Sara’s Office Remodel

I’m excited to finally show you guys my office project that we completed a few months ago!  I shared a lot of progress videos on insta-stories during the process and I’m still getting messages from people wanting to see the final product.  I finally took some pictures so I could give you a tour!  So let me back up a minute.  In my last home, we had an office right off our front entry way with glass doors and I swore I would NEVER do that again.  That room was a constant disaster and there was no place to hide it!  Fast forward to our current home and and an oops-I-did-it-again moment and here we are.  Once again I have an office off my front door way and for the past 4+ years we’ve lived here, it’s been a disaster 98% of the time.  This photo below was actually the room looking good.  We had this huge desk, but really no storage, so there was constantly STUFF, everywhere.  Piles of paper, daily Amazon deliveries, electronics, crafts, you name it, it fell in that room.

office cabinet design

My husband and I both own our own businesses and work from home a lot so it was also tough sharing space and keeping our things organized and separate.  I really wanted a clean, organized space that would work better for our needs so I set out to do it.  The first thing I did was sell literally everything in that room!  I was able to earn a good chunk of cash to put toward the new space.  With an empty room that wasn’t huge, but a decent size, I knew I wanted to add built-in cabinets with mega storage capacity.

white office cabinets

I went back and forth with cabinet company for weeks and weeks and had such a hard time getting them to even return my calls that I finally decided to just start from square one and call someone new.  This isn’t sponsored, but I love sharing good companies, so I definitely wanted to mention that the best thing I did was drop the old guys and call Western Idaho Cabinets.  We worked with Justin Robinson and he returned my first call the same day, was in my house taking measurements within 24 hours, had a mock-up design to me within 24 hours of that, and once we had finalized it, we had it scheduled for install within about a 2 week time frame.  I recommend that dude to everyone because we had such a great experience, so if you’re local to Idaho, that’s someone to call!

quartz counter top

I had Justin show me a rendering of literally all cabinets, floor-to-ceiling to see how many we could fit in.  From there, I used a pen and opened some areas up, closed others, made some drawers, some shelves, etc.  We knew we wanted 2 separate work spaces so my husband and I could basically have our own offices within the room.  I wanted it light and bright (more on lighting, later), and beautiful.  We also wanted plenty of counter space for projects, and enough room to work and also have a kiddo in there doing homework or something.

venatino counter top

What we ended up with was better than I imagined.  We LOVE this new space and it has been so incredibly functional for our needs.  And the best part is that it’s no longer the eyesore at the front of our house.  It actually stays clean now because there is a place for everything!

white office cabinet

I was amazed that by adding cabinets, the room actually looks and feels so much bigger now.  Let me show you some of our favorite things.

white cabinetsI wanted this room to feel cohesive, but still work for both my husband and I.  I styled his space using a little more masculine pieces and stuck to metals and natural materials because I knew my side would be full of bright colors.

white cabinetsWe each have our own thing going on, but it all works together.

white cabinets

The inspiration for each of our sides were these amazing signs from my favorite Etsy Shop, Joobilee Designs.  I have several other seasonal pieces from her shop and I love every single one of them, so when I was designing this space I asked if she could do some custom ones for me.  I sent her our logos and she hand-cut and painted the wooden letters.  I couldn’t be happier with how they turned out!  (Definitely check out the holiday signs in her shop, those are my favorites- I have ones for Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter!)

custom wood sign

I left a corner open for shelving to balance things out and I keep a bunch of cook books there.

white office

All of the cabinet storage is one of my favorite things about this room.  I have a place for everything now; scrapbooks, paper, crafting, camera and electronics, etc.

white cabinets

The whole office design is flanked with floor-to ceiling cabinets with doors and drawers.  There is SO much space in there. This is my command-center cabinet.  I made sure to wire some outlets inside certain cabinets so I could charge my devices while I stored them.  In addition to regular outlets, we have USB banks back there so we can plug our chargers right into the wall.   Tip:  Use inside of cabinet doors to hang papers.  I attach artwork from my kids, and also things like schedules and calendars!

office organization

I also have a shelf to keep my kids school stuff organized.  That gold organizer (from Target) has a shelf for each kiddo and they know when they get home from school each day, one of their jobs is to empty out their backpacks and put all of their papers for me in their slot.  I go through them and put anything back that needs to be returned to their back pack (permission slips, etc.) To the left of that shelf I have a free standing file organizer where I store all of their school and sports information that I need to keep on hand.

white office

I also store all of my office supplies that I don’t want my kids getting into and losing up here.  I have about 20 pairs of scissors (I can never find scissors when I need them so I finally collected every pair in the house and put them in there!), a giant collection of mechanical pencils, all of my handlettering supplies, etc.

Office pens

In addition to the USB banks, we also planned ahead of time when we designed our cabinets to have a space big enough (and electrical outlets) to put the printer and scanner so it could be plugged in and out of sight.  It has a drawer right below that shelf where we store paper, labels, etc.  so everything is super handy.

office design

We also added some lighting.  I didn’t want to have lamps anywhere.  The room just had one light fixture in the middle of the ceiling so we changed out that fixture, then added 3 small lights to flood the cabinets and 2 additional can lights in the ceiling.  We also added under cabinet lighting so it’s so nice and bright when the lights are on at night.

under cabinet lighting

We chose a white quartz counter top and we love it.

white quartz counter top

When it comes to design of the room, I had a few pieces of inspiration.  First was this pillow and the rug.  The rug is actually from the outdoor section of Target (only $60!)  I’ve found that outdoor rugs work really well in some indoor spaces.  They’re not plush, so you can still roll chairs over them and they’re super durable and washable.  I wanted shades of blue and green, from light aqua to navy and pops of color like that chartreuse.

I also wanted a lot of natural elements like greenery from plants and warmth from leather and wood. I put a house plant in this bright corner, along with a macrame wall hanging (grabbed it from Amazon, find it here!)

house plant

In the only corner you haven’t seen yet, we put a really nice leather chair, with a cozy footstool.  I wanted to be sure we had a place to sit and read, or where a guest could visit, or a kiddo could sit.  The chair is from RC Willy and the footstool from Target.  Also those 2 books are absolute favorites.  Cut Flower Garden and Bread Illustrated!

office design

Above this space, on the wall, I have these cool planters (also an Amazon find, See the small size here, and the large one, here.  They come in different finishes, including black, rose gold, and gold.)

white office design

I love how all of the colors and decor came together in a space that also feels organized and refreshing to be in.  I actually enjoy going in there to work now.

White cabinets

You may have spotted my favorite Letterboard in an earlier picture.  Almost everyone who stands in my entryway notices and laughs and whatever I have up there!

retro letterboard quote

I love those boards so much I have two of them.  This schoolboard green is fantastic.

Vintage Revivals is one of the only people who actually makes colored letters, which are so much fun!  Right now you can use the BESTCOLOR and get any set of colored letters for just $5 bucks when you purchase a board.  There’s tons of fun colors to choose from!

My kids actually love playing with these and I’ve found it to be great letter practice, too, so- #bonus.

Anyway, phew, these posts are always longer than I anticipate.  I hope you’ve enjoyed the office tour.  I get a lot of requests for more peeks into my house, so if you’d like to see anything else, let me know!  You can see my kitchen, here.

S O U R C E S


*See additional sources throughout post.

Cabinets: Western Idaho Cabinets, Justin Robinson.

Cabinet Color:  We used the in-house white the cabinet company used.  The rest of my trim and white cabinets in my house are Sherwin-Williams “Snowbound” and this matched perfectly.

Wall Color: Sherwin-Williams “Aloof”

Counter Top:  Lucastone, quartz by francini “Venatino”

Flooring: Mohawk Flooring, Engineered Hardwood, Santa Ana Plank (Purchased through RC Willey)

 

 

 

woman in denim shirt holding a salad bowl
Meet The Author

Sara Wells

Sara Wells co-founded Our Best Bites in 2008. She is the author of three Bestselling Cook Books, Best Bites: 150 Family Favorite RecipesSavoring the Seasons with Our Best Bites, and 400 Calories or Less from Our Best Bites. Sara’s work has been featured in many local and national news outlets and publications such as Parenting MagazineBetter Homes & GardensFine CookingThe Rachel Ray Show and the New York Times.

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Questions & Reviews

  1. Love this office! I know this is an old post so maybe this is a long shot, but do you happen to know (or have a link) for where you got that stacking organizer for papers and the one for hanging file folders that is next to it? I need those in my life and love the look of those particular ones. 🙂

  2. Such a beautiful office! I was just wondering where the cute accent table with the plant on top is from?

  3. Your office space is stunning!!! I love it so much.
    Side note: I’m assuming from the sign that your hubby is in corrections medicine? I’m a PA who works in corrections…definitely an interesting field!

  4. Absolutely beautiful! I do have one question though. I’m assuming that your house is a two-story? Did you have any issues having the can lights installed? I’d like to add some can lights in my kitchen but was told it couldn’t be done because I have two floors.

    1. Hmm, I don’t see why not? Did an electrician tell you that? We don’t have anything above this room so I have no idea!

  5. I love Justin Robinson and Western Idaho Cabinets. They made all of ours and have been so great to work with.

  6. Love it all! Can you tell me the name of the light fixture , the glass lantern type fixture! I love it!

    1. It’s just from Home Depot! Right now I don’t have great internet (out of town) so I can’t pull up a link, but check there- it was hanging up so you should be able to spot it!

  7. Where did you purchase the under cabinet lighting? We recently did a similar office overhaul and we have a temporary solution for lighting.

    1. My lighting guy/electrician got those for me, but he told me you can buy them at places like Home Depot or looses! It’s a long strip light with LED’s in them. Easy to install and last forever!

  8. Looks fantastic, great job! I see you used to have a Pottery Barn calendar – I had that too and the surface became all warped! I found the most awesome framed wall calendar that I love – it’s from an etsy shop called Girl friday home, and they have amazing clear acrylic ones too, I think it’s Girl friday acrylics.

  9. Looks fantastic, great job! I see you used to have a Pottery Barn calendar – I had that too and the surface became all warped! I found the most awesome framed wall calendar that I love – it’s from an etsy shop called Girl friday home, and they have amazing clear acrylic ones too, I think it’s Girl friday acrylics.

  10. Sarah I love that it’s beautiful and so functional! Your kitchen paint color is Sensible Hue and the office color is Aloof. What color is the rest of the house? Thanks so much for sharing!

    1. My entire house is aloof, the painters actually made a mistake and did one Chip darker on that same color line that is why my kitchen is sensible hue haha

  11. I wonder if it is the same Justin Robinson I graduated with (Class of 93) in Jerome ID?? Just thought it was funny when I saw that name. Congrats on the new office!

  12. I love everything about this! How would you like to come do my office next?! ? Our office is right in the entry way too, but luckily no glass door – I feared our office would look like it does (I’m practically a fortune teller ?) so we put a regular door on it so I wouldn’t have to be embarrassed when guests come – I wouldn’t want them to see our “pretty sure a bomb went off in there” office! ? I’m off to speak to my hubs about a much needed office remodel! Thanks for the fun tour!

  13. Oh wow! Love your space!! it’s incredibly beautiful and you put so much thought into it so it works for you. Great job!!