I'm so excited! Today is the day that hundreds of bloggers reveal their rooms for the One Room Challenge. Over the last 6 weeks, we have all been working hard to transform one room into an amazing space. You have GOT to check out all of the amazing afters here.

As for me, I opted to redo my office. My poor, sad, neglected office. For someone who works from home, you'd think it would be the first room I did. Nope. I did part of it, but then just left it. Let me take you on a little tour of the before.

This is how it looked when we bought it:

The guy we bought the house from had put up a temporary wall to divide the space (it was originally designed as a game room). And while the wall was a good idea, the execution was flawed. He put the wall up in such a way that both vents for the space were in the office. And it was either freezing or burning up in there. So we decided to take the wall down.

This just created a huge ugly space that was wrong on all kinds of levels. I wasn't quite sure what to do with it so it stayed like this for a few years. Then one day, while playing around on Pinterest I saw my inspiration and was ready to begin.

The first thing I did was put the wall back up BUT we added french doors so it wouldn't be a dungeon in the play area, and we only took the space I needed to actually work.

Once it was finished I grabbed random furniture from around the house to make it a workable space. That's not true - I bought that lamp for the office. :-)

Over the next year or so I did things here and there. I painted the doors black, changed the knobs, put up drapes and bought this beauty at a consignment store.

And that's where it stayed until I heard about the One Room Challenge. I had just finished the kitchen and knew I wanted to do something, but I wasn't sure what. Then the lovely Karissa from Petite Modern Life revealed her black office and I knew I just had to do my office. I had been wanting to paint my office black for years, but always chickened out.

I began by clearing everything out. Boy was that a mess! Then I moved on to painting. Let me just tell you, painting in a cramped space is a form of torture. I couldn't take the pillows out because the office is a clean space (with it's own air purifier) so I had to paint around (with low VOC paint).

And then I did... nothing. We were into the second/third week when the toe accident happened, and that really set me back. But eventually I caught up and began the next task - adding crown and casing.

For the crown I used a standard 5 inch crown and then added a decorative beading to it. I used the same casing from the rest of the house to keep it consistent.

Next, it was time to paint the desk and cover a chair my mom had given me (woo hoo for free chairs!)

After that, all that was left was to put the room together. I am lucky because since I work out of this office, I can use the merchandise as decor - which is why I was excited to share it with you. I know a lot of you have Etsy shops and such, and I hope this office will give you some ideas about how you can store merchandise while using it as decor. So, with that, let's get to it!

So there you have it! How do you like that little plug for the website? And yes, I left the cords showing - I wanted you all to see this office as it really is and not just staged to look pretty :-)

There were a few things I wanted to do that I didn't get around to - mainly adding crown to the bookshelves. It's not hard to do, and won't take me long, so I will knock it out over the weekend. I also need to finish painting the edges of the door and touch up around the windows. Other than that, I'm finished!

For those who have followed along, thanks for all the support you have given. I'm so thankful for this challenge because it pushed me to do something I wouldn't have done otherwise and I absolutely love having such a beautiful space to work. And a special thank you to Linda from Calling It Home! This challenge pushed me to do something I've been putting off for years and I was so thankful to come across it. I'm excited for the Fall challenge where I will be working on my master bedroom!

The details:

Paint: SW Tricorn Black
Curtain Rod: Home Goods (for only $19.99!!!)
Drapes: JcPenney (who knew?)
Bookshelves: Ikea Besta
Desk: Pottery Barn (bought at consignment store)

Check us out at Your Turn To Shine and Think and Make Thursdays