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The Office Wall Treatment is Finished!

August 22, 2016

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Today, we’re excited to share our updated office walls. As a reminder, we’re turning the 5th bedroom in our basement into a home office/studio space. We haven’t done anything to that bedroom room since moving in, so it’s especially fun to give life to a room that’s been a bit of a wasted space the past three years:

The Office Wall Treatment is Finished!

A few weeks ago, we shared in-progress paneling

The Office Wall Treatment is Finished!

Now, finished, it looks like this!

The Office Wall Treatment is Finished!

Painting our shed in 30 minutes or building an easy art ledge are examples of quick projects that made a big impact. These walls are example of a big project that made a big difference. That is to say, it wasn’t quick.  Easy, yes. Time consuming, yes, Tedious, yes. Worth it–now that it’s done, yes. Ha!

The Office Wall Treatment is Finished!

From the progress post to finished, we decided to add additional cove molding into every paneled box. I love the extra traditional touch it adds. And then we caulked all the seams, which is actually what took the longest.

The Office Wall Treatment is Finished!

I liked seeing the line between the cove molding and the 1 1/2″ MDF molding that made up the base of our paneling, so I didn’t want to caulk it smooth, just enough so there was still an indent. Where the MDF crossed, I used spackle and then sanded it smooth (something you can’t do with caulk) so that was more seamless.

The Office Wall Treatment is Finished!

Then it was time to paint. Because of all the detail on the walls, we taped everything off and sprayed it with a paint sprayer (we used the Wagner Flexio 590 for the job because it comes with a detail attachment). The color is Farrow & Ball’s Pigeon. It’s a really beautiful green with a lot of gray in it. And definitely a color that changes throughout the day. Sometimes it looks more gray, other times there are hints of blue. It’s truly a new favorite.

The Office Wall Treatment is Finished!

I ordered a free swatch book on Farrow & Ball’s website years ago and have had a couple swatches color matched (not all successfully) but had never used actual Farrow & Ball paint before. They caught word we were planning on using “Pigeon” in the office and offered to send some our way. The difference is unreal. One thing Chris and I both noticed separately was the paint doesn’t seem to separate like other paints do. It arrived sealed and when I opened the container, there wasn’t paint all the way up to the lid like there normally is after paint has been mixed. It’s like—it was poured into the can. And never needed stirred. It is really thick and goes on easy and dries like velvet. You can order any of their swatches by the quart or gallon right on their site.

The Office Wall Treatment is Finished!

In this week’s podcast episode, we actually talk a bit about paint sheens and the importance of getting them right and why this room (and it’s slightly orange peeled textured walls) needed a matte finish. This paint delivered that gorgeously. You can listen to this week’s podcast here.

The Office Wall Treatment is Finished!

The Office Wall Treatment is Finished!

It was a last minute decision to paint the inside of the room’s door and the baseboards in  the same color and I’m so glad we did. It makes everything feel a little more luxe. Next on the agenda is the closet.

The Office Wall Treatment is Finished!

While we won’t be using sliding doors now, we decided to store the doors and keep the tracks in place in case we want to revert back to a normal closet down the road. In the meantime, we’ll be tearing out the eclectic mix of shelves and rods and starting fresh.

The Office Wall Treatment is Finished!

All together, all the trim (including the baseboards) cost us close to $500 with the bulk of that being the cove molding we used inside of each box panel. Besides the closet, we also have all the pieces to our standing desk in our home waiting to put together, except the actual desktop. I’m having trouble deciding on something there. I’m dreaming of marble on an mdf budget. Marble contact paper?

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What do you think?

  1. Andorra Guiducci says:

    Love this room! My husband and I want to do a focal wall with paneling just like this. Do you remember the dimensions of each rectangle? Do you know how we should determine the size of the rectangles?

  2. Jennifer says:

    I love farrow and ball paint. I’m going to paint our kitchen lower cupboards pigeon. Just painted my dining room de Nîmes and I adore it!

  3. Jan says:

    Love this room! The color is growing on me and thanks for the review of F&B paint. I have their color sample palette and have had mixed luck color matching like you mentioned. Next time I am going to bite the bullet and order the real deal. One detail that I noticed are the outlet covers. I think you should paint them to blend in with the gorgeous walls.

  4. Looks amazing! As for the marble contact paper – I did that on a sidetable, turned out beautifully and it’s wearing really well so far (a year in). You should totally consider it!! It would look amaaaaaaazing.

    Love the way the room is coming together!

    (PS – that project: http://thesweetestdigs.com/chic-ikea-vittsjo-hack-into-a-gold-and-marble-table/)

    xo.

  5. Jalene says:

    It looks great! We just finished our first attempt at molding. You’re right…so much wood filler and caulk! We are getting ready to paint. Do you have any experience with PPG Breakthrough? Our research tells us its a pretty great product (we will be painting molding and cabinets), but we were disappointed it didn’t come in semi-gloss (only satin and gloss). We are going to go for satin, but I am nervous. This post makes me hope it will actually be better! Check out our molding (and cabinets) at http://www.ourcorneroftheworldblog.com/mudroom-crawling-to-the-finish-line/ if you want!

  6. Kasey says:

    LOVE this! I’ve been dying to do a wall treatment like this in my master bedroom once that is built. SO GOOD! We did a faux marble counter top to save$$ in our kitchen and I really love it and would do it over again in a heart beat. So much easier to clean/maintain than our actual marble counters in our bathroom. https://therawhouseproject.blogspot.com/2014/05/marble-or-is-it.html

  7. chaley says:

    This looks so perfect!

  8. Neesh says:

    Gorgeous room! Where are the doorknobs from?

  9. Bidisha says:

    This is so stunning! And the color is just perfect for a dramatic yet warm office. Can’t believe you did all of this yourselves :)

  10. veronica says:

    It looks amazing and I love the color! It is so cozy. I can’t wait to hear the podcast. Quick question, what sheen would you recommend for painting a red brick fireplace (soon to be white)?

  11. Emily says:

    Did you replace the baseboards? We have 5 inch baseboards and my stumbling block to doing work like this is having to replace them with MDF. Otherwise, I’m not sure about the thickness blending into the baseboards. Does that make sense?

  12. Jim Higgins says:

    I’ve been considering this for a “Study/Dining Room” in my home, but was hesitant because the walls have a very slight texture. But I’m glad you mentioned the orange peel texture on yours. Initially I had thought of doing only one wall-now will reconsider doing the entire room.

    Thanks for the pictures!

  13. Jamie says:

    This looks great! I can’t imagine how tedious it was to add all of that trim, but the payoff seems worth it! Awesome job – can’t wait to see the finished product!

  14. I absolutely love this room. It looks so elegant and dramatic at the same time! :)
    Psst I’ve noticed you have the same lens distortion problem that I have when photographing rooms with straight lines. I recently found out about an option you can tick in Lightroom that fixes this problem! It’s called “Enable Profile correction” under “Lens Correction” and does a great job with this issue. I found out about it only a few weeks ago when I’ve noticed that my kitchen cupboards where looking all curvy! lol This is the post with the final images :)

    http://www.lifeineight.com/2016/07/tour-open-plan-family-kitchen.html

  15. Sam says:

    Formica has a Calacatta Marble that is pretty nice: http://www.formica.com/en/us/products/180fx/03460

  16. Jenn says:

    Beautifully done! Painting the walls and the mouldings the same color really adds a lot of height to the space as well.

  17. Turning a basement bedroom into office, wow who would think that’s possible. You’ve done really amazing job. It looks really cozy and spacious. So cool!

  18. Carol says:

    Gorgeous! I’m excited to listen to this week’s podcast episode but I’m saving it for my run tonight – I need all the motivation I can get – haha!

  19. Nicole says:

    Looks awesome! Have you thought about Instant Granite in Italian White Marble? I’ve been thinking about trying it in my rental house kitchen – would love to see you guys try it out first. ;)

    https://www.amazon.com/Instant-Granite-Italian-White-Marble/dp/B00DSRI1JY

  20. Katy says:

    I’m a newish reader and I’ve never commented before but I have to come here just to say – you are SO talented! Your taste is impeccable and your creativity is so inspiring. I love love love seeing everything you do and I constantly walk away thinking “damn that’s good!” I like to think of myself as having good taste and being good at decorating my home, but you do things I would never think of and blow me away every time. And the fact that you have Chris on your team is such a score. I can’t believe all the professional quality jobs you guys can do for so cheap because of his expertise. That is so awesome and also makes me crazy jealous. ;)

    Anyway. Love what you do. Keep it up!

  21. Deanna says:

    Hmmmm not sure I’m loving it yet. Although, I know it’s nowhere near done, so maybe after everything is finished I’ll love it. The work you did on the walls is incredible. I think the paint color just isn’t for me…. or maybe it’s just too much. Just my two cents…
    Sorry. I love you guys!

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