For the past 10 years, my home office has doubled as my family’s unofficial storage locker. Last week, I used a staycation to finally give the drab, tiny room where I spend 60 per cent of my work week a much-needed glow-up.
The transformation involved considerable sweat equity, but for under $3,000, I transformed the space into what’s pretty close to the studio of my dreams.
For anyone interested in do-it-yourself renovations on a tiny budget, I thought I’d share a few lessons I learned from this and other projects I’ve done.
Start small, then work your way up to bigger things
The studio renovation involved bidding goodbye to the large Ikea Kallax unit that has stored my books, family paperwork and the overflow of my kid’s toys for the past decade. The vision was to replace that with a long built-in base cabinet topped with floating shelves. I also wanted to revamp another Ikea cabinet we inherited from the home’s previous owners and cover the wall behind my desk with wallpaper.
The project involved, stripping, sanding and staining wood, painting over Ikea’s laminate finish, and lots of measuring and drilling.
Erica Alini/The Globe and Mail
I’m glad this wasn’t my first rodeo. My foray into DIY started a few years ago with much simpler projects, such as caulking and painting. By the time I thought up my home office redo, I had already hung up a few floating shelves, sanded a deck, stripped six layers of paint from a stair handle, and coated a wood dining room table with epoxy resin. A lot of that know-how came in handy.
Research extensively
What I didn’t know from experience I picked up on social media. I use Instagram for inspiration about design and ideas about how to save money (for example, customizing Ikea furniture to obtain a built look.) YouTube, on the other hand, is my go-to for the technical details, such as how to caulk over a wide gap between cabinet and wall.
My No. 1 tip, though, is to watch not just one but several videos for every new skill you’re trying to learn. There are often different ways to tackle a given DIY task – some smarter than others.
Decide where to splurge and where to save
For this project, I decided to splurge on the wallpaper ($943), a cabinet top made of solid wood, which I ordered from a local carpenter ($565), and some heavy-duty, industrial-style wall brackets ($150).
I saved by using Ikea kitchen cabinets for my built-in ($780) and buying two pine slabs from a hardware store as the floating shelves ($32).
Erica Alini/The Globe and Mail
Budget for tools, materials and mishaps
Don’t forget to also take into account the cost of things such as paint, stain, protective gear, nails and drop sheets. All that can easily add up to a few hundred dollars even when you already own all the required power tools.
As in any renovation, it’s also a good idea to budget for both cost and time overruns.
My home office reno adventure, for example, involved the discovery that the studs of the load-bearing wall in my room were are made of hard, not soft, wood, as is sometimes the case in older homes. I couldn’t drill into them so I struggled by tightening screws into the wall by hand for hours for what I thought would be a half-hour job. (It didn’t occur to me until I was done that I should have just bought a drill bit fit for hardwood.)
Pace yourself
I had seven days to get it all done before I would go back to work and my kid would return from vacationing with the grandparents. But I’ve also learned the hard way that when I get overtired, I’m sloppy.
So there are a few things I haven’t finished, such as giving the walls a fresh coat of paint and repairing some fresh scuffs on the older Ikea cabinet.
And I have yet to replace the rickety table that has been my desk since I was fresh out of school.
Erica Alini/The Globe and Mail
Still, the room is so much prettier than it was, and all that sanding and painting was a very effective way to keep my mind off the hustle and bustle of everyday life.
Are you also a budget-conscious DIY enthusiast? Drop me a line at [email protected]
Erica’s personal finance reading list
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