Home Office Makeover & Craft Room Reveal

Last Updated on March 3, 2022

We have finally finished our colorful & airy home office makeover! PLUS we have created a craft room with all the storage and organization I could dream of. Come take a tour of both spaces!

It’s home office & craft room REVEAL day! Reveal days are my favorite. And I think they may be your favorite, too :) I’ve been working hard to make my home office and craft room super functional and pretty. If you love what you see, I'd really appreciate you taking the time to pin your favorite image on Pinterest or share it on Facebook!

And don't worry, you can find links to the items you see in the room throughout the post AND there's a complete source list at the bottom of this post.

My Home Office Before

Before we dive into the reveal, let me remind you how my home office has looked for the past few years.

It was pretty, but had an industrial farmhouse vibe going on. Why, you ask? Well, when I moved into this room, I took over the girls’ old playroom. We had built these industrial bookshelves and desks for them and it was great storage that worked well in their playroom. But it wasn’t really a style I loved for my home office.

Sadly, instead of taking the shelves down from the outset, I decided to try to “work with them” and based the rest of the decor around those shelves. In the end, it felt dark and didn’t provide me with the kind of storage that is helpful for all of my paint, craft supplies, etc.

The Plan for My Home Office Makeover & Craft Room

After recently wrapping up our massive kitchen renovation, I knew I needed to make my home office and craft room a priority. I whipped out my copy of Designer in a Binder (yes, I REALLY do use it for myself) and assessed what I liked/disliked about the space, decided what would stay and what would go (including what I could sell to help pay for the new stuff), and then came up with a new design plan and floor plan.

My goals for my home office makeover and craft room were:

• make it lighter and brighter
• make the desk area more functional for two people to work at the same time
• add lots of functional storage
• create a separate zone for projects and YouTube filming

I knew we could do it fairly quickly and easily. And I really needed to do it before I can start creating content for my YouTube channel, which is something I am focusing on now (yep, lots of video tutorials coming your way this Fall). So, I was focused on a set up that would allow me to easily set up my cameras and lighting for the purpose of filming videos.

The Results

I’m happy to report that we accomplished all of our goals in this room! AND we were able to sell all of the old furniture including the massive industrial bookshelves. Best of all, the proceeds from selling the old stuff covered 90% of the cost of the new stuff. Big win.

My Home Office Makeover Reveal

My new office has distinct zones. This is the work zone. Now the space functions super well for two people working at the same time, which is exactly what we needed. Joe often joins me in HQ on his days off (he’s in charge of the accounting and books). And my friend and Content Manager, Thea, works with me in person sometimes as well.

First of all, we swapped out the furniture for all white furniture. That simple color change makes a HUGE difference. We still used IKEA Alex drawer units, but now they are white instead of black. We paired the Alex drawer units with Linmonn desktops to form our individual desks. Then the middle table is formed with an IKEA Kallax bookshelf and another Linmonn desktop. It's AMAZING and was incredibly affordable. 

We added a couple of inexpensive IKEA stools under the center table so that our girls can sit in here and do homework or play cards when we are in here working. 

We added a few inexpensive IKEA prints to the gallery wall. But the biggest change was simply to change the art frames to all white frames. It's AMAZING how much different the same art prints look in different frames.

Bottom line—swapping to white furniture and frames made our home office look lighter and brighter instantly. Mission accomplished.

The giant white wall of cabinetry you see beside my desk is the IKEA Pax system. We actually added that a while back and kept it as is. I use it to store things like my camera equipment, paint, and supplies for upcoming projects. It's been great, though I have to tell you it was kind of pricey and I don't love it as much as the Algot craft room storage we got for my craft room, which you'll see in just a second. 

My Craft Room Reveal

Then there’s the craft/project zone. We added this entire wall of craft room storage using the IKEA Algot system. I’m IN LOVE with it. And this entire wall of storage cost us less than $500. I’ll be sharing a post soon about how to install the Algot system. It's basically craft room organization HEAVEN. 

You can see where the craft zone sits relative to the home office zone in these photos. That's our family room that you see through the french doors. 

The Algot craft room storage system stores soooo much. On the top 2 shelves I've stored things I need to use for photos props–pillows, plants, etc. Below that, I have my Cricut and Silhouette cutting machines, my Cricut EasyPress and pegboard that stores random things like paper towels and ribbon. And I use the drawers for everything else–fabric, yarn, paint, etc. Some of the drawers are completely empty because there's just so much room! It's a good problem to have. Trust me. 

And let’s talk about this ultimate project table. It’s also from IKEA and it has a crank so that you can easily make it any height you want it. I often use it as a standing desk when I’m working on projects, but I love that I can lower it if I’m watercolor painting or sewing.

Speaking of sewing, I inherited my grandmother’s sewing chest years and years ago. I finally took the time to sort through it and organize all of her threads, by color of course, and hung them on the wall for easy access. We will still use the chest itself as Attley’s bedside table, but now the thread is finally where it belongs.

The last zone is really more out of necessity than anything. Lots of bloggers may not show you this area, but I pride myself on being transparent, so here goes. We have always had to make room in my home office for our exercise bike. We don’t have room for it anywhere else, and it fits in this room perfectly. It’s not pretty, but we are grateful to have the bike AND to have somewhere to put it. So if you are one of those people that also has to put exercise equipment out in the open in your house, you aren’t alone!

Well, I think that wraps it up! I hope you enjoyed this tour of our new craft room and office. We are loving it! 

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