Custom Designed DIY Office and Library

a vintage splendor home office and library

Our office is D O N E, done! To be honest, I wish it still looked this clean but Alan and I finally have a fully functioning office area and library so it means it’s not as tidy as shoot day. We’ve been imaging this space for so long and while we wished we finished the office with the rest of the upstairs projects earlier this year, I’m glad we were able to get it done as part of One Room Challenge. I’m here to tell you that a custom designed DIY office and library are possible in about 6 weeks!

Alan and I worked on this project ourselves, so it is 100% DIY! I’m here to tell you that Annette, the nail art obsessed, couture gown wearing blogger you follow also likes to paint and take on wildly difficult DIY projects. Of course, I have my meticulous, architecture school trained husband to do the measuring (omg alllll the measuring and design plans) and heavy lifting.

Ikea and Semihandmade Home Office

As you know, our kitchen is Ikea x Semihandmade and we love it so much. It’s fully customized with a luxe aesthetic so Alan and I wanted to build our home office and library using Ikea bases and customizing with Semihandmade fronts and shelves. Because I wanted a monolithic look for the office, we opted for Semihandmade’s DIY slab fronts and floating shelves so I could paint all of the panels, fronts and shelves to match the walls. Speaking of paint, everything in the office/library is Deepest Sea by Dunn Edwards. It does look more dark blue in the light but it’s more of a beautiful, moody dark greyish blue.

I have a feeling the Semihandmade team was anxious to see how the floating shelves above the stairs would look and work. I hope they were more excited than scared LOL since I haven’t seen anyone execute something similar. Leave it to me to come up with an interesting concept and get everyone on board! Semihandmade’s floating shelves are super popular in kitchens and I’ve seen a couple used in other parts of a house, but never something as dramatic as this. I have to say I love how it turned out and I’m so glad they make a product that allows you to build a customized home office.

As mentioned above, we did all of the design, painting and build out ourselves. The floating shelves took the longest since Alan had to find the 4x4s so he could securely hang the shelves. Overall Ikea and SH products are super easy to work with and you can do it yourself if you’re into DIY projects.

If you’re curious about the Ikea x Semihandmade process, please read this post.

I think a wide staircase is the perfect spot for a library since it’s unused space that can use a bit of dressing up and serve a practical purpose. The top reason why we needed an expansive library is because Alan has SO many books and he needs to reference them regularly. He has his books, I have my shoes.

If you follow on Instagram, it took Alan about a week to decide on the layout of the shelves. He used painters tape to come up with a grid and then we used that to order the shelves in the exact measurements. He wanted a symmetrical look and I, of course, said hell to the no. I need things to be a little off so they look more thought out! Of course, this inspired us to stack the shelves in a way that they could serve as bookends where they overlap! Genius right?