Office Makeover Part 3: DIY Office Decor

Even with new curtains and wall coloring, the office still needed a bit more.  First, I tried my hand at some abstract wall art.  I looked into getting a few canvases, but considering that canvases are made out of fabric and wood, they are terribly overpriced.  Instead, I found two rectangular pieces of styrofoam, stretched some muslin around them, and secured the fabric with a layer of duct tape.  Then I started mixing acrylics and outlined some random shapes, referencing a few "real" abstract art pieces as I went:

Eventually I ended up with this:

And here it is on the wall!

Next, I wanted a pencil holder, but those cheap, boring black compartment things at office stores are not very appealing.  But the pencil holder on this blog did:

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/how-to-turn-a-p-78646

Does anyone EVER reference real phone books anymore?!  I sure don't.  I think it was put to good use:

The instructions on the blog were very straightforward.  The only change I made was to cut out petal shapes from cardstock and attach them to the bottom with duct tape.  

Obviously, the problem with this pencil holder is that it doesn't store paperclips and such very well.  So of course I had to find yet another DIY project to solve that problem!  I found this post for a triangular wall caddy:

http://www.brit.co/triangular-wall-caddy/

Here is my version:

These colors really tied the office together, since I used the same paints for the curtains and the wall art.  And it holds so much stuff!  These instructions were very good, though I did connect the triangles with duct tape before sticking them on the wall with a couple of command strips.  I also recently finished a cross stitch that matched the color scheme, so I figured that I might as well hang it up too. 

That is it for DIY projects.  The only other improvement that I found helpful was to rearrange the tables.  Having two tables line each wall made the office feel very boxy.  I traded in the original tables for a couple of smaller ones that I arranged in an L-shape.  I still have plenty of working space, but less space to build stacks, which is always a good thing! 

Here are some before and after shots:

I consider this project a success!  The office space is definitely more inviting.  It is a place that I want to work in.  It is incredible what a little color and some table rearranging will do!

Office Makeover Part 2: DIY Striped Curtains

After I finished "painting" the wall, I decided that the windows also needed some serious help.  The office originally had these disgusting army green colored window coverings.  They were covered in spots of paint and a thick layer of dirt.  To top off their ineffectiveness, the only way to adjust them was to untie a rope and pulley system from the wall and start yanking to see if you could get anything to happen.  About the only thing this was good for was creating dust clouds.  Here are the lovely original window shades:

With a bit of hard core screwdriver twisting, this roll of plastic coated canvas has now been thrown into the hallway.  Somehow, I don't think anyone is going to wander by and claim them...

As a replacement, I made myself some striped curtains.  My favorite resource was the following blog post:
http://justagirlandherblog.com/diy-painted-striped-curtains-tutorial/

I too used craft smart paint (only $0.50 at Michaels during sales!).  I used 20 ounces of citron colored paint for both curtains.  I did mix in a bit of textile medium, but since I am not planning to wash these it wasn't really necessary.

Instead of using curtains, I bought a couple of white flat twin sized sheets from Walmart.  Most flat sheets have a 3 inch wide hem on the top.  If you rip the seams on either side of this hem and resew the edges to leave an opening, you have curtains for $4 each!

Each of my stripes was about 9.25" wide.  Blue painters tape worked great- there wasn't any bleeding.  Reminder:  account for the width of the tape when measuring the stripes!

 

I used a foam brush to apply the paint instead of a roller.  Rollers tend to splatter, and I rather like the look of the brush strokes through the curtains when the light shines behind them. 

Curtain hardware is expensive.  There are very few tension rods that would span a 100" wide window, and they aren't cheap either.  Instead of doing traditional curtain hanging, I reappropriated a couple of the screws from the old blinds and tied about 10 lengths of fishing line between them.  Fishing line is about $2.50.  I wrapped a piece of duct tape around the bundle of lines and threaded them through the resewn hems of the sheets. No, it doesn't look as classy as a curtain rod would, but it is a decent looking window covering that can block out the sun when necessary!

For added support I suck a command hook in the center of the line, mainly to prevent the curtains from sliding towards the center:

And here it is!  Finished curtains!  A HUGE improvement over the previous canvas thing, don't you think?

Office Makeover Part 1: Wall

This semester I have officially become a grad student.  As part of this change, I have acquired an office.  It is only slightly bigger than a closet, but it is MINE.  Most importantly, it has a door, and thankfully I was one of the lucky few who got a window.  I am really enjoying the natural light, not to mention the view.

The previous office occupant didn't do much to improve the stark white closet appearance of the office space.  And by "much" I mean "nothing".  I get the feeling that she rarely used the space, due to the copious amounts of dust I had to clean up.  Here are some pictures I took the first time I walked into the office:

See what I mean?  I wouldn't be very happy working in this kind of environment.  Also, for perspective, the one time I had a meeting with the previous occupant, her office chair took up that whole space in front of the computer.  I attended the meeting from a chair in the hallway.  Classy, right?

Clearly, something had to be done.  This post includes details on how I created an office space that I enjoy being in for less than $50.

First, let's start with adding some color to a wall.  I thought about painting an accent wall (yes, the department does allow painting).  However, painting is kind of messy, and would require transportation of too much equipment across campus.  Also, it is rather permanent.  If I ever wanted to change the color of the wall (which is a likely possibility given that I have 5 years of school left), I would have to prime AND paint, and who wants to do that?

The budget-friendly painting alternative I found was to starch a piece of fabric to one of the walls.  Because I wanted to avoid seams on the wall, and because buying a single cut of fabric large enough to cover the wall would be extremely expensive at a place like Joann's, I went to Walmart and bought a king size flat sheet for about $15.  It wasn't quite big enough to reach the ceiling, but that isn't an issue.  It covered enough of the wall to add some color.  (Plus, there is a super annoying pipe sticking out of the wall that I didn't want to work around, so that is where the sheet ends :) )

Here are the primary blog posts that I used for instruction.  The first one is my favorite:
http://www.howaboutorange.blogspot.com/2011/09/how-to-wallpaper-using-fabric.html
http://kristendirmeier.blogspot.com/2008/09/purple.html

I ran into a few problems doing this.  First, my wall is bigger than a door.  I couldn't starch the whole thing, line up the sheet, and get it on straight before the starch dried.  I was doing this project alone (I don't think that another person would have been able to fit in that office), so I didn't have anyone to help hold the sheet up.  Therefore, on my first attempt I relied a little bit too heavily on the topcoat, hoping that if I put enough starch on the front surface of the sheet it would soak through and stick to the wall.  I will tell you right now that this is probably NOT the best idea.  It sort of worked...at least it looked pretty good when the sheet was wet:

That afternoon I went home with that self-satisfied successful DIY feeling.  But the next day I came back to discover that most of the wall hadn't really stuck to the wall and had dried in some pretty terrible looking wrinkles:

Clearly, there was a reason for putting a significant layer of starch directly onto the wall.  So much for taking the seemingly simpler route.

For the redo, I misted half of the sheet with water and peeled it off the wall.  (Yes, it does pull off nicely when damp, and doesn't affect the paint underneath).  I then quickly slopped a liberal amount of starch directly onto the wall.  I smoothed the sheet as fast as possible.  I still had to restarch a few spots, but it worked out pretty well.  I then repeated the process on the other side, though I had to tape up the still-wet first side to keep it from pulling off.

So, here are my tips that I would follow if I were to repeat this project:

-If you are covering a large space on your own, line the fabric up how you want it and secure it with tape or pins.  Then fold half of it back and tape it.  That way you can spread starch on the wall without crawling underneath the fabric or pulling the sheet up and ruining any previous work.  After the starch is on grab the taped back half and stick it to the wall.  It should still be lined up.

-I didn't experience any fabric shrinkage.  If you would like you can cut the fabric before sticking it on the wall.  It would be easier that way, but you also have to have good alignment skills to get it back up perfectly in place.

-For this project I had to make about 3 batches of starch.  Of course, I basically did the project twice.  To get a king sized sheet on the wall it would probably take about 2 batches.  (The recipe is in the first link).

-Finally, I would NOT put a layer of starch on top of the fabric like the second blog post instructs.  Maybe it was because I did it twice, but I ended up with white splotches all over the wall (hopefully you can sort of see them.  Maybe?):

Unless you are using a heavier fabric, the layer against the wall should be plenty to hold the fabric in place.  I think that I will attempt to bring some dish soap and a toothbrush up to campus one of these days to see if I can get the worst spots out.  I'm not sure why the starch dried clear in the other blog post...

Regardless of how imperfect it may be, it really helped the office space to look better:

The clean up for this project was super easy.  Starch and water don't stain, so I didn't have to worry about getting drips on the carpet- they just wipe up.  And the only things I had to bring to campus were a couple of mason jars full of starch, a foam brush, and a plastic rectangle for smoothing.  Nice, huh?

There are a couple more office makeover blog posts if you are interested in the finished product.  Make sure to leave any questions or comments below! :)