Choosing built-ins for our home office has been a work in progress for the past 5 years. I discovered the ikea billy at time when I felt like I was never going to find something that worked within our set budget. On a shopping trip to ikea for another item entirely, we walked through the bookcase section. What intrigued and attracted me to the billy cases, where the fact that I could customize it to our space. After numerous back and forth between my husband and i. We finally decided that we wanted to go the DIY route. Instead of having the builtin’s custom made.
One night the design idea for the builtin’s came to me. I drew it up on a scratch paper for my husband whom could not understand my thought process at the time. When you walk into our home the first place you see is the new home office. Which in the original plan by the builder was to be a formal dinning room. We decided to for go a formal dinning and in lieu of using it as a home office. So I wanted this room to give great first impression to anyone that walks into our home.
My design was to create a U shaped book case design, creating room in the center for an artwork or television a compromise I will have to make with my husband. I also wanted to incorporate or use different door styles on the cabinets. I selected two pairs of glass doors, that will be used to display all the books and various design elements. We will also have a set of wooden doors that would be used for storing and filling important documents.and lastly there will be an open shelving for storage baskets that will be used to store kids toys or other things kids tend to accumulate in ones space.
HOME OFFICE BEFORE
THE HOW
The first step was to measure length, width and height of the wall. In order to determine how many of the billy cases needed to fill the entire wall. So we determined we needed the items listed below:
ITEMS PURCHASED
- 2 BILLY / OXBERGBookcase with door, white15 3/4×11 3/4×41 3/4 ” (40x30x106 cm)
- 1 BILLY Bookcase, white15 3/4x11x41 3/4 ” (40x28x106 cm)
- BILLYBookcase(2), white15 3/4x11x93 1/4 ” (40x28x237 cm)
- 2 BILLY / OXBERGBookcase with glass-door, white/glass15 3/4×11 3/4×93 1/4 ” (40x30x237 cm)
- 2 BILLY / OXBERGBookcase, white31 1/2×11 3/4×93 1/4 ” (80x30x237 cm)
My husband assembled and installed the shelves mostly on his own. Then my brother came in at the later end to help in install the doors. My role in this was to coordinate the crew. After we completed the install of the book cases. There were approximately two inches left on both sides of the wall. Which to be quiet honest, was not a big deal to us. so we decided to leave it as is. Who knows maybe in the future, we may add extensions on both ends to create the full built in look. We secured the the bookcases together, using screws my husband purchased from home depot.
STYLING
In styling the books shelves, I have used a combination of books, vases and styling objects. It is still a learning curve and I am constantly moving objects around. My plan is to take my time and collect items that speak to me as we go. The billy cabinets came with white knobs, that I changed to brass pulls. The quality of the pulls were impressive and it gave the cabinets a more finished look. I used a combination of the 23/8 inch knobs and the 71/2 inch knobs.
My husband primarily works from this room. Due to him having lower back pains from having injuries from playing football. The flexispot sit and stand desk was gifted to me some months back by the company. Which in turn gave to him as a fathers day gift last year. A hug hit by the way, he utilizes the stand option when he has been at the desk for hours on end. A typical work day for him can be any where from 8-10 hr. Thats a long time to be sitting. The desk was strategically placed by the window, so that way he can have a look out while working. In other not to feel closed in the house.
ACESSORIES
On the opposite end of the desk I placed two blue velvet accent chairs. The goal is too make the room multipurpose space. By doing this, we created a secondary sitting area on the ground floor. That can also be used has an office during the weekdays. My husband will like to have Samsung frame in the nook between the cabinets. This will eventually happen at a later time. To help contain the chaos of multiple cords and three computer screens. I found a storage case for cords on amazon, to help coral all the numerous cords. That comes with having three computer screens.
The previous rug and carpet in the space before was taken out. We installed cherry colored hardwood flooring in its place. I layered the wood floors with a white and grey rug to add some depth and texture to the space. On the opposite end of the end chairs we placed this modern wood and gold accent table from ikea.
