From Barely Used Closet to Much Needed Home Office

If you've been reading my blog, you know that I have an awesome office closet. Well, my husband doesn't. When he works from home, he schleps his files with him and camps out in the kitchen or the living room. He really wanted his own office space. So the best solution would be to convert a guest room into an office, right? Not in our case as our guest rooms are in high demand by relatives and out of town visitors. Next solution would be a combo guest room and office, right? Nope. I hate those! While they work for some households and Pinterest has some awesome posts of guest room-office combos, they wouldn't work for us. First of all, our guests always come in pairs or more and neither of our spare guest rooms are large enough to accommodate a full or queen size bed plus a desk and other office necessities. So, what to do?

I decided to get a little creative. I knew that I wouldn't find the space in either guest room so I walked around the house to determine where I could find the space. I found the solution in a barely used guest room walk in closet and the linen hallway closet built next to it. 

Top row (from left to right) : 1) Before of the original (and very stinky) linen closet 2) The linen closet gutted to the studs now exposing the drywall of the guest room walk in closet behind it 3) The drywall of the partition wall between linen and guest room closets now removed. 

Middle row (from left to right): 1) Studs of the partition wall and remaining drywall removed 2) Room freshly drywalled and painted with Pergo laminate flooring installed 3) Office desk built and base boards installed

Bottom row: Office unit now complete with shelving unit and track lighting installed

After: My husband's new home office. No more paperwork schlepping or having to do his work on the kitchen island! I hope he gets a lot of use out of it

Project logistics: This project took around two weeks to complete (this included two full weekends of work and around 2 hours every day after work). I did the demo, sealed the old closet door to the guest room, painted and installed the laminate flooring, base boards, trim, desk and shelving unit. However, because there was electrical running through the partition wall, I did have to hire an (awesome!) electrician who moved the wiring, added two electrical outlets to the office and installed the track lighting. 

Big thank you to my personal assistant on this project, my patient english bulldog, Mac.