So 2020… what a year, eh?! All over the world, Lockdown life has pulled focus on our living spaces; the home & garden DIY bug has truly taken a hold. Whilst throwing at us its many challenges, you could say — for some of us — it has also given us back the gift of time. Time to reflect. Time to take stock of what’s important — and what isn’t. Time to declutter our lives and with it came the impetus to redecorate our homes.

With normal work life still feeling very much up in the air, and COVID19 guidance asking us to continue to work from home if you can. Many of us have found that actually… come to think of it… we are not missing the daily commute and have truly revelled in the chance to swap a crowded bus or train it for a work from home life. As it stands, it looks like we will not be returning to normal work in an office for another 6-months minimum — if at all, for many businesses. Working life, as we knew it, changed beyond recognition, almost over night.

When I got my new job back in July, with it came the realisation that I too would be working from home and mostly communicating via video calls. Back in March, after taking stock of our relationship, my in-between-jobs status and lack of steady income, we had already come to the conclusion that I would be moving in with my partner. When faced with the task of moving me into his flat, at the beginning of lockdown, this meant merging our two lives — and with it our belongings — which whilst easy in many ways, it required A LOT of decluttering!

As any of you who have ever moved in with another adult human being will know, moving house is never easy. In fact, I’ll put my hands up and say it’s actually one of my all-time least favourite things to do — along with getting a divorce; unfortunately, I’m very well-versed in both of them.

Anyway, when it came to sorting out a place for me to work from home, it meant transforming his spare guest bedroom into a multi-function space that both of us could use. No easy feat, eh? The task: create a spare bedroom that could not only act as my home office, house my wardrobe, but be able to transform into a functional guest bedroom at the drop of one of our many hats…

Anyway, when it came to sorting out a place for me to work from home, it meant transforming the spare guest bedroom into a multi-function space. No easy feat, eh? We had to create a spare bedroom that could not only act as my home office, house my wardrobe and be able to transform into a functional guest bedroom at a moment’s notice. 

When I first moved in back in mid March 2020, the spare guest bedroom was home to an old IKEA sofa bed, the clothes drying racks, the hoover, the iron & ironing board, a gym bag, an old chest from Rob’s mum’s uni data, and... erm... not much else! 

Then in I swoop with my clothing rail open wardrobe, laden with everything I own... a gazillion shoes... an IKEA FINNVARD trestle desk with birch legs, which cost £25 each and you’ll beed two, plus an IKEA LINNMON table top - £25, to complete the look... my iMac... and the other things I’ve accumulated after 5-years of working for myself. Note: the fact I own a printer causes Rob a lot of dismay... he’s given me an ultimatum: if you haven’t used that bloody printer by this time next year, we’re getting rid of it! Who owns a bloody printer in 2020?!” He raged! “Erm... me?” I say, sheepishly. Determined that I might still actually need it, you know... to print out a client deck that I need to proof read... or something... Haha!

Anyway... back to the fitting me and my work from home needs into my boyfriend’s small-ish 2-bed flat. It soon became pretty apparent that the current storage situation was going to be an issue... 

If I was to be on daily Microsoft Teams calls, I didn’t really think it was very professional to have my the contents of my wardrobe and any laundry on display for the world and her wife to see (as clean and lovely as it might be, after Rob’s fabric softener obsession...) We needed to address the situation. Grab it! By the seat of whosever pants were on display... and get something assembled that would make things a little more aesthetically pleasing and also be practical.

Now, I’m going to be honest. This transformation from a spare bedroom, into girlfriend’s wardrobe-slash-office-slash-guest bedroom-slash-laundry room... wasn’t without its costs.

I must’ve spent at least a couple of days dithering over the fact I was soon to blow about £300 on IKEA flat pack furniture. I winced when I hit ‘pay now’ — these weren’t the sleek fitted wardrobe solution I’d envisaged bestowing upon our alcoves. Nope! That initial idea got binned after I contacted a Surrey carpenter, who quoted about £2.5-3k minimum, for the job. Jesus! I swear they must I’ve taken a look at our address and thought “Yeah, Surrey folks innit. Must be minted. Money to burn...” *rubs hands gleefully and triples the price*

I moan, but I’m joking... slightly... I know how much hard graft goes into the work of a tradesman. My step dad and uncle are plumbers. They have spent many years training to be good at what they do, so that they can make our lives easier, should they spring a leak... and I can’t imagine being a carpenter is any easier! That’s wood artistry. I know. Something I couldn’t do myself... but! Still... the budget for our storage problem wasn’t in the thousands... more like low hundreds... and by low... I mean £200. Max. 

We ended up purchasing two IKEA PAX wardrobes (one tall – ceiling scraping height - 50x60x236 cm for £120 without doors or handles, and one slightly shorter - 50x60x201 cm for £100, again without doors or handles — which can fit a storage box on top of it). The great thing about the Ikea PAX wardrobes is that you can completely customise them to suit your storage needs. The Ikea website has a PAX planner – a wardrobe design tool, to help you suss out the best layout and fit for your space. (P.s. I think it’s desktop only — I don’t think it’s compatible with iOS yet... but do prove me wrong and let me know!) 

In terms of configuration, I chose two hanging rails in the tall one, one for long dresses, and one shorter. For the shorter IKEA PAX wardrobe, I opted for a hanging rail up top and a few drawers underneath, so that I could store my shoes out of view.

We opted for IKEA BERGSBO doors with hinges, which are compatible with the IKEA PAX wardrobe range. For the IKEA PAX BERGSBO wardrobe door handles, I chose the IKEA ÖSTERNÄS pale brown leather pull handles, 65mm, but decided to get Rob to attach them with the reverse side up, so that the rougher, darker reverse side of the leather fabric was showing instead. These are £10 for a pack of 2. We also decided to open them out into a handle, instead of folding them in half, like a pull.

Now I must add, though the IKEA PAX wardrobes are not quite wide enough to fit snuggly in the alcoves, in a way that really maximises all of the space... the little gaps down the side are pretty handy for storing your ironing board or clothes drying racks. However, there are some really cool IKEA PAX wardrobe hacks that I stumbled upon (whilst on one of my mega Pinterest pinning missions) that look blooming amazing! They have even painted the PAX wardrobes and added extra trims and coving, so that they look perfectly fitted into the alcoves.

Whilst ordering the wardrobes and innards, we also purchased one of the IKEA shoe storage solutions. It’s the IKEA HEMNES shoe cabinet with 4 compartments in white, and it now sits in our hallway. A funny little space between the living room and bathroom of our flat. The lovely thing is, because the shoe cabinet is only slim, it doesn’t take up too much space, but still creates more of a feature of that walk through. Perfect for a photo frame and a few candles.

Anyway... back to the office/wardrobe/guest bedroom/laundry room conundrum... We made the decision to flog the old ikea sofa bed on Facebook marketplace. We justified its removal by the fact that the frequency or duration any guests actually staying over would be so infrequent, as to just maximise the available space by removing it and buying a decent double air bed instead. Note: our friends came to stay for a couple of nights... so we gave them our bedroom, and opted to sleep on the air bed... I reckon it’s alright for a night... but two is a bit challenging on the old back... 

Next up, we had to do something about storing my books... which were gathering dust and cluttering up the spare room windowsill, as a temporary measure. I knew that shelves were the answer... but what should I go for? We spotted those floating style LACK shelves in IKEA (B&Q) also do their own version. But! For love nor money, locating any of them right now is a nightmare! COVID19 has meant that certain items are sold out or delayed. 

AFTER…

The spare room to home office big reveal!

In the end, we went for the IKEA BERGSHULT / PERSHULT shelf and bracket solution. If you’re a fan of String-style shelves, but need a more budget-friendly option... then the IKEA BERGSHULT / PERSHULT shelf and bracket combo (priced from £15 - £39) might be exactly what you’re looking for. You can assemble the brackets on top or beneath the shelf, depending on your design preference. I chose to have them at the top, with the shelf below. To store all of the books, I bought three of the smaller 80cm x 20cm shelves. Then also bought one 120cm x 30cm version of the IKEA BERGSHULT/ PERSHULT shelves too, to put up high and store things that aren’t used on a daily basis. 

Even our Dyson V8 cordless vacuum cleaner has found a new home. A small-spacing living hack of our own: hang your Dyson charger on the back of the door, so that it’s out of sight. Note: not loitering menacingly in the back of your video meeting!

The chair is a rather fancy little purchase I splurged on from Oliver Bonas. It’s the Oliver Bonas TRESS mustard yellow velvet chair, and I LOVE IT! My mate, EJP, has its sister in blue. Lush! https://www.oliverbonas.com/furniture/tress-velvet-chair P.s. they also offer cracking blue light card discount!

The art work above the desk is by artist & illustrator, Joe Wilson, and the frames are IKEA. 

We’re really happy with the finished look. It now feels like a much calmer and more organised space to work in. I hope this blog post helps you find home & interior inspiration for your own home office DIY projects. 

Thanks for reading!

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