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Back in December, in the midst of holiday craziness, I had an out-of-nowhere moment of inspiration to transform my husband’s neglected office in the woods into my own personal she-shed work space.

A handful of years ago, my husband and his dad built a shed in the back corner of our property using mostly reclaimed windows and very basic materials. We affectionately nicknamed it his “little office in the woods”. It was a lovely place to work– quiet and serene. It was, however, a little utilitarian for me.

My husband’s work changed a couple of years ago, and having a quiet place to read and write was no longer as essential. So the office was largely left alone.

I decided that it was time to give the little office in the woods a facelift and a new life. After all, I definitely would enjoy a quiet place to think and work…

She-Shed On A Shoestring

I pitched the idea of working together on making the office my own to my good friend Sue (@thatswhatsuesays on Instagram). Sue is a pro shopper and deal getter, and has a great eye for style and design.

Sue and our friend Liz came over mid-January to hang out, and while the kids ran wild around the yard, I showed them the shed and we started to cast a vision for what it could be like.

The catch? I wanted to try and repurpose, buy used, and make-do as much as possible. My “she-shed on a shoestring”.

BEFORE

Like I mentioned before, the office was previously my husband’s space. He chose the paint color, the wall art, and built two simple desks– one to sit at, and one for standing.

The yellow paint color was never my favorite, but he said it was a happy color and that was what mattered.

I took the pictures below on the day the girls and I checked out the state of the office. It needed a cleaning, but at least you get an idea of what it started like.

Over the next couple of months, I stripped everything out of the office, we brainstormed, pitched ideas and paint colors, and before too long, the girls were back in the shed with me rolling on a couple coats of paint. (That I did not spend any money on! More on that in a moment).

I was able to find many items at the thrift store and shopped my basement for others, but I did decide that there were a few things that were worth getting new. And building ourselves.

Keep scrolling to see the incredible transformation of my she-shed. It truly is such a lovely, peaceful space and I’m so happy with how it turned out. It’s not perfect and there are a few cut-corners”, but honestly, that’s just me. I don’t mind imperfections and just shrug my shoulders at the “rustic charm” of a cinderblock step and the paint handprint next to the door.

AFTER

PAINT

I chose a very calm light green for the walls. With three of the walls being almost completely windows looking out into the woods, I wanted a color that would complement the expansive green of the trees. 

The color is a Valspar color called “Morning Zen”. While shopping my basement to see what we could repurpose, Sue and I found a promising stash of paint cans. One gallon of paint was an eggshell finish that had never been tinted. Lowes was so good to shake the paint and add tint for free!

In addition to the paint for the walls, I also found a can of gray paint that was still a little over halfway full. I had purchased that paint for some wooden benches my husband built several years ago to use in our dining room. The benches had been stored in the basement for at least a couple of years, but one of them would be perfect in the she-shed. That is, after it had a fresh coat of paint too.

I took the gray paint to Lowes as well and had them add additional tint to darken the gray as much as possible. I used the (now) dark gray to paint the bench (see below), and the legs of my new desk.

FURNITURE

I found the three chairs at a thrift store one night. While I know that Sue would probably have done a little more shopping around to make sure we got the best finds we could, I considered it to be delightful serendipity to find not one or two chairs, but three chairs that I really liked all in one store on one night. I don’t have a lot of extra time to go thrift shopping, so I snagged the chairs right away.

I spent $35 on a rolling desk chair, a low rocking chair, and a straight back chair. At this point I haven’t altered them in any way, other than taking off the price stickers and wiping them down a bit. Realistically, I probably won’t do anything else. (Don’t judge. This isn’t a home decor blog).

As for the desk, my husband and I build it together! We spent a Sunday afternoon working on it together. It was a lot of fun, I learned to use a few new power tools, and it’ll be a memory I always have.

We used free building plans from Average but Inspired. I love the large flat surface for spreading out my computer and planner and books, with the “hidden” storage compartments underneath!

WALL ART

The square flower painting was one of the first pieces I bought that gave me a better idea of the color scheme I wanted to go with. The painting was $25 at Hobby Lobby (after the 40% coupon).

On the wall opposite the flowers, I hung a beautiful calendar from GraceLaced. I love her calendars, and well, all her artwork. I give them every year as Christmas gifts.

The wall on the other side of the door has a small gallery wall with pictures and frames I shopped from around my house. I love how they all came together. The “She Shed” sign was a fun surprise gift from my friend Liz!

PILLOWS

You can see the bench I re-homed from my basement in the pictures above. It is the perfect size to fit under the windows and provide more space to sit, and more storage space underneath. The square pillows on the end of the bench were shopped in my house. The long pillow is a body pillow I found for $10 at Target and covered with a pillowcase that matched the color scheme.

The rainbow pillow was a bit of a splurge at World Market, but I loved it, the colors matched, and it felt like a nod to my friend Sue who is obsessed with all things rainbow.

As for the baskets under the bench, they were also shopped from around my house. The clear boxes hold snacks, cleaning supplies, special activities for the kids when they visit, and … one is still empty.

OTHER DECOR

I knew I wanted to keep the deer skull that was hanging in the office when it was my husband’s space. It’s a nod to the origins of my she-shed. The tassel banner was another fun buy at Target ($12). I love the fun, whimsy touch it makes.

I found the sheer gray curtains at World Market– $10 each. The sun comes in through those windows in the evening, and being able to diffuse the light is important. The curtain rod I hung them on, though, was free. Another basement find.

The macrame plant hanger was handmade by a friend’s daughter, and purchased in the fall at our Wild & Free group’s craft sale. It was waiting for a place to be hung, and the she-shed was the perfect home.

Finally, the rug and the ceiling. I wanted to cover the plastic on the ceiling as economically and easily as possible…so I used a king sized flat bedsheet.  I nailed it nice and taut, then zigzagged white Christmas lights back and forth from the nails. Again, both the sheet and the lights could probably be nicer, and definitely could be more expensive, but that wasn’t my goal. It is fun and pretty and just right for me.

The rug is the final item to share, and definitely the one that I shopped around for the longest, and spent the most on. However, having a rug on the floor was a non-negotiable for me because I really felt like it would make my office feel much more put together and welcoming than just a shed in the woods.

I hope you enjoyed this before and after! I love a good project, and of course, love enjoying the fruits of the work. Maybe this is inspiring to you to take a neglected space and give it fresh life, or to think of new ways to use what you already have. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the she-shed, or what projects are currently keeping you busy!

Share with us in the comments…

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The links below may be affiliate links, meaning I earn a small compensation at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure policy here.

Before we get into the fun makeover nitty gritty, I feel like I need to tell you that my daughter spilled tea on my keyboard and if you notice as you are reading that o’s or i’s are missing…that’s why. The keys are sticky and I can only hope they loosen up in time.

Moving right alng…

(haha, that one was intentional. Keeping you on your toes).

I did a thing this week. Every so often, I just get an itch for a change. Usually this means something is going to get painted, rearranged, or repurposed in some way.

After looking around my house trying to figure out what project I could take on, I settled on finding a new solution for my kids’ laundry. It maybe wasn’t the most exciting project (perhaps not what my Instagram friends had in mind when I asked if they wanted to see whatever project I got into in my stories), but it definitely was born from a need.

Our kids’ clothes have been in a dresser in our living room for a while now. We didn’t hate it, but it did mean piles/baskets of laundry being brought upstairs and too often sitting for at least a day or two.

So I decided to move all their clothes downstairs into the basement. 

Laundry Room Makeover & Kids’ Family Closet

Watch the Laundry Room Makeover and Kids’ Family Closet Q&A on YouTube! 

The Before.

I didn’t get a great before picture because I was just so ready to get working. But you can generally see what the area looked like from when I did the huge basement purge and organize video in the winter, and also what the laundry area looked like the day I started working (sorry about the pic I just borrowed from my Instagram story).

What you can’t tell is that the table was actually where the chest is now, and the chest was in a completely different part of the basement. Thanks to a dolly we had downstairs, I was able to move the chest without involving my husband– who typically does not share the same vision for projects that I do, which is why I prefer to keep most things a “surprise”.

I.e., it’s better in these cases to do it and show him after the fact. He now knows that if he leaves town, he will almost certainly come home to rearranged furniture and possibly painted walls. (I’ve done this twice in our bedroom alone).

The After.

The absolute biggest change was moving my kids’ clothing downstairs to the basement. We already had an empty chest of drawers in the basement from when I did a bedroom makeover in our master bedroom.

Now, the kids each have a drawer for their clothes right next to the washer, dryer, and folding table. It’s been amazing.

Another big change is the hanging area I set up for my boys’ dress shirts and my daughter’s dresses. One of my biggest challenges with laundry has been getting around to hanging up my kids’ clothes afterward the rest are folded and put away. Too often, they would end up sitting in a pile (a neat pile, but a pile nonetheless).

I repurposed a laundry organizer that we had been using to sort our laundry (three bags are supposed to hang on the frame), to be a place to hang some clothes downstairs. I used some extra IKEA shelves that were not currently being used on our bookcases upstairs to create a platform on which to rest the frame.

I mentioned above that I moved the table to it’s current location after moving the chest over. It’s now even more useful and the perfect spot to fold clothes.

The last couple of significant changes were moving the rug from in front of our “pantry” area to this laundry area. It gives us a soft place to change clothes and diapers.

I also switched out the baskets and tidied up the shelves behind the table a LOT. I grabbed a couple of wooden crates from elsewhere in our basement, and a couple of baskets that were not currently being used, to organize all our laundry supplies.

I put up a sign on the shelves and am LOVING the overall tidiness of the space, even if our basement is still unfinished behind everything.

Love my Grove cleaners! 

Q & A.

I asked y’all on Facebook and Instagram if you had any questions about our kids’ clothes or the laundry area, and you delivered. Rather than typing out all the answers (the baby is starting to wake up), I will just point you to the YouTube video since I answer them there.

If you have any other questions or comments, I’d love to hear from you. You can comment here, on YouTube, or chat with me over on Instagram or Facebook. I LOVE hearing your ideas and thoughts.

Here are a few of the questions I answered in the video:

• do our kids actually like having their clothes in the basement?
• how do we fit each kid’s clothes into one drawer?
• what laundry products do we use?

Final thoughts.

Our house is old and major remodels often take a long time to complete (I’m looking at you, kitchen). Finishing our basement is something we’d love to do, but it’s not in the budget or schedule for now.

However, even with exposed pipes, insulation, and whatnot, we still have been able to make the space work for us, and we actually love being down there together. I even just finally got around to hanging up a hammock down there this week.

I share this, because one, “After” pictures still are not exactly “Pinterest Perfect”. But that doesn’t stop us from enjoying our home and being grateful for where we are now.

And for two, it’s highly likely that most of us have homes that still need a little work and our idea list is longer than our current reality. 

I shared on Instagram earlier this week how satisfying it is to take care of our homes and to create spaces that are welcoming and purposeful.

I want to end this post with the encouragement to you to not wait for perfect circumstances or a full budget to start making your home work for your family. Do what you can now with what you have now. 

That may mean repurposing items you have around your house, getting creative and looking past expectations to discover something new.

It could be as simple as decluttering and smarter organization.

Or it may just mean embracing what you have and getting out of the comparison game. I have friends and follow people on social media with amazingly beautiful homes. I’m not going to lie, sometimes I get a little envious. But I always come back to, “Gratitude makes what I have enough”.

There’s always something that can be done to add beauty and purpose and design. What can you do today? 

I’d love to hear from you! What is one thing you’ve done recently in your home to add beauty or purpose? What is one area you love, imperfections and all? 

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Have you been watching Marie Kondo’s new tidying up show on Netflix? It seems like so much of my feed on Facebook is taken up with friends chatting about the show and how no kitchen drawers or closets are safe.

I have been watching the show this week, but I have been working on decluttering our home for much longer. I generally try to keep clutter down on a daily basis, but it can be a lot more work to tackle the out-of-the-way clutter. Basements, hall closets, under the bed, etc.

That kind of clutter is out of sight (more or less) and not a big priority on any given day.

This fall, I had the opportunity to makeover our master bedroom. This time I wasn’t worried about new paint or wall decor. I surprised my husband with that a few years ago. This time my goal was seriously downsizing what we kept in our bedroom, as well as moving half the furniture out.

You can see the before and after of my bedroom declutter here. A dozen bags to toss and donate later, our bedroom is a haven at the end of a long day.

A handful of days before Christmas, my husband told me that a friend with a home inspection business would be bringing some trainees to inspect our house THE.NEXT.DAY.

Don’t worry, he was only in the doghouse for a little while. I didn’t have time to be upset for long. I had to get to work.

(And don’t tell him, but a couple hours in and I was thankful for the push to finally tackle the mess).

Our basement was one of the reasons we bought our house, but it can easily become a just dump and go space. Plus, with a crawling baby and a busy schedule, I hadn’t had the time to keep it tidy. (Sorry Marie).

Twelve straight hours of work later, and the space now totally sparks joy for me!

Organizing the Basement :: Before and After

If you want more of the details of the process, storage, and uses of the basement, you can check out the newest video on my YouTube channel. I recorded before and after tours (i.e., you can see more of the mess, errr, my sloppy shame). 

I won’t go into many details here, I’ll just give you the fun before and after pictures. Like many basements, ours is used for storage, playing, and as a workspace for my husband.

BEFORE

AFTER

I bought a set of shelves from Costco, but other than that, I simply focused on purging a LOT and thinking through better organization.

And that’s it! I love going downstairs and seeing all the open space, and my kids have enjoyed playing in the basement all the more. With consistent clean-up, we should be able to stay on top of tidying much more easily now!

Have you been tidying up your house recently? Are you a “little at a time” kind of person, or a “get it all done in a day” person? 

More like this ::

New Kitchen Reveal

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