DIY Life

A couple of months ago I made the switch from working full-time in a typical 8-5 office to working full-time from home. While I love working from home, my office leaves a little to be desired. Instead of the large office I used to have, I now work in a tiny corner of my living room.

So redesigning my office space is on the forefront of my mind: storage, comfort, and functionality are the priorities. When searching for creative ideas, I found an article from Shape with some great tips for creating a healthy home office. I'll share some of the tips I'm going to try after the break.

A few years ago I scored a contract to give a customer's home a face lift. The first basic thing I was doing was removing the old pine 1" X 4" trim and replacing it with Hardie plank trim. The second chore was repainting the siding, which was approximately three quarters of the home.

This particular house was a two story (plus a ground-level carport) so that meant a lot of ladder dragging. Because of that, I broke the work up into manageable chunks. Replace trim, caulk, paint, and then move on to the next section.Today I'll share some of the things I did to work efficiently and make the customer happy.

Much to my husband's disappointment (and, dare I say, annoyance), I love to buy unfinished furniture. Yes, OK, he has a point that the pieces sit in the basement far too long, waiting to be painted, but I love the look when they are finally done.

The reasons for choosing unfinished furniture are many. It is much easier to finish a piece that is clean wood than it is to refurbish an already-finished piece. You get to customize your piece, so it has more personality than something right out of a furniture showroom. And saying you did it yourself is priceless.

The piece shown in the picture is a jelly cabinet I bought to use as a linen cabinet, since we have no linen closet in our upstairs hallway. It was so easy to do. You'll need:

• Kilz water-based primer
• main color latex paint
• accent color latex paint
• mini trim paint roller and extra roller replacements
• screwdriver to remove the hardware on the door and handle

You are just a few simple steps away from a finished cabinet.