With the year-long office remodel project behind us, I decided to take last week off from house stuff. As much as I enjoy working on adding value to my home, it’s important to have some meaningful down time, especially when the project is fairly large. You don’t want to get burned out with home projects or it sucks all the fun out of it.
Over this past weekend we welcomed a new addition to our family. My wife, Lisa, gave birth to our third child. We are blessed to now have three little girls. Life is great.
Now that I’ll be busy with a newborn and the other two little ones for the time being, this is a perfect opportunity to reflect on some of our past projects, think about the road ahead and most importantly, help you with YOUR home projects.
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In today’s post, I want to take a quick look back on the home office project and discuss some things I would’ve done differently. If you are considering some of the elements of our office in your home, then this post will shed some light on the tougher elements of the room.
Reflections on the Home Office Remodel
The Coffered Ceiling
This is my favorite feature of our new office. It was also a giant PIA. In our coffered ceiling design post, we discussed a couple different approaches to getting this look. The first is constructed from 1x (pronounced “one by”) the other is from framing lumber wrapped in drywall. Since I preferred the look of the drywall, that’s the approach we chose. It looks great, but it ended up being a lot of weight and a ton more finishing work. The drywall needed to be cut, installed, corner bead added and then three or four coats of joint compound were applied. Then it got primed. THEN I had to install the crown molding and paint it again.
If I had to do it all over, I would just use the 1x approach. The wood can be pre-assembled into box channels, pre-primed and pre-painted before installation. Once it’s up, the crown still needs to be added, but since it’s getting fastened to a wood box, installation should actually be easier.
In a few years, I’m planning on adding a coffered ceiling to our family room and kitchen. If I did it with drywall like our office it would take WAY WAY too long. The 1x method seems to be the way to go if you have a time crunch. On the other hand, if you’re building a home and the house isn’t drywalled yet or a whole room is being re-drywalled, then a coffered ceiling from drywall is probably much more manageable.
The Built-In Cabinets
If I had to do the cabinet over again, I wouldn’t change too much. I love the beaded face frames and the shaker doors. These aren’t the first cabinets I’ve built before, so I’ve been able to incorporate some previous lessons learned from those earlier projects. I skipped a full sized back piece and instead left the back of the cabinet open to the wall. The cabinet was significantly lighter because of that change. Since I ended up scribing the right side cabinets, I probably should’ve added a wider stile to account for that scribe. I ended up adding it after the fact.
My biggest regret is not building these ahead of time. I think it may have been easier to make these before the coffered ceiling. I also took a few weeks to make my larger table saw station, which slowed the office progress down, but it made the cabinet build loads easier. Oh and those darn screw heads on the upper cabinet are too noticeable.
The Counters
The counters look great and are smooth to the touch. To hide the plywood edge, I nailed on a piece of red oak hardwood. Pretty standard practice, but the seam is noticeable. For this project I wanted to try something different and it just didn’t work. I wanted to cut the plywood edge and the hardwood at a 45 degree angle so when put together the seam would be on the corner and therefore nearly invisible. Unfortunately, my table saw would only go as far as 42 or 43 degrees. It’s supposed to goto 45, but it would bind up before it got there. I actually found that out when was trying to cut my notches for the beaded face frame. Before I used the notching router bit, my intention was to make the cut on the table saw. Should I get a new saw? Yes, but that’s not a good enough reason right now.
The Lights
There are four overhead lights: one over the workstation and three evenly spaced throughout the room. We really could’ve used one more. The room is perfectly lit in the functional sections of the room, but it’s a bit darker near the door. Not really a regret, just an observation.
That’s probably the only real feedback I’d give myself on this project. I don’t want to sound like a whiny perfectionist since the room REALLY pictures well and looks damn near perfect. I think it’s helpful to do a look back because there’s always some room for improvement and you may find it useful on your next project.
Later this week I’m run in a discount giveaway with our favorite hardwood flooring cleaner, Bona. Stay tuned for details. Next week I have a power tool giveaway. Good times.
What home improvement stage are YOU in? Did you just finish a major project, are you in the middle of one or are you planning your next big effort?
Anyone buying tools on Black Friday?
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