Pepper Design Blog

Office Makeover: All of the Trimmings

I love moulding. I adore moulding. Rooms that are trimmed with baseboards, lined windows and crown moulding have that clean and ‘finished’ look that’s hard to beat regardless of how much decorating and attention other areas of the room get. It’s the icing on the cake, the cherry on top, the well-deserved encore. I wish I could heed my own advice and install moulding in every room tonight, but it’s one of those painstakingly slow projects that despite the great results, is usually last on the list to get done (part of that is for good reason… you want your carpet and your wallpaper to sit under the molding, after all).

The new office just received her baseboards and window trim, though!

Wow, what a difference. Now that brown pops right off of the walls!

While traditional moulding can be quite fancy with all of the little grooves and edgings, I’ve always preferred classic and simple. It stands the test of time (in fact it looks more original in an older house) and provides a clean framing. I love the simple style so much that when purchasing, we opted for cheaper 1/2″ x 12′ boards rather than the pre-primed moulding options available.

For the floors, we chose a larger-than-average baseboard and it really helps to ground the space.

The trick to installing moulding as efficiently as possible is to measure twice, cut once (lesson learned). Each cut received a 45 degree angle so that the corners disappear into each other and it’s oh-so important that that 45 degree angle is cut in the right direction at the right length, otherwise you end up with a lot of re-dos.

With that comes the suggestion to make all of your cuts before you begin painting. It’s almost inevitable that you’ll make a bad cut and it’s such a shame when it’s on a 10′ baseboard that you’ve just primed, painted and repainted.

After painting and drying comes installation. We used a nail gun attached to a compressor for a quick install, making sure to nail the baseboard to the wall at each stud (usually 16″ intervals along the wall). The window trim received a nail each 8″ or so, plus the corners.

Next is caulking. We used plastic wood, a filler similar to caulking but one that dries as closely to wood as possible for the fewest seams. We filled those new nail holes, creases and gaps and then gave the plastic wood a good day to dry. A generous amount of sanding ensured that the filler was even with the original wood trim.

Finally the molding was painted over one last time to hide all of the new brown plastic wood filler spots. Speaking of paint, I read somewhere that bright white shows the most dust and that a shade just off will help to hide smudges. We’ll see how that works out!

And now those rich chocolate walls have white (or just off-white?) trim to help brighten the space! It looks great and I wish I could wave the magic wand to outfit every room with this simple but great looking moulding.

We painted a ‘faux’ moulding while originally painting each room (here’s a little clip of the living room) when we first moved in, hope to replace this with the real deal someday:

While we didn’t tackle crown moulding this time around, the room is beginning to take on that ‘finished’ look!

For more Office Makeover posts, check out: dining table-to-desk,  a new desk & bookshelves, installing remnant carpeting, grasscloth wallpaper, painting the office nook, finding carpet for the office, chocolate brown wall ideas, plastering progress,  inspiration for a diy desk, back in action!, desking hunting for under $300, bookcases under $300, inspirational rooms, room layout options, demo part 1 & demo part 2.

Office Makeover: Chop It Down, Chop It Down

Hope you had a great weekend! We’ve been busy over here c-l-e-a-n-i-n-g. If there’s one thing I hate about a project it’s that after you tear everything out of a room and transplant it to the garage, you have put it back into the space when you’re finished (on the plus side – our office is finished enough to begin putting everything back!).

You might remember that I found a dining table for the office that would work perfectly as a new desk. Well, a couple of weeks of functioning as a desk and we’re realizing the table is too big. I was originally hunting down a desk that was bigger than average, but my Craigslist dining table sticks out pretty far into the room when it has a chair pulled up to it (it’s a pretty narrow room). Bummer.

So the solution? Chop it down. We took the dining table out to meet the table saw and after flipping it over so that the table was legs side up, smoothly cut off several inches along the back side. Table liposuction.

Here’s a nice angle showing off our alley and trash cans. The newly cut side received a quick sanding to get rid of any rough edges or large splinters.

The front was left untouched so that we didn’t have to stain any raw wood. Then we brought the table back in and pushed the newly cut edge tight up against the wall.

While a few inches doesn’t sound like much, it made a big difference once the table was back in place as a desk.

Can’t tell the difference? I know… it’s not too exciting but it goes to show how easy it is to modify a Craigslist/antique/thrift store find with a little help from the power tools.

Check out these great souvenirs from our recent trip to Iowa:

Don’t they just scream Iowa? Just kidding. They’re the most unlikely to be picked up on vacation but I saw them in an antique/garden shop in little Woodward, Iowa (where Kevin’s Dad’s family is from) and found a way to stuff them in my suitcase. That’s a white ceramic lounging bird there on the left and an old flower pot on the right. The first accessories for the new space . And those fabrics are just the start of what I’m gathering for the room.

So cutting down the desk was no big deal – a quick one hour project including moving the piece of furniture, cutting, sanding and putting ‘er right back where we had found it!

For more Office Makeover posts, check out: a new desk & bookshelves, installing remnant carpeting, grasscloth wallpaper, painting the office nook, finding carpet for the office, chocolate brown wall ideas, plastering progress,  inspiration for a diy desk, back in action!, desking hunting for under $300, bookcases under $300, inspirational rooms, room layout options, demo part 1 & demo part 2.

Office Makeover: A New Desk & Bookshelves!

After mulling over this round-up of desks and then considering a diy version inspired by these, I finally stumbled across a great desk for the new office. And it’s nearly perfect as is!

While on the Craigslist hunt for a mid-century modern (ish) credenza for future office storage (one in need of much love and hopefully at a killer price), I opened a link to this dining table:

The wheels started spinning. One of my hopes for a new desk was that it would be BIG – not a measly 48″ (the standard size of a desk) but at least 60″ to corral all of my work projects. Well this dining room table was just that.

After negotiating with the seller, the table came home for just $125.

Plus, it goes great with our World Market Campaign bookshelves! Remember this post? While waiting on the construction side of the office space to wrap up, I had begun looking around for furniture for the room (so we could hit the ground running ) and was considering a bunch of different bookcase options.

I had narrowed down my favorites to several World Market contenders and earlier this summer, began the hunt for a way to purchase at the very best discount. If you sign up to receive emails you’ll receive a coupon for 10% off, but I had hoped for better. After inquiring with a sales associate about sales for furniture (nearly every mailed coupon excludes furniture), I learned that all furniture would be 30% off for one weekend at the end of June. Sweet! Next I began checking ebay and Craigslist for discounted gift cards that would knock another chunk off of the price. Low and behold, I came across a $500 card offered at $450 – and when I suggested $400, the seller agreed.

The original Campaign bookcases were priced $279 +tax each, meaning my new finds would have originally totaled $558 + tax (about $608). 30% off  of the pre-tax cost came to $390.60 + $35 in taxes = $425.60 for a total store discount of over $125! Add in the additional 20% off from the discounted gift card and I found my new bookcases for $340.60 or 45% off!

A little snafu: on the particular weekend that furniture was on sale, I happened to be on a business trip in the Bay Area AND the local store had only one bookshelf in stock. Since they wouldn’t allow for me to purchase remotely from another store, I had to rain check my sale and my awesome family (who live in the Bay Area) drove down the bookshelves on their next visit when World Market stocked them again. Oh what an adventure.

But back to the desk! My original though was to sand and stain the desk a darker brown to contrast with the bookcases, but I think they actually compliment each other pretty nicely. I love the natural wood look and am pretty thrilled it’s coming back around with the rise in mid-century modern furniture (not that these pieces are).

Would you look at those legs? Love them. When experimenting with a DIY desk, I thought about making my own X legs and adding an Ikea butcher block (with an added stain) topper. But these legs have a bit of a curve and they’re just perfect.

I may cut down the sides a few inches to make it a bit narrower, time will tell. And as for not having drawers? I’m planning on a little nightstand-turned-printer carriage to fit under the desk and to make up for lost storage.

Yay for a new desk AND bookcases!

For more Office Makeover posts, check out: remnant carpet, grasscloth wallpaper, painting the office nook, finding carpet for the office, chocolate brown wall ideas, plastering progress,  inspiration for a diy desk, back in action!, desking hunting for under $300, bookcases under $300, inspirational rooms, room layout options, demo part 1 & demo part 2.