Living and working in a fully styled environment has been ingrained in me since I was a child. My mom would (and still does) constantly decorate and redecorate the house. I remember thinking, “Didn’t you just do re-do this room??” Now as an adult, I see the need to change my surroundings was passed down to me. Clearly, there is nothing I can do about it so I may as well embrace it.
I’ve lived in my current apartment for a little under two years, and I’ve given my office/styling studio, at least, four makeovers since then. To be fair, the function of the room has changed.
When I first moved in, I converted the second bedroom into my closet. I had my handyman install some shelves, some racks, and I called it a day. I let the fashion be my decor.
I DIY’ed an island for my closet room.
A few months later, when my company ditched our office space, I decided to start working from home. My dream closet suddenly had to act like my closet, my office, and a place to work with clients.
Last year I added YouTube videos into the mix, so I took my everyday clothes and put them in my bedroom closet. NOW the space is a styling studio, an office, and a video studio.
Phew! Exhausted yet? I am.
Because I spend so much time in that room, I felt it needed a new look. Enter my handy boyfriend. I put his ass to work last week, and the results are glorious. This is just “phase 1”, so stay tuned for more exciting updates to my space.
The most recent version of my styling studio was pretty bare bones. I let the fashion do the talking and kept the walls white. If you’ve watched my videos or follow me on Instagram, you’ve seen the space.
The first step was to take everything out of the room; that was the easy step.
Step two was going to Home Depot and Lowes with my man. Yeah, that part was special. First of all, dudes LOVE Home Depot. Men love Home Depot like women love the shoe department at Barneys. Pretty sure we spent a good 20 minutes in the nail aisle looking at the zillions of nails and screws. Note to self, let him go to the hardware store on his own next time.
Then the work began.
I changed my mind a good five hundred times about painting the walls. First, I was on board, then I wasn’t, then I said screw it – slap on the paint. I went with an odd-ball two wall situation, and I like it.
The original shelves needed some serious jazzing, so I went to IKEA and bought a million wooden brackets for the shelves. My man spraypainted them gold. While he had the paint out, I had him spraypaint a bookcase I got at IKEA as well.
Oh yeah and then I asked him to add another shelf, and to remove one of the original racks, oh and to hang my mirror in the hall. He worked his ass off, and I love him for it.
After a few days of hard work, I was able to put everything back into my new fancy pants room. Doesn’t it look great?! We aren’t 100% finished; there are a few more stylish additions that are going to be popping up, but I was so excited that I had to do a reveal.
How do you style your space?
So GREAT! Love it!!
Thank you 🙂
Looks awesome I’m going to be doing this very soon but I’m going to need a L-shaped desk. I also can’t decide on my color scheme since my office and living room will share same area.
Thanks! I used to have an L-shaped desk. Love those. Boss babe style 😉
It looks great!! You should submit it to HGTV Magazine, It’s very inspirational.
Thank you! Love me some HGTV
Looks fab Lauren! Loved the way you had the room before. Looking forward to seeing how it looks in the videos!