Dining Room to a New Office

Here’s a little story of how I helped one of my besties turn her dining room to a new office space.

When we went into quarantine in March, none of us truly realized the seriousness of this virus. One weekend we were celebrating a friend’s birthday and the next, we were sheltering in place. Kids were doing online school and most adults started working from home. My friend, Jennifer was working from home but didn’t have a space designated for work. She had been using her breakfast table in the kitchen. She realized this wasn’t working for her so I helped her turn the barely used dining room into a new office space.

Here’s a little backstory. Jennifer is also my neighbor and she’s my exercise buddy. She’s the one I ran a marathon with last Fall. We thought it was a good idea to run our first marathon when we turned 40. Don’t ask why we thought that was a good idea! We trained throughout the entire summer months in GA and it was brutal! Oh well, we survived and have the craziest stories to tell from that experience.

I also happened to grow up with her husband, Mike because we attended the same church as kids. We were pregnant at the same time so we have experienced some important life stages together. All that to say, I’m grateful that she lives so close to me so we can continue to do life together.

BEFORE

The photo above shows her dining room space before we started working on the transformation. She didn’t have room in her home to create a separate office space so we felt the dining room was the perfect spot. It wasn’t used all that much and she didn’t like how it looked since it was one of the first spaces you saw when you entered the home.

The first thing I did was create a design board. A design board gives a nice visual of colors, spacing, layout, and overall look for the whole space. You may not choose all of the exact pieces but it gives you an overall feel for the room.

Jennifer loved all the pieces. Unfortunately, everyone else in the country was buying office furniture at the same time so we had to order similar sources due to unavailability. She sold or gave away everything in the room and wanted a fresh start. I recommended she paint the walls in Alabaster by Sherwin Williams. This is my favorite white and looks good in every home no matter the lighting. Look how fresh it looks!! I also didn’t like how the chair rail and trim stopped on the left side and the white helps to conceal that.

She did a great job painting! Finding a rug is a great place to start because you can work with the colors from that. She was really digging the blush pink so we went off that for the drapes and chair. It all feels soft and feminine.

So good right?! I own those same bookshelves in a different color for my staging room and am happy with the quality and price. We went with a similar desk since the other one was sold out. We actually ended up really loving this one because it looks more mid-century modern.

We asked our trusty electrician, Jimmy Min to replace the lighting. I love this drumshade pendant from Home Depot. It’s a great transitional light with some pretty gold detailing. Mike installed the new curtain rods and since the window is on the smaller scale, I told them to install it out wider past the window frames. This makes your windows appear much larger. The plant in the corner will be replaced for a larger one.

These are all Iphone pics so excuse the quality! I think the room turned out beautifully. It’s the perfect spot since Jennifer can still keep an eye on her kids but still have her own designated working area.

When you’re working with a desk that floats in the middle of the room, you have to deal with messy cords.

They put a large basket to hold the power strip with one cord coming out of the basket.

We added a few baskets with lids so she could store any office supplies. She bought a few decor items and we took some from other places in the house.

Plants are always a good idea for shelves. Did you check out my Pothos plant blog post from yesterday?

Jennfier loves a clean, minimal look so this is pretty much her jam.

What do you think?

This was such a fun project! Jennifer is super thrilled with her office and doesn’t have to deal with her computer and office supplies all over her breakfast table. I hope this shows you that you can create an office from any space. Just because it’s a dining room doesn’t mean you have to use it for that purpose. Think of ways your home can best serve your family and maximize those spaces!

Here are all the sources for the office.

Here’s a last look at the BEFORE and AFTER.

Thanks for reading!! Lmk if you have any questions.

xoxo,

Let all that you do be done in Love. 1 Corinthians 16:14

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Here’s a little story of how I helped one of my besties turn her dining room to a new office space.

BEFORE

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