• A staple gun and staples

• Self-cover buttons. I brought mine from Hobbycraft.

• Scissors

• Tape measure and ruler

• pencil

• Really strong thread (not cotton thread).

• Large needle

• A drill

The headboard it in it's original form. The colour was nice but the fabric was old and stained.

How the headboard looks now.

First off I laid my fabric face down on the floor, placed the headboard upside down on top, then made sure that I had enough fabric to pull round the edges to the back of the headboard.

Pulling fabric over onto the headboard so that it's taught, I used the staple gun to staple it in place:

Once the fabric was stapled in position, I checked for any loose areas of fabric and pulled and stapled them down so the headboard looked tidy. Double check there are no loose or lumpy areas, then cut away any excess fabric:

Turning the headboard face-forward, I used a tape measure and a ruler to mark where I would like the buttons to be positioned to create the diamond tufted effect. I measured the headboard length-ways from the top of the headboard where I wanted the buttons to start, then divided the area in half. I then marked where the 2 buttons would need to sit and worked down the headboard. The key here is to get your measurements right. Each button should be the exact distance apart, both side to side and up and down from each other. The best way to imagine this is as if to place a grid over the headboard:

Work in a grid pattern when measuring where to place your buttons. Each button should be the exact same distance apart. Please note that this image is an example of how to think about spacing your buttons rather than pattern choice (you can choose lines or a diamond pattern).

I then carefully used a drill to drill a hole through the headboard where each button should be. You have to take great care here to apply pressure right away so your fabric does not get caught in the drill and tear.

Take a snap button, remove the top and then cut a circle of your headboard fabric a few millimetres bigger than your button head. Fold and tuck the fabric around the button head, then snap on the base. Push any loose pieces of fabric into the snap button using the tip of scissors. You can find detailed instructions on doing this here.

Thread your needle, then push your needle through the drill hole you have created on the headboard. Put your finger on the button and slightly push it down, pull your thread tight with your other hand, then staple the thread in place at least 3 or 4 times with the staple gun. I zig-zagged the thread as I stapled it to secure it better. Repeat this for all your buttons!

Ta-da! One reupholstered headboard with tufted buttons.

Upholstering this headboard was actually quite easy. Next I'm thinking of trying a chair. Have you re-upholstered with success? If so let me know in the comments section below....