Before and After: A Boring, Cluttered Home Office Gets Organized with Luxe Green Built-Ins for $1,000
Home offices are a luxury, and it’s even better when they’re luxe-looking. (See 10 beautiful home office redos here for inspiration.)
The best kinds of home offices have “character, organization, and design,” homeowner Arianna Starnes (@homesweetstarnes) says. Unfortunately, the one she had was “lacking organization, hidden storage, and a lot of design,” she writes on her blog.
“The before was a very boring blank slate,” she adds. “This space was a catchall and quickly cluttered up and no longer became a productive office space.” Wanting to amp up the design — and productivity — in the space, she decided to give it some stylish storage during the Spring 2022 One Room Challenge.
“I always love the look of an office when you enter the room and see a grand executive desk and a feature point behind it,” Arianna says on her blog, so she decided to place the built-in cabinetry on the back wall in the room. Arianna’s ultimate vision: “Moody colored built-ins, heavy on the gold accents, a geometric print rug, and a warm modern desk.”
The first step was removing the baseboards so she could build a base for the cabinets to sit on; once that was in, she installed pre-assembled cabinets. “We got these four unfinished wall cabinets from Lowe’s for pretty cheap — a lot less expensive and timing-saving than if we were to build our own,” Arianna explains on her blog.
Before adding them, Arianna did a mock up of the built-ins using 3D modeling software to figure out even spacing since she knew the cabinets wouldn’t take up the full wall and there would be some gaps to fill in. “We added spacers (the white trim) in between each cabinet to space them out evenly,” Arianna explains on her blog.
On top, Arianna added shelves built out of plywood with help from her dad, who also helped her add electrical boxes to the built-ins for her new brass and milk glass globe sconces. Before installing the sconces, Arianna painted the built-ins. She selected a forest green (Behr’s Alpine Trail). “I’m most proud of how loud and bold I went with the color green I chose,” Arianna says, adding that her go-to is usually black or white.
“This was daring but it paid off!” she says. “It’s such a bold, warm, and inviting space!”
Arianna completed the room with a Jonathan Adler rug, an ergonomic desk chair, and a MCM-style desk with a walnut finish. Her furniture for the space cost about $810, and her built-ins cost $1,000.
The last step — decorating the shelves, filling the cabinets, and creating a gallery wall — was the most fun part, Arianna says. “This project has been full of way more color than the rest of my house,” she wrote on Instagram. “But it’s quickly turned into my favorite space!” Another major win for Color Month!
This project was completed for the Spring 2022 One Room Challenge, in partnership with Apartment Therapy. See even more of the One Room Challenge before and afters here.
Inspired? Submit your own project here.