Office Space- The finished product
Posted by Wayne
Finishing the office took me a couple of months just working on the weekends. I liked the finished office so much that I had to buy a 20″ iMac for the space rather than put my ugly old computer down there. My wife uses the office space to do her interior design work and we’re both down there frequently.
I also bought a pretty sweet set of Harmon Kardon Soundsticks II speakers off of Ebay and the subwoofer fit perfectly into the box I had built below the desk for that purpose. The sound in the room is incredible.
We also added a few extras like the shelf above the desk and the corkboard on the back wall.
Office Space- Built in Desk
Posted by Wayne
Now that I had the room drywalled it was time for the fun part. Rather than bore you with the details of the decorating (which were all my wife’s ideas, so I can’t take credit), I’ll skim those and get to the built in desk, which is really what the room was all about.
The first step after drywalling was to prime and paint the room. The ceiling was painted white, 2 walls off white, and 2 walls tan. For the carpet my wife picked out some large carpet tiles that I didn’t think much of at first but they have really grown on me. These carpet tiles have a thick rubber backing so they really don’t move if they go down on a concrete floor. I started in one corner and worked my way to the other, sticking the tiles down to the floor with a double sided tape. I think the key to making these tiles look really good is to get really tight seams, so I took my time positioning them and sticking them down. When I got to the edges, the carpet tiles were very easy to cut. I would make my measurements, flip them over, and then use a straight edge and utility knife to cut right through them.
Office Space
Posted by Wayne
This next project was something that I did to an awkward little room at the bottom of the stairs in the finished part of the basement. It could have been a good laundry room but there was no 220v electricity, venting, or plumbing nearby. Basically the room had no purpose. My wife wanted me to make her a little office out of it for her interior design work. Originally I had told her that this would be a piece of cake but changed my mind about that and put it off for quite a while until she finally talked me into it.
Despite the size of the room, this was the biggest project I had taken on in our house to this point. I would have to lower the ceiling two inches (more on that later), frame out the walls because 3 or them were cement foundation (the one closest the camera was framed already), while framing the walls attempt to square up the room, install a lighting canister, run electricity and install electrical outlets, do some difficult drywalling, paint, carpet, trim, and build and laminate a custom built in desk. This was a big project!
This is the first project where I’m going to try to break it down a little more step by step. Check back soon for my first installment.
Hair Club for Carpet
Posted by Wayne
Once the fireplace beams were removed we were left with an approximately 5″ x 5″ spot of missing carpet on each side of the hearth and the same width of missing trim. This didn’t look so hot, and it’s not like we have spare rolls of carpet laying around.
I made templates of the missing carpet pieces and went to the far back corner of our bedroom closet, under a shelf, and cut equivalent pieces of carpet from there with a utility knife. This spot in the closet is not something you can see unless you’re on your hands and knees, so it was a no brainer to use that spot as a donor area. I stuffed the new pieces of carpet in the bald spots and voila! You can’t even see them anymore. We plan on getting new carpet someday, but this was the perfect fix for the short term. I believe this technique is similar to the one Sam Donaldson used for many years to cover his dome.
As far as the trim, the piece in question heads all the way into the kitchen and we knew updating the kitchen was in the list of things to do, so we’re waiting until we’re ready to do the kitchen trim as well. Eventually all the trim in the house will be updated with new white trim.
After
Total Cost: $0, Total Time: 30 minutes
Updating the Fireplace
Posted by Wayne
The one thing I hated about our house when we were looking at buying it was the fireplace. Huge brown beams from floor to ceiling (one was twisted and warped), ugly brick, brown mantle….. just plain nasty and 1970’s. I knew that it would have to be the first thing to go, but it was an imposing task. I didn’t know what I’d find behind the brick or how easy the beams or brick would come down.
What I was particularly worried about was that all of the walls in the house have the orange-peel texture finish, and I wondered if the builders had sprayed the texture on the walls before (under the brick) or after (not under the brick) finishing the fireplace. If the wall underneath didn’t have texture it was going to be a nightmare getting it to match the rest of the wall.
One day a couple of months after we had moved in and gotten settled, my wife was at work (I was self-employed at the time) and I decided I was sick of looking at that monstrosity so I decided to go for it. The beams came out fairly easy. I just had to be careful not to pry against the good drywall.