Our Nautical Office Renovation

Every home has spaces that quietly shape the way we spend our days.

For us, this room was one of them.

When we first moved in, this room definitely became a 'catch-all' for much of my husband's office items. The carpet was old, smelly, and we had put his dad's desk in there for him to use, which was too large and awkward for the small room. It felt cramped, claustrophobic, and was a room we avoided rather than sought out.

With the rest of our house also under various stages of chaos, I wanted somewhere that felt calm, welcoming, and inspiring—A space my husband desperately needed. We all need a designated, clean, and finished space of our own while living in a chaotic world. With my husband having a planned trip that would give me a week alone at the house, I knew it was the opportunity to create this space for him and surprise him with it.

I spent several months planning out the room in my head. I wanted something that would reflect my husband's interests. We both love the timeless character of weathered wood, deep blues, warm brass, maps, books, and the quiet feeling of being near the water. So I centralized my planning around that concept, and slowly the pieces fell together.

Before buying anything, I spent quite a bit of time researching layouts, gathering inspiration, and deciding which details would make the biggest difference. I wanted the room to feel collected over time rather than decorated all at once. I needed it well planned out since I only had a week to get it all done!

Picking out paint colors, flooring from our local flooring business, staining and building a custom desk, and making sure the colors go together. For the floors, I decided on the one furthest to the left.

For a lot of the prep work, I did it at my parents' house, where I kept most of my materials. I had to keep suspicions down, of course! I planned to design and build a custom desk to fit the unique space, which I stained and built in my parents' garage. The various trips to Menards, hardware stores, the flooring store, and receipts all had to be done quietly and hidden. There was one close call when my husband found one of the larger receipts from my big Menards haul and questioned what I had spent so much on there. He didn't pay much attention to exactly what was on the receipt thankfully, and I already had other unrelated projects he was aware of at the time.

Thankfully, I had some help with portions of the renovation, which let me get it all done in a week. My dad and brother came to help tear out the carpet and install the new wall panels. While tearing out the carpet, we discovered the original tile underneath with this tile silhouette of a young boy, likely his actual profile. This was cut out of a tile and inlaid into the floor. Super cool! This must have been a young boy's room. Our house was originally built in 1906!

By the end of Day 1, we had gotten everything out of the room, including the desk, supplies, chair, and the old carpet. We got the floor cleaned up and prepped for new flooring. We got almost all of the wall panels cut and installed.

We got the room painted, and I absolutely fell in love with the color and knew it was going to look so good! Of course, the Quality Inspector had to ensure we were still doing a good job for her new room :)

I took off all the original base trim, super old and awesome thick wood. It had several layers of paint. Since it was all already cut to length, I wanted to reuse it, plus it would absolutely go with the concept I was aiming for. I decided to sand it down as much as I could to have a smooth, flat surface on the paint side. Then I flipped it over and sanded the bare wood side and the edges. For the stain, I used both Minwax Jacobean and Minwax Dark Walnut. I really liked both, and they were pretty similar in color. The wood is very old and parched; it soaked up the stain very well.

We had a family friend, who owns one of our local flooring stores, install the new flooring. I picked out one that was discounted due to overstock, so I was able to replace the floors for very little money, which I am very grateful for. It is a high-quality floor, with very thick boards and a slight gap built into the design to resemble real hardwood floors. I absolutely loved how the variations in the boards added the character I was looking for! It matched the rest of the wood trim very well.

The light fixture was one I found at Menards. I liked the port-hole feel to it, and it's significantly brighter and fits the room better than our previous fixture. We got the door trim installed and ready to mount the sliding rail for the new door.

By the end of the final night before my husband's return, this is what the room looked like. I finally got to put together all the things I had strategically ordered to arrive after he left. I finished installing the desk I built; it totally made a huge difference in the space! Going along the wall in an L-shape made the room feel so much bigger, and I was already working with a small room to begin with. I made monitor risers out of 2x6s from Menards and stained them to match the desk.

I found the gold lamp at a thrift store. I finished staining and installing the new shelves in the closet, and later added a nautical chain with a metal pulley on the end to act as a weight and pull for the light string in the closet. I set up our PCs and new monitors, which had been sitting in their boxes since we didn't have a proper place to set them up.

I absolutely love the rug. It is very soft and, after about 8 months of use, has maintained its color and feel, so very durable, especially for the price!

I wanted him to have a new, beautiful chair for his new office, and every nice-looking wingback leather chair I found was way more than I wanted to spend. But this one surprised me. It's a very nice, soft material that looks very elegant, and after several months of use, my only complaint is that the buttons on the bottom are getting a little loose. But I can easily reinforce them with a better thread. Doesn't it look good?!

My husband had wanted a drafting table for a long time. But anything I would find, even on Marketplace, would be at least $400-$600! I happened across this awesome adjustable drafting table, the very week he was gone, at a thrift store. It had already been marked down to $40, and when I asked about it, the lovely lady gave it to me for $30!! I was ecstatic and eager to bring it home. Of course, Nala needs to emphasize that this room reno was done for HER, no one else.

The wheeled file cabinets have been better than I expected, too! They look very nice and are sturdy, even when fully filled. They look like wood, with the front of the drawers hard and the rest of the drawer fabric, and the frame metal. Super easy to move around as needed. My husband wanted file cabinets; I wanted them to look nice. Win-Win!

I also found this adorable captain's chair on wheels. It totally fits the theme! It was slightly short for everyday use at the desk, since I had intentionally made the desk slightly higher than normal to encourage standing. So I use it mainly in another room now:)

Seeing the room come together so well and the timing work out was incredibly rewarding. I am so happy I decided to do it, and the surprise for my husband was well worth all the effort.

We have been using it for around 8 months now, and it is easily our favorite room. We spend a lot of time here, and so do our kitties, of course. Honestly, if I had to do anything differently, I would have tried to finish sanding and staining the sliding door sooner, or brought it to my parents' house to work on. (It is still in our garage, unfinished lol. We don't really need a door, but eventually I will finish it and put it on the rail we installed above the door;)

I am very pleased with the quality of everything else I purchased for this renovation. Investing in things that will last, that we will enjoy and actually use, and creating spaces we want to spend time in was the mindset I had during this project. The spaces we love most are often the ones that have been shaped slowly—with intention, patience, and countless small decisions made over time.

What I love is that since I finished this project, my husband has totally made the space his own. He built his own shelves for the window wall, staining them to match. He is now displaying all of the precious pieces of his life and childhood. He rearranged his computer and monitors, so now we enjoy a middle monitor to watch our favorite shows while we each play our own game.

I made the space, my husband made it his, and we made it ours.

Resources:

Supplies used:

~Stain: Minwax Jacobean and Minwax Dark Walnut (I got the stain from my local Ace Hardware Store)

~Paint: Cavalry by Pittsburgh, paint number MEN7045-6 (Menards)

~Desk: 3x 1"x24"x4' Glued Pine Boards, 5x 12" or 16" metal shelf brackets (I don't remember exactly how long, but they need to be heavy duty) (Menards) (you can also find some options on Amazon)

~Shelves in Closet: 3x 1"x6"x8' pine boards, cut to 2' sections, each shelf is 24"deep, stained to match the rest of the wood. I used 2"x2" boards cut with a taper at the end to hold up the shelves. The boards are sitting freely on top of them, you can also screw them into the 2"x2"s. (Menards)

~PC and Monitor: If anyone is interested in the specs on what setups we have, send me a message!

Here's a list of many of the same items I used on Amazon, along with similar listings of the items I found at thrift stores. (Some of the links below are affiliate links. If you choose to purchase through them, it helps support The Strawflower Cottage at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products I genuinely use and would gladly purchase again.)

~Flush Mounted Nautical Inspired Light Fixture: https://amzn.to/4fsXmzG

~Sliding Barn Door Rail Complete System: https://amzn.to/4vqPcwL

~Brass Gold Desk Lamp: https://amzn.to/4pegHbk https://amzn.to/4bfv8WE

~Nautical Light Pull Cord: https://amzn.to/4wDMl4A

~Blue Area Rug: https://amzn.to/4f81cNp

~Leather Wingback Captain's Chair: https://amzn.to/4piBryM

~Vintage Wood Drafting Table: https://amzn.to/4vPKklC

~Blue Captain's Chair: https://amzn.to/3RnU87v

~Antique Brass Outlet Covers and Light Switch Covers: https://amzn.to/4yf6lvJ https://amzn.to/4bC6K1B

~Rustic Filing Cabinets on Wheels: https://amzn.to/3R8c7yG

~Nautical Decor: https://amzn.to/44TsQsF https://amzn.to/4wwPfYB https://amzn.to/4ycNUHZ