The Lucky Pearl Interiors Headquarters

Today is a very exciting day! I get to share with you all of the updates and changes that I made last month to my spare bedroom in order to turn it into a proper home office for my company Lucky Pearl Interiors.

After moving into our home and prior to making any alterations to this room, I used a small corner to do all of my work including designing rooms and drafting plans, administrative tasks and even completing my miniature dollhouse work. To say that this room had multiple functions was an understatement as it also served as our guest room, our winter garments storage and where I played the cello. It did a lot for a 10ft by 11ft room! However, once I made the decision to expand my business I realized that I would need better storage and an additional surface area on which I could work and really spread out. Like any other design project that I tackle, I began by really understanding all of the functions that the space needed to address and to try to understand how much storage would be required right away and as well as in the future. I wanted to ensure that I wouldn’t run out of space in a few months.

I created a floor plan and rendering of the room and started picking out the pieces that I thought would work really well and would take advantage of the room’s height and light. The10ft ceiling made the room feel very spacious and the height allowed me to consider tall furniture for the space that would not feel overwhelming.

I began my journey at IKEA (where I begin most of my small budget and charitable design plans) because their pieces are both functional and affordable. I knew I needed storage and so this FJÄLKINGE shelf unit was perfect. I had space for two of them with four drawers each along one side of the room. The other long wall would be perfect for this LINNMON table top and I could repurpose my ALEX drawer units to serve as the base. For the makeshift table top that I already had wrapped in marble contact paper, I ordered the FINNVARD trestle legs. I think their shape and color makes this table appear lighter and I could also raise the tabletop to my preferred height. For even more storage (drawings and plans), I added the wider ALEX drawer unit which now sits between the two closet doors. It is a perfect size and has wheels to easy mobility!

I added a second chair for the long desk that I found at Walmart for a steal and finished the room with six IKEA cork boards that I attached to the wall using strong double-sided tape. It will make it very easy in the future to remove and won’t damage the paint when we move out of the apartment.

The closets were another tricky area that I wanted to address and since this room would no longer serve as a bedroom, I wanted to take advantage of the available height to add tall storage. At IKEA I found these KALLAX bookcases that I used to store everything from books, paper supplies and even a basket with my most frequently used spray paints. It has been a lifesaver and offers plenty of room for me to add to it in the future.

Next week, I’ll talk a more about the storage bins and small boxes that I purchased to organize all of the drawers and shelves.

Until then, here is the before and after. So much better…