DIY: home studio makeover

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MY HOME STUDIO MAKEOVER

“My vision for this space was to have a place for all of my interior samples to live – as well as create a space that would inspire me each and every day.”

This weekend I finally bit the bullet and decided to tackle a project I’ve had on my list for a very long time.

We moved into our home just over two years ago, and our ‘front room’ has always been my home office and quasi-studio.

It’s a beautiful open room that looks out onto our street, and features stunning four metre raked ceilings. It’s where I work, design, create, and get inspired. To put it simply, it’s where the magic happens.

The only fault it has is some (hideous but practical) data/power points smack bang in the middle of the wall I stare at whenever I’m working.

From the moment we moved in I always had plans to purchase a really nice feature artwork to cover them up. And while this would have been a great way to finish this space off, I guess I never followed through because I had bigger ideas.

My vision for this space was to have a place for all of my interior samples to live – as well as create a work haven that would inspire me each and every day.

My first thought was to cover the entire wall in a felt acoustic material, but because the ceiling is so high there would have been visible joins and we still would have had to cut around the data points and a vent higher up the wall. Not to mention it would have been costly.

That’s when I started thinking about how I could get the look I was after on a smaller scale and budget.

After consulting my trusty friend Pinterest, I landed on a simple picture ledge with some felt or canvas pinboards. Then all I had left to do was install it.

The materials

I knew exactly what I wanted, now I just had to go out and find it.

The Mosslanda Picture Ledge from Ikea was the perfect fit for my space at 115cm wide to sit just right between my bookshelf and monitor. I went with the white finish so that it would blend into the wall and make the samples sitting on it be the star of the show.

Full disclosure the shelf does not come with hardware to fix it to the wall, so you will have to source that separately (but who doesn’t love a trip to Bunnings).

Next, I sourced the pin boards. There’s an endless amount of options out there for this, but I really wanted something that had a nice finish to it and would help elevate my space instead of just being a means to an end.

I found these 45x60cm Otto Felt Memo Boards at Officeworks and instantly fell in love. The felt grabbed me from my original idea of covering the wall in acoustic panelling, and it felt like a great compromise. No pun intended.

The process

Once I had sourced all of my materials, it was time to get down and dirty putting it all together.

Not only did I want to create this sample display with the ledge and boards above my desk, I also saw it as an opportunity to zhush up my bookshelves to complete the space.

stage 1

I thought it would be best to start with the easiest task (I may or may not have regretted this later), and stripped my bookshelves to begin the styling process here.

I already had all the pieces I needed for this, so it was a pretty straightforward process. I swapped out some less aesthetically pleasing storage items for some that fit better with the space on the top and bottom shelves, inverted the books on the next shelves in for a neutral look, and reserved the two middle shelves for my nicer hardcover books and personal pieces, creating a vignette to break everything up.

stage 2

Next, I began installing the picture ledge and felt boards. It was time to measure up!

I knew I wanted the ledge to sit centre between the bookshelf and my monitor, as well as high enough up that I could still place items on my desk whilst not being too high that I couldn’t reach the samples on it while sitting down.

Once I had it measured up and level, I installed some plaster anchors for added support and screwed it on.

Next I installed the felt boards. Luckily these did come with hardware, and were a lot easier to install. The hardest part was measuring up to make sure they would sit at the right height above the ledge. I positioned them to sit perfectly over the data points I was trying to hide, as well low enough for me to reach the top.

Stage 3

Easily the most fun part of this project, the last stage was laying out all my samples on the new displays.

I tried to mix and match textures, tones and colours with the samples on the picture ledge, while also creating variation in heights. I used some elevated pins and clips to secure the samples on the felt boards, and followed the same process of mixing and matching samples here as I did down below.

The result

It's certainly not the biggest or most grand DIY makeovers in history, but I am so happy with how this little transformation of my home studio turned out.

It certainly took a lot more blood, sweat and tears to accomplish than the modest result would have you believe, but it was so worth the effort.

So if you’ve been thinking about doing something similar to a space in your home, this is your sign to do it!

You can check out a video of the makeover process over on my Instagram here.

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