Studio Office Area Underway
I’ve decided that I’m going to concentrate on the office area (corner) of my studio next. I had considered working on the studio half bathroom next, but that doesn’t really make much sense. I already have about half of the main part of the studio finished, so I really should finish up the rest before moving on to the bathroom, which technically is a separate room altogether.
So the plan is the finish up the office area of the studio, then repaint my work tables, and finally, finish up the big, blank wall by the work tables. Once I have the studio finished, I’ll work on the half bathroom.
Our weather has been so beautiful these last few days, so I took advantage of it and started working on the cabinet doors and drawer fronts for this area of the room. It’s been a while since I’ve done any work on this area, so to refresh your memory, this is what it looked like after I installed the cabinets…
But that’s as far as I got before progress stalled. And as usually happens when there’s no progress, the area looks a bit messier now. Boxes have gotten shoved over into this area, paint cans are stacked up, and my desk is a mess because this is where I sit to work on my beading projects.
So I’m going to try to stay as focused as possible and get this done as quickly as possible. I’m actually very excited about finally finishing this area because these cabinets are what people see when they’re in the kitchen and breakfast room and looking through the door into the studio. These cabinets are directly in view, which is wh I generally keep the door to the studio closed, and have privacy film over the glass panes on the door to obscure the view.
But as soon as the studio is finished, I’ll be removing that privacy film so that my colorful studio can be seen through the door.
There’s quite a bit to do in this relatively small area of the studio. My first priority is to get the cabinet doors and drawers finished. They’re already sanded (I did that on Tuesday), so now I have to add the trim, caulk, prime, paint, and add the gold leaf detail. When they’re finished, they’ll match the cabinets on the mural wall.
The only difference is that I had planned to do glass front cabinet doors on the four top cabinet doors. Can you envision glass front doors just on the top sections?
I don’t now if my heart is as set on that idea as it was a couple of months ago. Although, I do really like that idea for one specific reason. I’ve decided that I want to find a way to bring the wallpaper mural over to this area of the room, but I want it to be much more subtle than the mural wall and the back entry with the floral curtains.
So I had thought about doing glass front doors just on the upper sections of cabinets, and then adding the wallpaper mural to the backs of the cabinets so that it can be seen through the glass doors. Other than that, I’m not really sure how else I could bring the wallpaper mural to this area of the room. I don’t want to use it on the wall since the ceiling is so high in this wall and there’s no really definitive stopping point for wallpaper to keep it contained to the cabinet area. You can see what I mean here…
So that’s why I thought the backs of the upper cabinets, with glass front doors, would be the perfect use for the wallpaper in this area of the room. But I’m open to other ideas!
So in addition to the cabinets, I’m also going to repaint the desk (which I’ve decided to keep for now), but I want to find a way to add two shallow drawers for pens, pencils, and other desk-type items that need to be easily accessible.
I also need to:
- Finish painting the walls and ceiling,
- Build the countertop,
- Trim out the window and install a window shade,
- Make a new pendant light,
- Install baseboards.
And one more thing on the list is to reupholster my desk chair. When we got our new velvet sofa in the living room, our cat Felicity could no longer use the sofa as her scratching post, so she started using my desk chair, which is upholstered in a woven fabric. She has made a complete mess of it.
I wasn’t really concerned about it because I’ve been planning on reupholstering the chair anyway. I bought the chair back when I was heading in a very different direction with the studio, using way more black and gray in the room. Now that I’ve gone a more colorful, light, feminine direction with the room, I don’t really want a gray chair. But I do love this chair — the shape, the size. So I’m going to find a velvet fabric in a fun, coordinating color, and reupholster it.
That’s the direction I’m heading with this little office corner of the studio. I’m excited to finally be focusing on this area! And if you have any brilliant ideas for how to bring the wallpaper mural (or the fabric) into this office corner of the room, let me hear them!
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
I was going to suggest upholstering your chair in the floral fabric but if that means your kitty is going to renovate it then a velvet is probably the way to go.
I like the idea of putting the mural wallpaper on the backs of the upper cabinets. I’m planning on doing something similar to a bookcase with glass doors in my office.
What about a large cork board covered with the fabric on the left wall beside the cabinet? You could pin project ideas to it.
I think your landscape plan would look amazing blown up large and hung above your work tables.
I love this idea!
I love that idea too!
I don’t like the idea of glass doors for the reasons others have mentioned – contents blocking the mural and having to keep everything neat enough to display. I also don’t like the idea of having a little patch of the mural on a chair, lamp, etc. What if instead you do a desaturated version of the mural and wallpaper the wall with the “pale” version of the mural – you’d still have the lovely colors, but softer and not so “in your face”. I searched for an example online, but the only examples I found were in websites, like how you used a partially transparent text box on the homepage of this website. Just a thought.
how about putting some of that wallpaper on the cornice board or making a little roman shade for that window with the fabric to bring the wallpaper color to that side of the room?
I like the idea of a Roman shade. I was thinking that a shade would be a great way to bring the mural in.
A Roman shade made from your mural fabric and installed behind your desk is a good idea. If you put the wallpaper inside glass cabinets, it seems likely any stuff you put in the cabinet will block the effect.
Seconding the idea for a roman shade. For ME, glass fronts require too much tidiness lol… I need closed storage for my chaos! I also wonder how much of the mural will actually show once the cabinet is filled/styled. I also second the idea of the plan blown up. Sometimes I go back and look at it because it’s just so incredibly beautiful and colorful!
I wonder if you need a small portable worktable? I assume your beading supplies are housed in the wallpaper wall of cabinets. Would you be more inclined to put things away if you could just make one trip? I’m picturing a small rolly cart but with a large work surface. The work surface would keep the supplies you’re currently using but would be mobile so it’s easy to take everything to put it away or drag it back out as you start/finish projects.
Your studio is like Monica’s closet from friends. Mine is the outdoor giant shed. I’m gonna tackle it this year. We have a corrigated cardboard scratching post for our cat. I placed it near her fave scratching corner. Works great plus lots of styles. You will be vacuuming shredded cardboard up frequently but as you know cats need to shed those nails.
We have two of those. One of them is under my desk. She likes it, and she uses it to scratch. It’s big, and she also uses it to nap on. But she prefers my chair for both napping and scratching.
If you put the wallpaper on the cabinet back, what can you store in there? Would it just look like a blur if you out books, etc in front of the paper? Maybe try out your concept by putting things on work space in front of existing wallpaper and step back and look. And remember door surround will obscure much of the paper showing.
I’m glad you’re finishing this room! I love what you’ve done so far. You could recover your office chair with the same fabric as the drapes…
Wallpaper in the panels of the doors, framed by your gold leaf trim and surrounded by the pink paint? Then you don’t have to make sure the contents are always tidy. Or, as someone else suggested, as a window treatment.
Yes – just what I was thinking. Wallpaper panels in cabinet uppers. Then u can use cabinets fully.
Maybe use your wallpaper fabric on your lamp shade over your desk.
Maybe you could use your wallpaper fabric on your lamp shade over your desk.
Perhaps the welting for the reupholsty job could be made with the curtain fabric…or would that be not enough impact? Is the back of the chair as shredded as the front? The curtain fabric could look great there as well.
I like both of those ideas. Subtle, but a definite connection.
She only shreds the front. 😀
Hi, the problem with glass doors, is that you have to constantly tidy up the contents of the cabinet. So along with a busy wallpaper, you have “stuff” in there, which will look like a mish mash unless carefully curated. You could put the wallpaper on the solid doors, thus enjoying the paper and not have to be finicky about the contents of the cabinet.
I am always looking for the laziest way to live…just me.
My thought wasn’t about the mural; it was about the cat scratching. Have you ever thought about making Felicity her own scratching post. I’m picturing something about 3 foot high by 2 foot wide, maybe lightly padded, according to her preferences, and covered in her favorite scratching fabric. Heavy enough to not be knocked over, free standing or leaning against the wall and maybe primed by a little catnip? Perhaps if she had her own special place, she wouldn’t be so tempted to scratch other things. Just a thought.
As for the mural fabric, have you thought about covered, removable panels on the wall at the back of the cabinets. If you wanted to change things up at some point, you could take them out and recover/paint or whatever. Or maybe make them solid colors from the fabric, sort of like the colorful paint squares you did on that other cabinet? More work, but just think about all the possibilities.
Whatever you do, I’m sure it will be lovely, and be you. And that’s what is important!
She actually has two very big, nice scratching things. I’m not sure what to call them, exactly. They’re made of very sturdy a thick layers of cardboard, but shaped to be a cat lounger as well as a scratching pad. She loves them! And she uses them often, both for napping as well as scratching. But she loves my chair for both of those things as well. 🙁
If Felicity doesn’t have a scratching post, I highly recommend this one:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000634MH8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
She has two, but they’re very different from this one. Maybe shed use something like this more.
Save the chair fabric that isn’t shredded. She definitely loves that fabric. Build a scratching post with it. Make a boxed area at the bottom, big enough for her to sleep in. Pad that area and cover with the chair fabric. She may prefer this, and leave other items alone. And yes, I would prime it with catnip. Good luck. Love the wall mural with the larger flowers. I would leave the chair a solid color and give my eyes a place to rest.
I love the idea of using your wallpaper fabric to make a roman shade (if you need to close it for privacy) or a valance for the window between the two cabinets behind your desk. Then you could use solid doors for the cabinets so the cabinets would be more useful because they wouldn’t need to be neat inside .
If you are set on using glass doors, how about covering boxes or magazine files with the wallpaper, and putting these covered boxes on the shelves? The wallpaper would be more visible than being on the back of the cabinets with stuff in front of it, and the boxes/files could have a small label at the bottom of each and beautifully hide whatever needs to be in each file or box. Your studio is looking so good!
I like the idea of glass fronts with wallpaper in background
100% on board with the original glass cabinet doors and wallpaper at the back of the cabinets. It’ll be that subtle nod, and then provide an area where you can have some fun styled shelves in the room. I know the main purpose of the workroom is practical storage and completely support that, but you do have a lot of cabinets already…I think a couple for pretty things would be a nice balance. 🙂 and you do a nice job with styled shelves (I’m thinking of the music room shelves).
If the bookshelves in the music room are any clue, I think Kristi likes to have some “styled” bookshelves and I bet she would like to have at least a little part of the studio styled in that way. Having those glass-door cabinets would add a nice little bit of styled order in an otherwise working room.
I think the wallpaper on cabinet backs and maybe some over-sized welting on the chair (and possibly the chair back) would be the right touch for connecting all areas, and leave the windows and door/drawer fronts cohesive with the rest of the room.
Can’t wait to see the final reveal!
I’m excited that you are working in that area. I think the glass doors are a great idea to get that paper over in that area. Also there could be curtains with the fabric, fabric on the lamp shade, a framed part of the mural above the window, or on the wall to the side of your desk. I guess when the cabinets are done, especially if you use the glass, you will know if you need a bit more of your mural somewhere over there. Love that we will start seeing this area getting done! You must be excited too!
Kristi you might want to think of getting your cat it’s own scratching post to save your chair after you reupholster it. There are so many cool cat things at pet shops that look good enough to be in rooms where we are in. Our cats like to be in the room we are in, so we have purchased several things for cats to scratch, climb on, play, sleep on, and everything cats like to do. However, there is one thing we keep replacing because they seem to love it most. That being any cardboard box we have on hand from mail shipped items we have bought. We cut the tops off and set the box just outside the hallway and the cats just jump in and scratch away. They love all of the other towers and such to lay and play on, but the boxes get replaced often. We keep a small spray bottle of catnip that we spray a couple of wisps on the things we have bought, but not the cardboard boxes. None of our upholstered dining chairs, sofas office chairs are cat scratched.
I think your office chair would look beautiful upholstered with the same as your mural and entry way curtains. I also think a little gold leaf on the chair would dress it up in a feminine way too. Also, the glass doors on the top of the cabinets would also beautiful with the same mural motif in there. I like your ideas.
Upholster the chair in the wallpaper fabric.
Or apply the wallpaper to the desktop and epoxy. Unexpected, a bold pop, and a horizontal plane rather than another vertical.
Whatever you do will be perfect.
Can you get the wallpaper made in velvet to cover the chair? That might be fun. Add a throw blanket over the back in a coordinated plush fabric might add a little softness.
I love the plan you have to get this area done and I’m excited to see it come together.
I can! Spoonflower actually has two different velvets, and one is a performance velvet for upholstery.
How about Roman shades over the window with your fabric?
I like the idea of the valance/Roman shade in your fabric. Also, covering magazine boxes with your paper (might need to be smaller scale?), but they could be left out on the countertop behind your chair or placed in the glass front cabinets. You could even cover notebooks or boxes in that paper; create a whole bunch of desk accessories with it! I think that using the special paper on the backs of the cabinets won’t be seen/give enough oomph particularly with items placed in front of it
It’s probably abit too simplistic but what about some custom size frames and framing some wallpaper for art work. Maybe even a lampshade and some desk accessories like a desk tidy or covered box for bead storage etc
Do you still have some of the mural wallpaper in the first, smaller, print? I like the idea of the wallpaper behind the glass doors, but wonder if the larger print may not show as much pattern. Or maybe do the multiple paint squares in smaller squares, but the same pattern?
Dear Kristi,
What about bringing the wall mural over to that side of the room by recovering your desk chair in the mural material?
Generally – YMMV – cats don’t like scratching velvet. Our sofa is a lot less shredded than the other furniture in our living room, despite being older.
Love the idea of the fabric roman shade and the landscape plan blown up! I keep seeing the office chair and the work table bases painted purple. Like the doors. My concern with the wallpaper inside the cabinets is scale. You might get so little of the design that it would end up reading as clutter. Love seeing to progress!
You could put a curtain on the window that would be the same material and could be pulled to the sides like the ones on the French doors. Thanks for your blog!
I have two ideas for bringing your floral pattern over to the office area. One is that you could cover your pendant light with your floral fabric. Two is to put the wallpaper on the outside of your cabinet doors, instead of behind the glass. I look forward to seeing what you decide.
What if, instead of putting the wallpaper on the back of the cabinet, you put it directly behind the glass, with a thin piece of particle board or similar to hold it in place? That way it wouldn’t be blocked by the contents of the cabinet, and you wouldn’t have to worry about keeping it super tidy within.
Could you line the inside of the glass panes with the wallpaper, or have it printed on a privacy film?
Could you adhere wallpaper to the back of the glass doors? That way it hides the contents inside and is fully visible…?
For the desk drawers, a product like this easily mountable drawer would be quick and easy to install.
https://www.amazon.com/VIVO-Pull-out-Organizer-Workstation-DESK-DR1H-B/dp/B0C1TMGMMT/
If you go with the glass door, hang a panel of your floral fabric on the inside of the door. You’ll be able to see the fabric and it will stay protected from anything you do in your studio. That way you don’t have to worry about keeping the inside of the cabinet neat.
You got the mural printed at Spoonflower, right? Why not have it printed on their upholstery fabric and do the chair with it!!! They have a velvet that would foil the cat’s urges, too!!! Just a thought!
How about making the shade from the same fabric s the French doors?That way you won’t have to be particular about what is in the top cabinets and how organized it stays.
why not do a fabric roman shade for the window treatment and call it a day?
“Decoupage” the desk surface with wallpaper design.
I like the idea of singling out colors of your wallpaper in that corner. I can see big solid pieces in wallpaper colors bathed in light behind the glass. (You’ll have soooo much storage space I don’t think you will have a problem keeping it neat.) Solid color chair, hanging
light, rug under desk…..All in different colors or a few main colors pulled from the wallpaper.
I think wallpaper might be distracting. But, what if you replicated some of the design on the glass as a faux etching? And then brought in the fabric in the floral print as trim on the desk chair. I’m envisioning the chair a dark purple like the doors and it edged witj the fabric with maybe a lumbar pillow in the fabric. The having those flowers “etched” could tie it all together without having competing floral wallpaper on the wall. You could probably project and trace the pattern to size.
What about doing a coordinated striped fabric that picks up the colors
in the wallpaper mural – to go on the wall behind the glass-doored cabinets? It just seems that the floral, though lovely, could get redundant…but taking those vibrant colors and creating a coordinating
paper, fabric, or painted stripe for that spot would add a less predictable element – it makes sense to be different as it’s ‘the office’ area…and, with the items placed in front of it on the shelves, the stripe would be stronger and more structured than the floral – maintaining it’s ‘pattern integrity’ despite the objects covering much of it…
Just another option!
Florals and stripes can go so well together.
#1. Buy the cat a scratching pole.
#2. Make “toppers” for the window. Question: if you put wallpaper in the top cabinets and had glass doors, wouldn’t the stuff in the cabinet coverup the view of the pretty flowers in the wallpaper?
#3. Make the light shade from the wallpaper or material.
#4. Cover a small trash can with the wallpaper or material.
#5. Make a sewing machine cover from the material.
It is 11:30 p m and my brain can’t think of anything else. I am so glad you are again focused on the studio. It will be beautiful when you finish and you can enjoy it so much.
Any floral fabric left? You could make a cornice, valance or Roman shade with it.
Hi Kristi,
So glad you are feeling energetic again. My ideas are glass doors show everything inside. The wallpaper would take away from decrotive things in the cabinets and would add confusion to anything else in there.
Also thought if you are recovering chair use the fabric like the wallpaper and curtains and that would bring it to that area. If you want glass doors use the purple or green from the entry on the back of those inside cabinets.
As for your desk as an artist craft person myself drawers along the desk top is iritating to me to have to back up my clair to get to things in there. I have a cabinet with drawers under the desk so l can just reach down to get what i need.
Just ideas l have. I know you will come up with great solutions.
What about using the fabric or wallpaper to cover the lampshade? My personal concern with the shelves is that having glass doors might inhibit you–make things always neat, clean, and coordinated. Also, you probably wouldn’t want to store anything too tall that would block the wallpaper. Whatever you do, it’s going to look great!
Get file boxes and dress them using the wallpaper? Then put them inside the glass door shelves, and hide all your papers in them.
Also, for now, shave that office chair, it will be fun! (though you’ll probably need to cut some big piles off using scissors first)…
Love the idea of wallpaper backed cabs with glass fronts!
Again, I would need a solid color chair like a pink from your fabric.
There is a lot of pattern going on in that room. But it’s going to
look Kristi fab, I’m sure of it!
Love your work and ideas.
How about on your office chair? Could you get your print in the type of fabric you want?
Not sure if this would be too dated of a style, but what about doing the glass doors and mounting shirred curtains on the inside of the doors, on a top and bottom thin rod? I remember that back in the day on 15-light French doors. Second thought would be wallpapering or decoupaging the fabric onto the outside of the door inside the trim. Or do nothing to the cabinets and reupholster your chair in the fabric.