Tag Archives for house

The Battleroom | Phase II: Mini-hackerspace

I was going to make some stupid Limp Bizkit “Nookie” reference but I refrained. Anyway, I’m making progress on The Battleroom. I’ve had a few set backs, and have completely reimagined parts of it, but overall I’m pretty happy with how it’s coming along.

One of the areas I was stuck on when we moved in is this little nook in the corner of the room. It’s not quite big enough to put a desk or anything substantial, but it’s not small enough to just ignore it. Originally I had planned to build my bookshelves there, but I opted to put them in my closet instead (more on that later). Luckily, I have a smart boyfriend who suggested making it into a crafting/hacking area, which is what we did.

I had originally bought the yellow paint for the inside of the closet, but this worked out better as an accent wall. The color I chose is Valspar’s dandelion chain.

I chose a pegboard since I plan to use this area for building things, and I didn’t want to shove the tools in my filing cabinet. Plus I think they look cool.

The surface is made out of fence posts I bought at Home Depot, and also used on the bookshelves I built. I like that they look unfinished, and I also don’t mind if they get scratches or paint on them (because they most likely will).

I’ve had the filing cabinet for a while, as well as the chair, which we got as a pair at a thrift store a few years ago. They were supposed to be our kitchen table chairs but we got a new dining table and chairs last year, so now they serve miscellaneous purposes. When we got them, we painted them and reupholstered the cushion. It fits pretty perfectly in this spot.

I want to use the wall on the left for project ideas, but for now I put some Portal stickers and some pages I liked from National Geographic. :)

I’m pretty happy with how this area turned out. It’s nice to have another surface in my office besides my computer desk.

The Battleroom | Painting

The “Planning my battleroom” series is now “The Battleroom.” Follow progress on my workspace here! 

I present to you… the battleroom!

Okay, it doesn’t look like much now. But it’s getting there. (Also, it’s not yellow. I think I took those pictures around midnight yesterday.)

The first thing I needed to do before I did anything else to this room was get the accent wall painted. If you remember the pictures I posted for inspiration, nearly all of them had a grey wall, and I’ve been hooked on that idea ever since.

I picked Dark Mink for my wall color, since it felt more on the warmer side than some of the other greys I browsed.

These pictures really don’t do it justice, but it really looks great.

Phase 1: Complete!

Planning my battleroom | Colors & patterns

We’re moving on Saturday, and I’m really excited to get my new home workspace set up! Today we went and bought our paint. I’ve decided to paint a wall of my office a dark, warm grey color called Deep Mink. I’ll probably paint the wall my bookshelves will go against, or the wall behind my desk. I also plan on converting the closet into an open storage space, so I’ll be taking the doors off of it and painting the inside a medium yellow–called Dandelion Chain. (The orange Buttercup Squash color is going on a wall in our living room.)

I really like yellow and grey as a color combination. When I Googled it, here are a few images I found inspiring:

I don’t plan on making gray and yellow the only color scheme for the room. I thought they would both work well with other colors. For instance, I have an old dark green Army trunk with a red and yellow label on it. I’d also like to get a couple of hot pink or red accessories. I figure I can mix and match a bit while still making things feel unified.

I’ve also been looking for other elements for the room, especially rugs. I think a great rug really pulls a room together, and we picked out a beautiful one for our living room yesterday. Having a unique rug in my office will help me to merge the themes I’m going for with my decor–modern, industrial and a little rustic. I will probably buy a solid color rug and paint it myself with the pattern I like, but I plan to pull ideas from these I found on Ikea’s website:

Tomorrow I’m heading back to the army surplus store to price out a set of lockers I’ve had my eye on for a while. My idea is to clean them up and spray paint them and use them for storage in the closet. This isn’t a very good picture of them, but I snapped it last time we were there:

Here are some examples of lockers used as home decor:

I love how these look in these rooms, and I’m excited to bring these ideas into my home!