Under Stairs Office Makeover

With all my blogging and photography work, I’ve been needing a space that I can keep my blog calendar, supplies, and just sit and stare at something pretty. Since all the rooms in our house are being used or are unfinished, I decided to maximize our under the stairs area and turn it into my little office space. The under-the-stairs area in our house is tiny and I had no idea what to use it for before, but I love it now! The best part was, it didn’t actually require any building or hard projects, just a little paint and some decorations!

When we moved in, it had that shelf in there that I took out and stained the darker color to match the hard wood floors upstairs. As we moved in, it became a place where I stacked all our pictures and art to go on the walls. When I move, I take a really long time getting things up on the walls. It’s not that I don’t feel like putting stuff up, I just like taking my time figuring out what would go perfect where. For example, I almost hung these shutters upstairs and if I had, I would never have considered putting them beneath the stairs. So, when I decided to start making this spot into my office, it looked like this-

A lot of junk, and this was after I had hung a bunch up already. There are no outlets in this area, and it is small and dark feeling, so I knew I wanted to lighten it up. The walls were a dark greige color that felt brown in that space. I had gotten a can of oops paint from Home Depot that looked light grey, so I started painting with that, but the color dried really brassy and dirty looking, so I starting dumping in leftover cans of white and light grey and just kept adding them in until it became a color I liked. Then I added back in the wooden shelves.

The shutters we got from a house the day before they demo-ed it. The fronts are black and originally I planned on spray painting them and putting them somewhere, but while I was spray painting them I flipped them over and really liked the natural aged wood color on the back, so I sanded most of the black (and green and red underneath) paint off the sides and put on a light coat of Minwax Finishing Paste to make them look just a little more polished and finished. Originally, I didn’t have the shutters up and had a pin-board instead. I had the shutters out moving them around and laid one against the wall here and it looked amazing. It was like Joanna Gaines was speaking to me through the universe haha I’m on the hunt for the perfect small wreaths to hang on top of the shutters.

If you aren’t lucky enough to have somewhere to get shutters free, most antique stores have some (although they tend to be just as expensive as new ones!), or Amazon has some beautiful unfinished wood brand new shutters, and some barn style ones that would be great for getting the same look.

I love this Katie Daisy print, I’ve had it for years and always have it somewhere. I picked up the mint clipboard, little lanterns, the calendar, letter holder, and string lights all in the One Spot Shop dollar section at the front of Target. The lights were perfect since there are no outlets in this space (yet) so I can turn them on for a little extra light other than what the hall light does. My new Loretta Lynn album has been sitting there while I decide if I’m ever going to open it or not. This is the first time a real LP of hers has come out in my lifetime and I’m cherishing it like the gem it is.

Our under the stair area went from being dark, awkward, and un-used to bright, cute, and a great place for me to be able to focus and use. I can even see as the kids get older it being a great place for them to color or do homework. At some point we might have an electrician come out and add an outlet too so I can plug in my laptop or printer  or have a light and I might have Brandon build me a drawer or filing cabinet to make some storage space, but it’s amazing what a coat of paint and a little decorating can do! I might even just buy one of those battery operated chandeliers to add a little more cute light.

Check out the widget below for similar office decor to mine!

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