Our Home Office: Budget Friendly Decorating Solutions For Your Workspace

I recently finished renovating our home office. This room was a true labor of love, and I am so proud that I was able to complete the entire room for only a few hundred bucks. My budget was small, but the overall transformation was huge! I think it's a true testament to the fact that you don't have to spend tons of money to create a stylish space.

Today I'll show you everything I did, including all of my decorating ideas and organizing tips.

Here's what my office looks like today.

To see how far this room has come, you have to see where it started. 

Check out the before and after of this room.

When we first moved into our house, the office has peachy-beige walls paint and outdated wooden trim. I could see its potential though, and I knew that I could update just by using paint.

I decided to paint the walls with one of my favorite colors, Behr Sandstone. I painted the trim Behr Ultra Pure White.

If you're just not sure where to start when it comes to paint, you can check out this great post I wrote about how to paint trim. It has everything you need to know.

Now, let's move on to all of the pretty details in the room. One of my absolute favorite parts of this room is the desk chair I chose. I found this great beige linen nailhead chair with french script on the back. It was a Marshall's chair for only $99. 

I really think it adds so much to this once boring room!

My other favorite part of the office is the gallery wall. I wanted to make a statement with the art in this room, but I had to maximize my small budget. Since I couldn't afford a big piece of art, I chose the gallery wall instead. It has ended up being one of the favorite walls in my house.

I framed a few black and white wedding pictures, a cuddly photo of our kitty, and a few random funny photos. Then, to mix it up a bit, I added some framed maps (bought off eBay and then cut up and framed), and a giant sketch of a sailboat I found at Goodwill for $10. I also added two small mirrors that I spray painted silver.

One of my favorite decorating tips is to add fresh flowers to a room.  I love to get a cheap bouquet of daisies from the grocery store and put a few in a simple glass vase.

Let's take a loot at the opposite view of the room. This is a great room decorating tip and organizing tip. If you need tons of storage in your home office, but don't want to sacrifice style (or have clutter!), use a bookcase. 

I store office supplies, books, paper, etc. You can even insert cubbies if you want to keep things out of view.

Another fun home office idea is to hang a chalkboard.

I made mine out of an old mirror with a wood frame. I painted the wood frame white and then used chalkboard paint over the mirror. 

It usually says stuff like 'laundry' and 'brush your hair', but it got primped for this photo shoot.

I also decided to hang a mirror with a bold black frame on the wall next to the desk.

I also painted the office closet doors and updated the hardware.

 We were lucky that there was already new carpet when we moved in, so we didn't have to replace the carpet in this room!

We weren't so lucky with the light fixture. Nearly every single room in this house had a 'boob light' when we moved in (you know...those horrid round lights that usually have a bug or two trapped in them & look like a big boob). One by one they are getting yanked down and finding a new home at the dump! 

For the lighting fixture in the office, I decided to find an old chandelier and redo it. I found a $20 brass chandy on eBay, painted it white, and attached tons of crystals.
This chandelier cost me $30 total and looks almost identical to the one that cost me $100 in our guest bedroom.

My pretty little DIY crystal chandelier really lights up the room!

I also added a gorgeous mercury glass lamp to my desk that I found at Marshall's, too.

Along with a little silver tray and some accessories. There's normally a laptop on the desk, too, but I removed it while I photographed the room.

Now, let's talk about the desk. I couldn't afford to buy a desk from retail, so instead I found a table on Craigslist for $50. I decided to use a kitchen table as my desk, and I love it. It allows me so much room to spread out, and also looks really great!

Since I wanted the desk to be black, I sanded it and painted it using Behr Black Suede in Satin. I then coated it with Minwax's Paste Finishing Wax.  Here's a great before/after of the desk.
(for more info on painting a table, click here)

It wasn't bad before, but I love it so much more painted black!

So that's the new office! 
It's been a lot of hard work, but now I have a beautiful place to work. I couldn't be happier with the new office! 

Make sure you remember to pin this post so you'll have this info when you need it!

Pssssst.  Want more?

Check out our house tour here!

or check out one of our DIY fave's here.

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