closet turned office

Hi everybody, hope your ready for another big, picture filled post!

Today I want to share another basement update. Across from our half bathroom downstairs we had a closet. It was a huge closet, but mostly full of junk and unused. Here is a picture of the closet before our first renovation.

As you can see it was just full of old coats and shoes. And here is the after (before this current renovation)
 

In the previous renovation we took down the closet doors, installed laminate flooring, new trim and painted the walls. I can't remember what the old paint brand was, but I remember the colour was Shitake. It was much better, but still ended up as an area that could be better used.

Once we started to convert our old computer room into Braxton's nursery, we knew we needed another, more permanent solution for our office area. We had temporarily moved it into our rec room, but it was not working out. We decided to convert the closet into our office, since we didn't really need an entire room.

So, first thing was to rip out all the old plaster on the walls and take down the bulkhead on the ceiling.
 

Since the ceiling was already torn down, we decided to install a recessed light in the closet/office area. We figured it would be better for using the computer at night time.
 

We installed a piece of wood on the right side of the area (which you can see in the top picture and the one below) because we would have had to install any shelves directly into the foundation. Next was painting, and we used Behrs Limelight. It's a very soft blue, almost like a pale sky blue, with slight grey undertones.

Next was the flooring, which was the same peel and stick vinyl flooring that we used in the half bathroom. Can't beleive how much better it's already looking.

You can actually see our cat door in the above picture. We put it where no one would be able to see it, and it locks. So, when we have people over for parties, we know our cats won't get out of the house.

And again, I didn't take any pictures of installing the counter top, shelves or the trim. I promise to do better in the future. All we did, which you will be able to see in the following pictures, is install three pieces of wood to support the shelf. Once level, we just attached the shelves to the support pieces. The counter top was installed the same way, with an addition of a stair baluster to act as a support away from the wall.

Well, after tons of reading and pictures, here's the after
 

We.love.it.  Seriously, I felt like sitting in that chair for days after we got it all together. So pretty. And here is a close up of the shelves with our storage boxes.

I managed to score those for our local Bouclair Home store for around $12 for all of the boxes. Not going to complain about those prices!

There is still a few things left to do, mostly touch-ups/finishing touches. But I will call this project about 95% complete.

The things still unfinished:
- caulking the shelves
- installing trim around the pipes
- touch up wall paint

It's great after such a long renovation to see something come together so wonderfully like our office. And it is already working out so much better than we ever thought it would.

Like always, I will update once everything is fully complete. But until then I am going to go stare at my closet office for a little bit.

Kerby 

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