Budget-Friendly Solutions

Expanded filing and storage space topped Donna's wish list. She wanted something dressier than utilitarian file cabinets, but her budget couldn't handle built-ins. So she compromised, purchasing five simple oak-veneer cabinets at an office supply store and painting them the same cream hue as the walls.

She nestled the cabinets together along the wall opposite her desk, creating an instant credenza with a custom-built look. "The really important stuff -- my files, my [photo] shoot folders -- is in there so I can get my hands on it," she says. Necessities such as a printer and fax machine rest on top.

 

Two premade bookcases, painted cream and butted side by side, mimic custom units. Donna chose them for their depth because many of her design books are extra-wide. Her desk has no drawers, so a tiny file box stores supplies such as paper clips. Black-painted wicker baskets keep hot projects close at hand.

 

Plain curtain panels, two for each of the two windows, were dressed up with black braid trim from a crafts store. Donna hung them on discount-store metal rods painted black, which pick up the black accents in the room and enhance the custom feel.

 

"I am not a little-bulletin-board person," Donna says. "At any given time I have two or three projects going simultaneously." To get the pinup space she needed, she wrapped a piece of Homasote board (made of recycled material and often carried at home centers or lumberyards) with burlap. When she heard about a framing sale at a crafts store, she pounced on the chance to have the board custom framed. At $110, it was still a splurge, but Donna thinks the extra visual flourish was worth it. "It's the big punctuation mark over the credenza," she says.

 

A pair of desks in the old office -- one a clunky wooden unit, the other a salvaged door propped on file drawers -- gave Donna plenty of room to spread out papers. But with her chair sandwiched between them, "I really felt squished in," she says. The wooden desk had to go, but she liked the old door for its breadth.

She painted it cream and used screws and L-brackets to attach newel legs, bought unfinished at a lumberyard and painted black. A faux leather office chair was replaced with a Parsons chair Donna already owned, which she slipcovered in her favorite black-and-white ticking.

 

Burlap inserts add texture to off-the-rack picture frames with white mats. Donna simply laid the burlap (which she already had on hand) behind the mats and then mounted photos to the front with double-sided tape. The frames' back panels hold the burlap securely in place.

 

Although the two closets were equipped with wire shelving, Donna needed more specialized storage solutions to tame clutter. Decorative file boxes, assorted trays and baskets, and standing magazine holders corral photos, CDs, periodicals, and office supplies for easy access.

Thanks to smart buys and do-it-yourself labor, Donna was able to keep the office makeover close to her $1,000 target.

• Paint (antique white and black) $56
• File cabinets $295
• Bookcases $238
• Curtains and trim $50
• Curtain rods $24
• Homasote board $24
• Bulletin board frame $110
• Burlap $10
• Newels for desk $32
• Chair slipcover fabric $9
• Picture frames and mats $44
• Storage baskets and boxes $137
• TOTAL $1,029