# Den/office redo



## hyunelan2 (Aug 14, 2007)

Here are some pictures from working on finishing my den/home-office. This has been a side-project over the last 8-or-so months. Unfortunately, I lost some pictures when my "real" camera and I departed ways. I am relying on my 8mp cell-phone camera until Christmas comes around (I hope).

Here is what we started with. Plain walls, all off-white. The entire house was this color when we purchased it in May 2009.









The first thing I did was build a bookcase. 90% of the materials for this came from a stack of materials I found in the basement.









I painted the whole thing semi-gloss white. I first sprayed it with a wagner in the garage - which may have been the biggest mess I've ever made. After putting it in place, I rolled it with a smooth foam roller. Captain hindsight would have said just skip spraying it and use the roller for the whole thing.









I added some fluted trim to the front, crown to the top and 6" base around the bottom. The crown and base will tie into the rest of the room. I also used some picture-frame moulding from my wainscot project to made "panels" on the sides.









not pictured: painting the room using Glidden "Dusty Miller." We choose this color because we bought way too much of it for another room. Eggshell finish.

Then, onto the desk. This was all made with materials from Ikea. I used Akurum kitchen base cabinets as the lower portion. Instead of using the legs that come with the cabinets, I just framed out some 1x2 wood, painted white, and set the cabinets at that height. Otherwise the desk would be too tall. The desktop is a tabletop from Ikea, finished with a few coats of polyshades. I cut down the width about 6". I purchased a pine stair tread from home depot and cut it down a bit, installed it on slide-out rollers and it is now a keyboard/mouse tray. Crown will wrap around the front of the cabinets.









The computer is out-of-sight in the right cabinet door.









Which of course it would not like if it didn't have some airflow. So, I have 2 fans - one that brings fresh air in, and one that exhausts warm air out. I have had no overheating problems under normal use. If I run something very demanding (like Call of Duty) on the computer, I open the cabinet door.









Under cabinet lights for the desk.









And one behind the glass.









I experimented with dual 20" monitors mounted vertically. I did not care for it so these went to my office at work. I might pickup a single 23-24" widescreen monitor on black friday. The current monitor is a 19" 4:3 aspect monitor.









-picture limit break-


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## hyunelan2 (Aug 14, 2007)

-not pictured: crown molding installation-

My wife and I ran into some curtains at TJ-Maxx. Not what we had initially envisioned, but the price was right. All 4 panels, which are lined, for $40. The curtain rods (Bed Bath, & Beyond) cost more than the curtains. Yes, they need to be ironed/steamed. We just hung them up there.









I found a framed replica of the Declaration of Independence at Hobby Lobby for $30. This seemed like an appropriate place for it.









My fish tank sitting in the corner. Eventually this will go to the basement when that is finished, then a chair and small table will go here. Somewhere to sit and read.









My old Sony 24" TV sitting on a stand will also eventually be replaced by a 32" LCD mounted on the wall.










I stil need to get the taller 6" baseboard to finish off the trim in this room. I also need to change the doors on the lower cabinet to match the uppers. The plainfront doors were $1, while the nice raised panel doors were $55 each. So, only the upper doors were bought in the nice version to start. I need to get rid of the cheap red rug too, I have been considering getting something in seafoam from www.flor.com. It's been a low-priority and I've only worked on this room while taking a break from other projects.


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## Bootz (Jun 28, 2010)

I really Really Like the lighting that you did ! That is really top notch stuff.. wondering... what you used for the lighting inside the cabinets ... that is a real nice color and not to bright... where did you get the supplies.. and how did you run the wiring ? .. I Actually really want to do the same thing but in the kitchen cabinets and wire it to a dimmer or just a light switch that is for what ever reason does not switch anything on... But Really Awesome Work!


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## hyunelan2 (Aug 14, 2007)

The lights are just your standard halogen puck lights from home depot. You can get them single or in a pack of 3. They can be surface or recessed mount, and are cheap. There are 3 underneath the cabinets, and one inside the center cabinet with glass doors. The lights come with trim-able wiring connected to a standard plug. I installed an outlet inside the top-left cabinet, which is controlled by the switch above the desk. The 4 puck lights simply plug into that outlet. There was MUCH swearing when I was trying to run the NM wire to that outlet as that wall is filled with blown-in insulation. A note: The wiring for the lights is not made to be put in-wall or anywhere else where it is burried. If you are going to use it inside cabinets, just run it across the top of the cabinet and then plug it into an outlet just above (or inside) one of the cabinets. It's just regular lamp-cord type wire.

In your kitchen, if you have a switch that does nothing there is a good chance it controls 1/2 of an outlet underneath your sink - for a garbage disposal. I have a similar switch in my kitchen, with no garbage disposal.


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## Bootz (Jun 28, 2010)

hyunelan2 said:


> The lights are just your standard halogen puck lights from home depot. You can get them single or in a pack of 3. They can be surface or recessed mount, and are cheap. There are 3 underneath the cabinets, and one inside the center cabinet with glass doors. The lights come with trim-able wiring connected to a standard plug. I installed an outlet inside the top-left cabinet, which is controlled by the switch above the desk. The 4 puck lights simply plug into that outlet. There was MUCH swearing when I was trying to run the wire to that outlet as that wall is filled with blown-in insulation.
> 
> In your kitchen, if you have a switch that does nothing there is a good chance it controls 1/2 of an outlet underneath your sink - for a garbage disposal. I have a similar switch in my kitchen, with no garbage disposal.


Yea? the one I am talking about is on the wall walking into to the kitchen.. so I have yet to really know what it does or what it controls.. I think I am going to do what you do.. seems more cost effective.. i was going to do the LED light strip and run it in there some how.. but if you had that much success with just the puck light then that seems to be a better answer... We have an outlet above the microwave and maybe i can run the wiring to to plug into there ? any idea how I could run the wiring to the light switch that you suggest? I am a beginner at wiring and know very little but want to make it look fantastic to really wow the miss... Maybe if its not to much maybe i could do another light switch in the kitchen to just control those lights and maybe some under cabinet lights too.... :whistling2: I dunno though i am a light fanatic.. just something about lighting something up and making it really stand out.. you know ?


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