I know I originally said I wasn’t going to refer to my new computer area as a ‘home office’ though it’s just the most self-explanatory title, so home office it is.

You may remember I was in a bit of a pickle over finding some appropriate cabinetry. The restrictive proportions of the space teamed with our hulking great computer (and other paraphernalia) plus the need to store ALL of our books was making my search really tricky.

Though as you may or may not know, I’m not a millionaire, so I couldn’t quite stomach the idea of forking out big bikkies on a bespoke build.

Well….we were at a family birthday recently when a builder friend of ours mentioned, without even a word about my home office dilemma – promise – that he was interested in some extra little ‘backyard’ jobs.
Could his timing have been more perfect?
So I brought up my conundrum and after some discussion we decided it was a great win-win solution.

A few weeks on I now have this….

Granted, it is hard to decipher from that photo, and I’m not trying to be elusive, it’s just the best ‘before’ shot I could muster. Basically it’s a simple free standing modular-type cabinet. There will be a long spanning desk sandwiched between two deep lower cabinets and two tall upper bookcases. It’s a pretty conventional solution, kinda like this (minus the mini guitar and green tractor)….

As much as I covet built-in cabinetry, we have eventual plans to remodel some of our internal rooms so I wasn’t ready to go down that long road yet. Having a free-standing unit gives us the flexibility to reposition it if needed plus there is no installation required.

To keep costs down our friend built the cabinet out of pine ply and, of course, I’m finishing it off myself. In the above ‘before’ shot it is waiting in my parent’s driveway for a nice refreshing white paint shower courtesy of one of these bad boys….

I paint with an air compressor and spray gun quite a bit. It’s especially awesome for large or intricate pieces. There are pros and cons to forgoing the brush, though for a big project like this the spray gun is simply faster and less monotonous – which basically means at the end of the day hopefully I’ll still have some hair left (albeit paint-caked)!

I’m sorry that I don’t yet have an ‘after’ shot to share, though it’s coming….
one day….
soon….
hopefully :-)