Small home office ideas

Small Home Office Decor Ideas Using Budget Friendly Home Decor

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Stick a fork in it because it.is.done!!! Well, sort of, I have a few more things I want to add to this space decor related but with snow days, sick kids and the fact that my ~~loser cruiser~~ mini van couldn’t get out of our snowy driveway I have given up on those final pieces until Spring. For those of you following me on Instagram you have seen a few progress pictures and know my hate for this room. Let’s back up and remember what this room looked like before shall we? Now, this my friends is real life..

It was a hot mess and becoming our storage room which wasn’t good since this is one of the first rooms you see when you walk through my front door. And for a few months I justified this hot mess with the “we just moved in” excuse but it’s been a year and that excuse is becoming kind of pathetic.

When we moved into this house a year ago the previous owners had left their 15 year old teeny tiny stackable washer and dryer set in the mudroom. The mudroom is not a huge room to begin with and even with the smallest stackable washer and dryer known to man in there it was feeling extra tight. (Side note, I painted the mud room floor this past summer and used one of those cabinets on the wall and turned it into a storage bench for the mudroom as well). See how resourceful I am?

I am assuming to get more space in the mudroom the previous owners also had installed a washer and dryer hookup in the room next to the mudroom and at one point had their washer and dryer in there. This room was intended to be an office and has pretty french doors leading to it. Not my ideal location for a washer and dryer. We ended up donating the extra small washer and dryer set. There was no way our washer and dryer was going to fit in the mudroom without some light demo work so we set up our washer and dryer in that front room. And for over a year I have hated it.

I really had no other budget friendly options and hated the idea of taking up more space in the mud room. With three kids, a room dedicated to just mud is heavenly. So for one year I pinned so many ideas on Pinterest… from making a closet to house the washer and dryer, to barn doors, to making a cabinet for just the washer and dryer, to hanging curtains from the ceiling to hide the washer and dryer.

So many ideas, however…I am not a carpenter and I knew that most of those ideas would involve blood. I also wanted this room to be a dedicated room for the kids to do their homework as well as an home office space for me. For one whole year my mind was everywhere and this room just sat looking like a storage room.

I finally just said screw it and did the easiest and most cost efficient option I could think of and it turned out pretty well…imagine that. Now when you walk through my front door you see this as our home office and not that hot mess up there.

It all started with my rug-that was my jumping off point. Like the rest of my house I knew there would be blue in this room regardless. I did not hesitate at all with this rug (unlike my hallway rug). It was love at first sight. I would like to layer a sisal rug under this rug one day as it’s looking a little too small in this space right now. But honestly, I am not even sure if I can fit a larger rug in here with the washer and dryer hanging out over there. Again, that’ll wait until I can actually leave my house.

The shelves are from IKEA and are the FJALKINGE shelves and I just love them. Really love them. I plan on adding the drawers to these shelves down the road for some extra storage. What I really love most about these shelves is that I can customize this piece as I wish. I will try to link what I can at the end of this post to some of my accessories on my shelves. I just kind of grouped things together as I liked on the shelves but allowing some empty spaces so it didn’t look too cluttered. No idea if I accomplished that or not but it looked good to my untrained eye. And you can only imagine how many times I plan on rearranging these shelves.

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On a whim I jumped on Etsy and ordered this ocean picture and had it printed out at Staples. (See how I get my engineered prints from Staples here). I am not sure why it took me so long to jump on the Etsy bandwagon but I am officially hooked. The frame is the RIBBA frame from IKEA and it’s pretty amazing for the price.

My desk was the desk I had growing up. I love the traditional feel of my desk with my modern-ish shelves. I am trying my hardest to leave this desk uncluttered so the kids can come in here and do homework if they need to. But secretly, I really don’t even want them in here. They have this knack with breaking things.

And now this mess over here. UGGHHH!! WHY?!?!??! What I could have done with this room if these things weren’t in here. I am slowly accepting it. Slowly being the key word. Here is what I had to work with.

I really had no idea what I was doing over here. We had the butcher block already so I knew that was going on top of our washer and dryer. The easiest and quickest option was to make “drapes” to hang over the washer and dryer. I found some old drop cloth curtains I had made at our old house and cut them to fit. They need steamed and hemmed still so do not look too closely and I need a new rod…I found that one in the garage. I was working on this project when we got some snow and I was trying to work with what I had at home.

The wall shelf (also from IKEA-can you guess how many trips to IKEA I made?) was my attempt at hiding the vent to the dryer. I think I hated that thing sticking out of the wall as much as I did the washer and dryer. Leaning a frame on the shelf to hide the vent was one of those ah-ha moments. I want to get some new frames and art for this space and the wall shelf. Again I was working with what I had. I “made” those prints this past summer and they haven’t found their permanent home yet.

I am sure I will change things around multiple times and maybe, just maybe, one day I can move these bad boys but for now they are part of my office. I will think of it as multi tasking. Nothing like working on your computer to the sound of a washing machine…

As promised, here are some links to some of my items on my bookshelf.

Large Blue Ginger Jar//Wood Vases//Striped Terra Cotta Vase//Cement Vase//Black candlestick

Planter on my desk/See how I made my covered books here//And for anyone wondering the paint color is Behr Silver Drop.

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