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Finally, a new room reveal! It’s taken me far too long to share our DIY Home Office Music Room. Like many families, we have a hardworking, multitasking main floor – second only to the kitchen this room works the hardest! We use this room to work and to play and it has grown over the last 15 years since we added it. Keep reading for our home office music room ideas…
Before: Our Hardworking Playroom
Sometimes you are thrilled to say goodbye to the before version of a room (like any of our basement makeover projects). But this room’s before version is one I hold dear.
For many years this room served as our children’s playroom. They used it to play with toys (mostly Lego), create arts and crafts and generally make a fun, industrious mess.
But now our kids are in their late teens, and this isn’t how they spend their time anymore.
So, because we always like to share the “before” of our rooms and projects. Here’s a quick tour of the hardworking playroom (that I’m still so sentimental about):
Our New Vision: a Home Office Music Room
Our kids still create in this room, but now their interests have changed. They both obsessively enjoy creating and playing digital games and art. And they enjoy music making – our daughter plays the keyboard and our son plays a few guitars (and some funny novelty instruments).
Plus, I needed a space for my office. The pandemic lockdowns (and my sore back) made this painfully clear: I couldn’t keep working on my laptop on the couch.
As I thought about how this room would look it became apparent that it would hold a lot of technology: boxy black computers and monitors, a boxy black keyboard and boxy black amps, etc.
Plus, the design needed to look good from our living room and tie into the feel of our whole main floor. So here’s what we did…
Reveal: Our New DIY Home Office Music Room
1. Our New Paint Colour
When people ask me how to choose colours and make a design cohesive I always recommend that they start with a fabric or rug with colours that they love. That’s exactly what I did here.
Choosing Colour with Pine in Mind…
In our Living Room is a big pine armoire that holds our TV and tons of stuff. I’m sentimental about it because, when I was in university, my dad and I designed it and built it from a pile of wood. It’s not going anywhere. (Sorry, it’s not pictured here – I’ll try and grab a shot and update.)
But the challenge of pine is those bossy orange undertones – they can make it tricky to find paint colours to play nicely with. So I decided that this adjoining room would embrace that warm orange tone!
We painted the room Benjamin Moore Potter’s Clay. It’s the perfect organic and warm colour for this north-east facing room.
2. Our (as hidden as possible) DIY Computer Desks
Our kids are future video game designers and they need a dedicated space to create and work. This room needed space for two desktop computer stations. This was a challenge!
How do you add two desktop computer desks (and a third desk for me) without making the place look like a customer service call centre?
How we rose to this challenge was to place the desks on either side of the double pocket doors. That means that they are barely visible from the living room – so the tech-focused, black box visuals are easy to ignore when relaxing or entertaining.
3. Guitar Zone
3. My “office”
Admittedly this is the visual weakest link of this room. I picked up this old roll-top desk from FB marketplace and it functions perfectly for me. I can close it and not look at the tech and desk clutter that invariably happens.
4. Our (Free!) Updated Hutch for So Much Storage
Our DIY makeover of the hutch made it beautiful – it was damaged and the finish was degraded – plus we made it not smell anymore! It was pretty unpleasant.
I’ll share soon about my Facebook Marketplace tips and how I scored this beautiful antique hutch for free! (And, of course, I’ll link it to our collection of 20+ Beautiful & Inspiring Ideas for Painting an Old Hutch.)
5. Very Fun Lighting
And that’s the room! Is it perfect? Nope. Is it finished? Nope. But is it functional and fun? You bet!
So let’s recap the project tutorials I’ve promised coming soon:
- Easy DIY Computer Desk Plans to Build a Modern Wood PC Work or Gaming Station
- Our DIY art ledges
- Our DIY computer monitor brackets
- my Facebook Marketplace shopping tips and how I scored that antique hutch for free! (And how we made it not smell)
- keyboard stand and bench from 2x4s
- DIY music-themed artwork – when I come up with it! 🙂
Which project should we share first?
Saiful Huda
Monday 12th of February 2024
What a delightful transformation! From a beloved playroom to a versatile home office music room, the journey is both nostalgic and inspiring. The thoughtful integration of technology with warm, organic elements creates a harmonious space for work and play. Looking forward to diving into the DIY tutorials and discovering more about your creative process. Great job!
Robin & Ed Hicken
Monday 12th of February 2024
Thank you so much! :)