My home office before and after I redecorated.
Throughout this week, the Cyberhomes bloggers will turn our
attention to some recent home improvement projects we've accomplished.
Read on and let us know what you think!
Once the ceiling and the walls were finished in my home office renovation, it was time to tackle the part of the job I looked forward to and dreaded the most -- ripping out the disgusting carpet.
I had tried pretty much every product on the market to eliminate the urine stains and odor, to no avail. I knew that the only solution was to tear it out and replace it with the same hardwood laminate floor we had in our living room. The living room flooring had been there for a good two years, with no incidents and it was virtually maintenance free. When we picked out the flooring, we knew we’d eventually put it in my office, so we’d bought enough for both rooms.
The process started with ripping up the carpet, the pad, the tacking strips along the walls and the staples that had held down the pad. Every bit of that was a nasty, but necessary, job. Then, I thoroughly scraped and vacuumed the subfloor, which was made of oriented strand board (OSB, for short). I saturated the urine stains with Odor Xit, which is an odor neutralizer that landlords use to get rid of the smell of everything from vomit to decaying bodies. I don’t swear by too many products, but Odor Xit is one of them. It takes some work and a few applications, but as long as you can get to the source of the smell, it will get it out. In our case, the urine had soaked into the OSB and made it swell near the doorway. To eliminate the smell – and the inclination of pets to return to it – we dug out that section of the floor and filled it in with a rotted wood stabilizer.
Finally, it was time for the new floor. We had installed the hardwood laminate in our living room and family room ourselves, so with the help of a friend, my husband made quick work of this part of the project. The same evening, we put the desk and the credenzas back in the room. At that point, it looked like a room instead of a construction project.
While the floor was in progress, I also was hard at work shopping. One of my major needs in the office was storage for books and magazines. I wanted to take advantage of wall space for shelves. I liked the look of floating shelves, but was concerned about how much weight they could support. I found a pair of four-foot Holman ledges that would hold up to 50 pounds, plus matched the style of my furniture, at Pottery Barn for $55 each. I also bought a ladder-style bookcase at Lowes that fit perfectly between the two windows in the room.
I also was determined to get rid of the tangle of wires on my desk, so I invested in a wireless printer/copier/scanner/fax, a wireless mouse and keyboard and Velcro cable wraps.
For my reading corner, I went with a black leather club chair on sale at Target. It fit great by the window, and quickly became a favorite place for family and friends. The final element of my office renovation was artwork. Since my husband is a professional photographer, I hung one of my favorites on the wall behind my desk. To that, I added a small stone sculpture I’d bought on an assignment in South Africa, a trio of decorative glass vases, and a metal candle holder. I also wanted something really special for the accent wall. I settled on a framed metal sculpture of a tree branch that enhanced, rather than hid the wall behind it.
As an extra special touch, I treated myself to a Bose SoundDock for my iPod. I came across one of these on a photo shoot and had been amazed by the sound quality from such a small system. Since I’m a music junkie, it was a perfect way to make my office feel like a creative space I wanted it to be.
Lighting turned out to be the toughest part of the project to get right. With all that color, it really soaked up the light and I struggled to balance it. I finally combined the overhead light with a desk lamp to use for task lighting, as well as a floor lamp in the reading corner and the natural light from the windows.
I don’t think I’ve ever been as happy with a remodeling project as I was with my office. I truly loved spending time in that room. Leaving it behind when we relocated earlier this year was heartbreaking.
Since we’re renting a home for at least a year, I can’t resurrect it right now. But I have all the furniture, the drapes, and the shelves, and I’ve kept the paint colors and the brush and the sponge I need for the accent wall. Rest assured, as soon as we’re in a house of our own again, one of my first projects will be to bring my office back to life.—Pat Curry