Our Vintage Farmhouse Attic Office Makeover

The day is finally here! It’s been coming for over a year. My vintage farmhouse office makeover is complete. I’m so excited to share it with you. Okay, there’s still a rug to go and some panelling to finish but the bulk of the work has been completed. Let’s begin with how my office looked two years ago when we moved in. By the way, that ugly furniture and plastic rug are NOT OURS!! The previous owners left that stuff behind.

I realise this real estate photo makes it look nice but it was not. The floor was half timber and half chipboard. We didn’t have the budget to redo the floor so I painted the lot white with paving paint. I think I’ll keep it as I like this look.

The walls in our attic were lined with 70s timber veneer. The veneer was buckled because it had been nailed straight onto the framing rather than onto a wall. It had been given a coat of undercoat for sale and was very patchy and dirty. On the side of the room, where you can’t see in this pic, there was a wardrobe with no back. I removed this and revealed, yes, more badly painted walls in grey.

Fast forward to Christmas 2019

At this time, I gave the office a fresh coat of paint and Mr GGF began the timber shiplap lining. In Australia, there are two kinds of lining profile used. One has a V joint, commonly known as VJ. This is the profile used in more modern homes or homes with a coastal or Hamptons vibe. On the other side of this board is the more traditional, wider profile we know as Regency or shiplap. We used this side of the panels to begin lining the office over the attic door opening. This part of the room was a test run. I wanted to see if it would work in the entire room.

Using leftover wood from the ceiling repair, we installed the boards in a horizontal pattern to match the rest of the house. A coat of paint to the entire room and some things brought out of storage meant the office was now a bedroom while our daughter visited from the UK.

After Christmas, I packed the bed away and moved a few things around to convert the space back into an office again. I also picked up a deco cabinet at auction for $2 and brought it back to life. You can find out how to do that in this post. The cabinet is handy for storing all my office supplies as it has pull-out shelves in the bottom half. As you can see from the photo below, the walls have not been clad and there are a lot of gaps where the trim is falling off.

The Vintage Farmhouse Office Makeover!

So, now it’s winter 2020. I’m home alone. Which is a dangerous thing! After deciding I should try panelling myself, I purchased a nail gun in a kit form. It was on special and the cheapest I could find but it works very well and is cordless. I then set about lining the room with the remainder of the leftover boards from the shed.

It took me ages because I had to measure and then go downstairs to cut. I made a few mistakes but the room is old and forgiving and as the boards slide into each other it was an easy process. At the time of writing, I have spent $250 on materials, including paint. I estimate to get the longest wall done it will take another $300 or so. To have a completed room for under $1000 is amazing. I love the old world charm.

The Completed Room:

I chose a colour palette of mostly white, timber and vintage dusky pink tones. The inspiration for this colour choice was a vintage watercolour painting handed down from my grandfather. I didn’t stray far from my mood board for once, which is odd.

The first finishing touch was to paint the entire room in Antique White USA including the trims. This blurs the lines between the weird angles and makes my mistakes disappear. I added tie top linen curtains to the window which I made. I really like the ruffle detail on the bottom. They’re easy to make and very economical as they don’t have gathers. If you are a beginner at sewing you could leave the ruffle off. You can find out how I made them in this BLOG POST.

Ruffled pillows and cushions in varying vintage fabrics were another sewing project for my vintage farmhouse office makeover. I absolutely adore this floral fabric I found and had to be careful not to add too much to the room. I could have gone super crazy with it but I feel it gives the room softness and femininity that will easily transform into a spare bedroom if we need the space.

I found two wire racks and hung them on the wall for the area next to the bed which was too small for a bedside table. They’re big enough for a phone and a glass of water which is all a guest needs. I also put up a coat hook that could double as hanging space if guests need to hang clothes.

The rest of the furniture has not changed. I have hidden my office supplies in the vintage cabinet. I love the look of my Japanese screen over the desk. My intention here is to use it as a pinboard for reminders. I have little pegs for this purpose and can take any papers down if we need to use the room for guests.

I like to keep my desk area uncluttered so I can have my physical planner open when I work. I’ve used one of Mr GGFs old pewter trophies as a pen holder and put my Japanese screen on the wall to hold papers. At the moment I work from my laptop but I want to invest in a new Mac desktop. Spending a lot of time in front of the screen editing photos and writing blog posts means a bigger screen will be useful as my eyes have never been good.

I put up a vintage print, the Home Sweet Home cross stitch I made when we were first married and a collection of vintage books from my dad to complete the styling.

What do you think of my new office? I’d love to hear your comments over on FB or Insta!