PROFESSIONAL HOME OFFICE ON A BUDGET

Some months ago I had the great opportunity to help a friend rennovate her home office space. Jennifer Armitstead is a very successful small business owner working in job placement and career coaching- check out her business- JA Career Coaching- and website here. (And note the great job we did of incorporating her logo colors into her office space!)

Jennifer needed a more professional space to bring clients into but also needed to stick with her existing home office location. As a small business owner not wanting to sink too much capital into any one thing (I certainly sympathize), she was working on a budget and we both decided much of the office space could be completed with Ikea product and supplemented with some other items here and there.

As it turns out, we ended up using all Ikea, excluding some decorative items Jennifer already owned- elements that gave the space some real personality and individualism. In addition to the new furniture, we selected new paint throughout and reworked the layout to better accomodate Jennifer and a client in 2 comfortable chairs for coaching and consulting.  We added functionality and reworked storage to make the space run more smoothly on a day to day basis.

So, here is the before:
 

The during:

And the after:

I have to say, I did not think Ikea could produce such a professional and pulled together look. I think, in fact, they are a great resource for small businesses, despite their strong ties to the residential market. However, I do want to reiterate the importance of those key unique items Jennifer brought to the space...without these the Ikea office would probably lack soul- an important element to Jennifer.

 
 
 
 
 

Thanks Jennifer, it was a pleasure!