Home Office Makeover | Ikea Built-In Bookcase + Desk Hack!

hey guys welcome back to my channel I'm Alexandra and in today's video I'm transforming a home office into a dark Academia Moody warm space let's get [Music] [Music] started before we get started please hit the that subscribe button I'm trying to hit a million subscribers and a lot of you come back week after week to watch these videos but aren't yet subscribed also if you feel like even more makeover content I post many makeovers on my Instagram that won't necessarily make it onto YouTube organ

izing content product recommendations all the things so feel free to follow me over there so Kiera reached out and said she needed help with her current home office it's a great size the walls are bright green I I feel like I could really do with a makeover so let's hop on a call with her to see what her vision is for this space so nice to meet you noce so nice to meet you like thank you so much I'm super excited you're welcome congrats for winning a makeover with myself and my team ah thank you

so much so this call is really just to get to know you and your office walk me through what your office looks like now what you love about it what you don't love about it this is kind of my women cave so it's like yes my office space but at the same time it's kind of my reading Nook okay so you're not just working in it you're relaxing in it as well yes so my desk is kind of modern and it doesn't go really with a by by one that it's more like vintagey this is the only colored room in my house l

ike everything is very neutral but here I was like this is my space okay I thrifted a book C I have here in the back my books are overflowing already so yeah there's no shells or anything for storage really for my office things so more storage for your books but also for notebooks and paper and that kind of thing yeah exactly are you thinking like a filing cabinet or like cabinet kind of that that's sitting on the floor like what would be your ideal solution for your papers and your journals and

stuff maybe some desks that have like a little bit more drawers I feel like right now I have two that are really tiny yeah I don't have like a large amount of things I need to store but yeah I would like everything like like T away maybe yes yeah I think we can go comfier with the chair especially if this is also a room you relax in it's a dining chair it's not really a a reading chair yes I wanted like something a bit more Coy and what about lighting in the space I know you have that overhead

light would it be helpful to have a table lamp or a floor lamp I have pretty good light here actually in the ceiling that's what I would like to change because it's not a Bo blamp per se but it's like kind of old I think there's something also really nice about using light to transition from like your work daytime to your evening we can make it ambient for you so that you can curl up and read a book but then during the day you have the overhead lights to work with MH okay that's very helpful let

's talk about your inso which is really exciting it's very dark and Moody which we love wallpaper like floral wallpaper it looks like emerald green you have on the walls so in terms of color I think yeah those are the ones I'm like drawn to I would say like dark blue or dark green all those styles of wallpaper I love florally vintagey dark Academia it's totally dark Academia that's exactly what it is MHM and more that dark wood furniture I think and I love the idea too of having like your desk i

n front of bookshelves or like your books on display behind you it makes it feel like an office but like also a beautiful living room at the same time so we're combining those two which I love yeah you have a very clear and concise idea of what you like I'm really excited to execute that vision and I will see you on reveal day which is kind of wild crazy I told a couple of friends that like also watch your channel and they're like oh my God I feel like I wanton I'm so excited I'm super happy and

thankful for sure well nice to meet you and I will see you I'll see you soon okay see you soon I love kier's inspo it's so warm it's really dark it's really moody it all just comes together to create this very sophisticated and cozy palette which I'm really excited to implement into this room so here's what I'm thinking in order to give Kiera that little reading Nook that she wants the only layout that's going to work is a custom desk against the wall right when you walk in I really want to max

imize all that wall space we have both horizontally and vertically so I want to add two bookshelves on top of this custom desk that we're going to build and this is going to be where Kiara stores all her books it's it's going to be visually interesting but also functional for storage I want to use two dressers on the bottom that's going to give Kiara the storage she's looking for for papers and stationer and all that stuff that you have in a home office and I want to bring in floral wallpaper da

rk tones on the wall and just tons of cozy elements to give this the dark Academia style that Kier loves so Graham's getting a head start of the makeover going to Kias and painting all the walls you guys are probably wondering doesn't Dave usually do this he does but he's away I think in Mexico Dave I love that for you so Graham is painting three walls Regent green by Benjamin Moore really dark green almost skewing gray or like black I love this color it feels really rich and Moody I'm like myst

erious we're not painting the back wall because we are going to be wallpapering that tomorrow hi guys it's prep day so the walls are looking so great gr got got a head start yesterday and painted them which is very helpful the color is like so dark and Rich we are going to get started building a DIY built-in desk situation we're actually really like frankensteining this whole build which is really fun also fun fact we have a new Vlog camera the Sony Vlog camera I know you guys are going to be ab

le to see the difference in the footage going forward because on prep days days like today we use a vlog camera uses real time autofocus tracking and our last camera not a Sony was constantly losing focus so we're really excited that everyone is now going to be in Focus what are you doing are you testing out the zoom on it shooting makeover content you guys know like everything has to look beautiful so I'm excited to up our game with this new Vlog camera Carla also shoots all the Beauties and li

ke our kind of final day with a Sony as well so we're a Sony crew and we're very very excited about it I will leave all the details in my description box cuz I know people are curious about the equipment we use Graham and I are going to start building some Ikea bookshelves for the DIY that I've been talking Non-Stop about next up is an article dresser you wow okay we're moving on to wallpaper wow this is from Sandberg wallpaper this is going to make the space feel like it's filled with character

because of all the like texture like it literally looks like someone hand painted this wallpaper oh you look really cute with your hair up in your Peter Pan collar so we're going to move on to wallpapering we're using pasted wallpaper so this is for nonwoven wallpaper yes let's go over the tools we need a bucket of paste slop yeah slop plastic wallpaper smoother yep you want a brush a roller a damp rack and you want a paint tray that we are going to transfer the slush slop slop into the paint t

ray yeah we're starting with our laser level line is it on my face definitely don't look at the laser and we're going to line the wallpaper the edge of the wallpaper up to this line we're not lining it up to this wall or the ceiling because it's not straight let's do okay step one this is our first panel I am going to roll some paste on the wall gram will probably go in with a brush just for the edges we're finding that the glue is drying really quickly so we have to work fast and we're also cut

ting the panels down so that the weight of the excess isn't weighing the panels down and making them fall off the wall okay it's rug time I'm going for something that's going to basically fill the whole room we want it to be cozy we want it to be VI in here which is why we picked AIG vintage distress rug oh also I'm rolling this out before we build the DIY because parts of the DIY are going to be sitting on the rug so we need to get it down first wo I am so impressed with this rug it's from Bout

ique rugs it looks so high quality it looks really vintage except it's not you can actually machine wash this rug and hot tip if you are looking for a rug for an office get something really low pile like this because Kiara's chair is going to be able to easily move around on top of the rug now the rug is down time to get this DIY assembled starting by bringing in those article drers Graham and I decided that we needed to add an extra piece on the back of these dressers because there was going to

be so much weight from the books on top we wanted to just make sure these were structurally sound so here's how Graham made these support pieces in the workshop Graham is using Ikea Walnut Herring bone kitchen countertop that matches the same color as the article dressers he's cutting the countertop on his table saw into 7in wide strips and is cutting the length to size using his miter saw Graham is assembling the pieces together using wood glue securing them with screws so the pieces don't shi

ft around keeping the counters finished edges isn't all that important here because all the edges are going to either butt up against the wall or the dressers for the legs Graham is shaping some scrap pieces of wood into cylindrical shapes using his lath he's making some leg brackets out of some old couch legs he found in his brand new workshop drawer labeled hinges legs knobs and handles he's drilling a hole in the bottom and in the top of the leg and screwing in some wood insert nuts this is g

oing to allow the legs to be screwed onto a bolt to micro adjust the height of each leg he's now spraying the them and securing them to the Box don't worry this top is going to be covered by an Ikea countertop that we're going to bring in so it's going to look really seamless it doesn't look like that right now but I promise it's going to look better now that we have the additional support on our dressers we're going to place them in each Corner God they're probably even heavier than they were o

kay cter top is in careful not to scratch the woods oo nice it's really giving like Academia this is lighter yeah it does look different doesn't it it's different this isn't the same with t the wrong [Music] color that's not the face of someone that likes it no [Music] I I actually love how the honey color looks against the dark walnut I really love mixing and matching wood tones but because we're trying to make this look less like a DIY and more like an actual piece of furniture you might buy i

n a store I feel strongly that we need the darker wood top to match the dressers atanta to the rescue she's bought the darker wood countertops we can compare looking at them both I really feel like the dark one is just going to make this desk look builtin and really intentional like we bought this at a store we're going to keep the Walnut we're going to return the honey colored one and we will see you tomorrow good morning everyone it's the final day we're pulling the room together I'm really ex

cited we did so much yesterday loving how this desk looks so now it's time to attach the top to the bottom of the desk and finish installing this DIY gr [Music] gr we're attaching the countertop and the dressers with a screw from inside underneath the dresser so that way you don't see the screw this is solid secure I'm going to put the drawers back in and we're going to move on to bookshelves these are the bookshelves that Graham and I built yesterday we're going to put these on top of the desk

and these are going to be for all of Kira's books I don't want to attach the bookshelves to the desk I want this to be a piece that Kira can bring with her if she ever moves and she doesn't want to have the bookshelves attached so Graham and I are going to use L brackets we're going to attach them to the Bookshelf and then we're going to attach the bookshelf to the wall okay looks so good we're going to use anchors so I'm just going to make a mark of we need to make pile of holes I am going to u

se nail polish and just paint these screws black so they blend in a little bit better than the silver next I'm hanging the curtains so I'm going to replace this light with something much more Regal a little mini chandelier if you will this chandelier is of course from Mitsy it's so beautiful it looks like little candles this light is going to be so much brighter and more functional than the one in here before I'll show you Amanda hit it wow so it's now time to fill these shelves Kira mentioned t

o me that she has a lot of books and so that's what these bookshelves are for obviously some people might fill them with Decor but Kiera wanted all her books on display so let's do that now Kiera had her books color coordinated we love to see it but I think for this style they all need to be mixed together so I'm just going between bookshelves trying to separate the colors and fill the shelves now I'm going back in and I'm taking some of the books away shifting them around to make room to lay la

yer in some Decor bringing in this beautiful desk chair I just really felt like this office was calling for a sophisticated desk chair look at this honestly this desk is so spacious I can have my computer here a keyboard a mouse I have my notebook over here maybe my lunch over here there's so much space I'm going to Now work on a little reading Nook on the other side of the room of course this chair had to be great velvet Kira said she wanted a comfy reading chair so we gave her a comfy reading

chair this poof and chair are from article I love the wood detail of the poof because it contrasts against the wood tones of the desk which is great adding character the coziest little corner ever K mentioned that she loves thrifted finds and I always love adding thrifted items into designs because because it just gets to space so much character and adds lots of warmth so this is a little side table I love this Banker styled lamp it's very in line with the style we're going for in here I'm compl

eting this Nook with a mini Gallery wall all in thrifted frames with down little art such an affordable way to hang some art in your space cute that looks so good okay now it is time for the finishing touches I'm hanging two art prints in the middle of the desk I'm doing something a little different and hanging these a bit lower I don't I think it just looks styled and unexpected I'm adding a tray for pens and office accessories I'm placing this cute Globe and an aesthetic connect war game just

feels like this belongs here styling one of K's coffee table books placing a cozy blanket on the reading chair and finally placing some coasters a book and turning on this CBE lamp it is time to bring in Kiara for the reveal okay so don't open are you excited yes I'm so excit okay walk me through what the room looked like before so kind of mismatch of furniture between vintage that it's a little bit of what I wanted with my more modern desk everything put towards the walls lime green I'm very Co

y are you ready yeah okay on the count of three I want you to open your eyes okay okay one two 3 oh [Music] wow this is [Music] crazy [Music] this is not the same [Music] space Oh my God my books the accessories the finishing touches they look so good so much storage thank you wow okay this is by are the best room in my whole [Music] house this is better than I had pictured like no inspiration could match this I feel [Music] wow it's perfect it's everything I hoped for oh my God thank you so gla

d [Music] and this wallpaper too I know isn't it stunning stunning oh thank you you're welcome I'm jealous not Cara was so cute that was such a great reveal in 2 weeks we're doing a pack P friendly living room makeover I feel like I get so many questions about pet friendly Fabrics different covers you can buy for sofas everyone wants to know how to make their living space pet friendly so that is what we are tackling in 2 weeks time I'm so excited so many tips so make sure you hit that subscribe

button okay okay that's it for me as always I'll see you guys next time love you bye but if you're in Canada you have to wear moisture like yeah you have to go what what I don't know I've never used moisturizer well your skin doesn't feel dry Just My Lips My Lips crack but got to stay hydrated okay I drink like two lers of water a day filtered water have my humidifier blasting in my face at night I put on my fingers before I go to sleep cuz I pick my fingers a lot my fingers get really dry so yo

u just put Aqua in your F in your fies yeah and then I just hold them is