Inside: Planning and designing a colourful home office, including paint colours, flooring sources and furniture.
Well, here we are. A beautiful light-filled space that, at least for me, is the stuff of dreams. If you’ll permit me to be emotional for just a wee moment – I never thought I’d see this day. I never thought I’d prioritize myself and my burgeoning business over all the other (million) projects in this house and I never thought the wall in this space would come down. 
But here I sit. And it’s happened. I’ve been so fortunate to have some incredible partners in this full basement renovation. Firstly, our contracting team – you can read about how we researched and interviewed and hired the right contractor here. Secondly, my amazing sponsors from Home Hardware who were instrumental in helping me learn and source the exact right insulation, doors and paint for this room. (If you want a nitty gritty explainer on how to pick insulation I have one here for you).
Thirdly, and I have to give mega props here, to April Stroink, our money coach, who not only helped us see that this dream space was affordable and attainable for us, but also helped put me on a major path to profit and savings that is making it much more fun to ‘work’ down here daily.
Okay, I did not intend for this post to read like an Academy Awards Acceptance Speech, but that’s how I feel! Like I’ve won the lottery 🙂 Without further ado, here’s the before and after you’ve been waiting for!
The ‘Office’ BEFORE
I chose this photo as the BEFORE, even though it’s technically a couple of versions beyond the original because I think it at least shows I was ‘trying’ to make something out of the space, right?
The things I want you to notice are the light pouring in through that steel door and the horrific situation with the flooring.
When looking towards that curtain area, here’s the best BEFORE shot that tells that story.
Guys, this room was just a HOT MESS.
Okay, so now let’s go through that steel door (which was the actual exterior of the house) and into what used to be called the Garden Room. It is/was an uninsulated indoor/outdoor porch that we converted into living space. It was always FREEZING in there in the winter and BOILING in there in the summer.
There were no outlets to plug things in and I was never happy with being able to keep it clean and organized.
Let’s not even talk about the intense slope that was the floor. We actually had the contractors come and level the floor before doing any other work. It was really bad.
Here is what it looked like just before the big renovation began. And guys, I cleaned it up for this before photo LOL. 
Well here it is now. I’m still in shock that we pulled this off. It’s honestly the happiest room in the house. It’s SO COZY! We ended up pulling out what little insulation was in the walls and adding new R24 insulation and holy moly! It’s made a giant difference. 
We ended up walling off the laundry space and adding in a gorgeous pocket door. Initially my plan was to have this all be one giant room, but then Dan pointed out that I probably didn’t want to stare at piles of laundry all day while I was working. 
So I’m giving credit where it’s due – the pocket door was his idea and it’s MY FAVORITE THING. 
I chose to paint it this stunning teal colour – which is called Joyful Tears by Beauti-Tone (available at Home Hardware Stores across the country) and I laugh because I had Joyful Tears when I saw how gorgeous this door was!! 
Here’s the one thing I learned about pocket doors. Okay two things.
One – kids love them. They are way more fun than normal doors.
Two – it’s really best to install them into a new wall or plan for them when your walls are open. Our contractor said it’s much easier to install the kit and hardware before the trim and such goes on. 
The other last minute switcher-oo I made was the sliding exterior door. The old door (which was 30 years old and original to the house) opened as a right-handed door. It always bugged me because it meant I could never put anything beneath the giant windows. 
So I chatted with Home Hardware and they helped me find a left-handed sliding door and I made the upgrade and it’s just a small thing, but it’s actually a BIG THING 🙂 
It means there’s better flow in the room. I can now have a pretty little plant corner under the window (and I have plans for a Christmas tree there too!) and the new door has a much better seal on it, which means fewer cold draughts and such. 
When people see this room, they almost always comment on the pops of colour! Which is so my thing and I love them too. But the colours only really work because they are bouncing off the white walls. For the white, I chose Beauti-Tone’s Love Letters and honestly, it’s like the best white paint ever. (And I’ve used a lot of white paints in my time as a DIY Blogger).
There’s going to be a lot of fun and good things coming out of this room and I can’t wait to share it all with you!
