My first full-room makeover and my pride and joy is most certainly my home office space. I completed it as part of the One Room Challenge in the fall of 2021. I’m so glad I was convinced to take part and was able to finally tackle a space that was giving me some serious issues. The home office put up a struggle because I was nervous to commit. Clearly, all I needed was a shove in the right direction because I (obviously!) committed and this home office is now a space I’d never turn back on. Although, as I was completing my second one-room challenge (my garage!) and going down memory lane on this home office, I realized, I never gave you a full cost and source breakdown. Never fear, I’m here to fix that today.
The Cost of the Home Office
Expensive. The home office was expensive. Joking. It wasn’t terribly expensive – especially since I did it myself (advocating for you to pick up those tools and give DIY a try!). However, the cost of materials was a little bananas while I was doing this build. I also recognize although it wasn’t a huge amount of money it is still a decent amount and not everyone can afford it at the drop of a hat. Just be aware that this room took me 8 weeks to do and over that time, I purchased items slowly and as I needed them over the course of the one-room challenge.
I did try to make this as affordable as possible while still selecting quality items. I went with a combination of purchasing ready-to-go items from Ikea that needed a little bit of pizzazz, for example, and building some items from scratch to achieve the custom look I wanted. So here’s what I made and how much everything cost.
Cost breakdown of the Home Office:
- DIY Cabinet Base – $0 – made with scraps
- Ikea Ivar Hack – $384.49 (includes new drill bits)
- Shiplap (old tutorial, not related to the office but the same method I used) – $100
- DIY Desk Top – $79.80
- DIY Bookshelves – $229.16
- Paint + Additional Materials – $168.51
The total cost of this home office renovation was: $961.96
Not too shabby for a full room renovation, right?! Now, this also doesn’t include the decor that is a must-have as part of a room renovation. So let’s get into those sources.
Decor Links for the Home Office
The home office was not too hard to decorate. I have a set of bookshelves, a desktop, and a ton of open space in the middle of the room that needed some TLC. Here are the links and/or sources (where I could) to what I used to decorate the home office:
- Paint: Ashwood Moss – Benjamin Moore
- Desktop Stain: Flagship – wait for 1-minute, wipe off. Briarsmoke – wait for 1-minute, wipe off.
- Small and Large Baskets (originals HomeSense) – Similar here and here
- Bowl and moss balls – exact here and here
- Coffee table books (HomeSense is the most affordable when you can find it)
- Vases (original HomeSense and Indigo) + Greenery – Similar here and exact here and greenery here
- Feather decorative piece (HomeSense) – similar here
- Round rug – exact here
- Office chair – exact here
- H Blanket – exact here
- Sconces – exact here
- Planter pot – exact here
- Brass bells – exact here
- Ceramic heart vase – exact here
- Chair – here
- Plant – here
- Art + frames – here (similar here) and frames here and here
Let me know if there’s anything I’m missing and I’ll add it in for you!
Here’s where I need to do a better job of tracking what I spend on a room – I have no clue what this all cost me as a lot I had on hand and it got transferred to this room, some of it was also part of gifted collaborations. That just means we omit decor as a line item from the budget… right?!
There you have it, all of my home office secrets. Enjoy them.
XOXO
I know we are only in week 5 of the One Room Challenge, but I mean, with the paint done – Sher
M ore progress has been made in home office 2.0. We have a complete murphy bed situation along with
There's a few really good reasons as to why you might want to build a base for your ikea cabinet. Th
Comments
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Samantha
Congratulations on so many exciting milestones Karlie!! A new home, a wedding in a few months, and a new job! There is much to be excited about. I’m so excited to see how your version of this office turns out! Please keep me updated!!!
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Maria
Hi! first of all, I love the transformation.
I have one question…I went to the IKEA website and the Ivar cabinet is 32inch high. Did you shorten the cabinets? Cabinet + base + desktop is way too high for a desk. How did you solve this?? thanks!!-
Samantha
Thank you so much, Maria! That’s right, I did shorten the Ivar cabinets after I realized they would be far too high! It wasn’t too hard at all, especially since I was framing off the doors anyways. The hardest part was getting the door hinges back on properly but it’s all very doable! Let me know if you have any questions as you work through it.
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Jodi
Love your office set up! How long is your set up? Looking for your dimensions! Beautiful!
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Samantha
Thank you so much, Jodi! It is about 10 ft long.
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Kathleen Saenz
Good afternoon, u was wondering what the name of the pain was that you used for the rest of your walls! Not the ash wood but the lighter color!
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Samantha
Hi Kathleen,
Thanks so much for your question! The rest of my walls are Benjamin Moore – Decorators White. It’s a very cold white with blue undertones. If you want something a little bit warmer I like Benjamin Moore, Cloud White and Swiss Coffee (lightened to 25%). I hope that helps!
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Bethany
Do you have a link to the light fixture on the ceiling? I love it and I’m actually copying the built ins and really like how it goes together.
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Samantha
Oh! I’m so excited to see how yours turns out!!!
This is the original fixture I had – I DIY’ed it https://signedsamantha.com/d-i-y-pendant-light/
This is the new one I bought and I LOVE! https://bit.ly/3qjnMNc
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Mikhaela
I love this office and have been working on preparing to do the same for my office. The only request that I would make is that you include the names of the items as well as the link. Many of the links have expired so it’s very difficult to find similar options. Thank you!
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Kim
What finish paint did you go with for the ashwood?
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Samantha
I did a matte!
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Karlie Roland
Love this, and can’t wait to copy all of it! I just got a new work from home job. We just bought our first home, getting married in a few months… and new job! Things are insane in this household: but I can’t wait to copy cat your office! I’m in love! Thank you.