These products are independently selected by us. We may earn a commission when you purchase from one of our links. All prices are correct at the time of publication.
For Marcel d’Agenée (@brewcitybuilds) and his partner, Ben, the second floor of their home is technically the third bedroom.but ben again I am using it as an office. again We wanted to use it as a space to hang out with our guests after dinner, listen to music and enjoy cocktails. (The 450-square-foot long strip is a tall order, as Marcel says, “it needed love.”)
Follow topics like this
Follow us for more stories like this
Previously, the cream carpet smelled and had holes and tears, the walls were grey-blue and needed to be cleaned and dusted, and there was a large cabinet at the top of the stairs that needed to be removed. there was. Marcel said he needed a solution to free up space and have a pillar in the middle. “Now that we’ve finally completed the renovation of his ground floor in our home, it’s time to start working on the upper floors,” he says.
Marcel spent about two months and just over $1,000 to complete this attic renovation. “I worked really hard on this, so I just piled up a little bit of what I had to do every day,” he says. “Honestly exhausting, but worth it!”
His first step was to remove the musty carpet and lay tiles in its place. Marcel had used peel and stick tiles before, but was new to using adhesive to attach tiles, so he was surprised at how easy it was. “The only thing I found was floor glue all over my body and I had no idea how it got there,” he said. “That’s intense.” Marcel and Ben opted for his tile, an affordable black vinyl with white flecks that looks more like the more expensive terrazzo.
“Another priority was getting rid of the old built-in cabinets that took up too much space,” Marcel says of the project. Marcel removed it and replaced it with a sleek black metal balustrade that provided visibility. In the future, he says, he may add a distinctive wall to the window wall. Because, he thinks, he “might pop a little bit when he walks into the space.”
And while the cabinets around the staircase railing have been removed, there’s still plenty of “after” with the angled open shelving Marcel added, the built-in bookshelves on the other side of the space, and the assembled storage cabinets. of storage space. into the wall. What is Marcel’s favorite detail? He added new hinges and hardware to those doors and painted them the same color as the walls (Behr’s Mesa Taupe). “It’s the little details that nobody sees that just make it look more modern,” says Marcel.
The hardest part of the redo was working around the large pillars in the room. The column was like a chimney and required an expert (and roof repair) to remove it, so Marcel decided to keep it and use it as a natural divider for the space. He extended it and added vertical slats to make it a prominent partition with a more modern feel. “Knowing the angle of the ceiling slope, all he had to do was create a frame that would wrap around the 1×2,” says Marcel. “There were a lot of angles and cuts, but luckily it turned out great.”
The room now has distinct zones and is the multitasking space that Marcel and Ben were looking for. And Marcel also likes to use the office part. “This is my new favorite place to edit videos,” he says. Not only does it have a nice workspace with shelves for Ben’s books, but it also has a large sofa for sleeping and lounging. (Marcel got it from the following source) Local vintage furniture store.)
“My favorite part is how cozy the chill area is,” says Marcel. “The Mesa Taupe color gives the back corner a warm and inviting feel. It also complements the rug I ordered from Society6. Everything just flows.” However, he added that having a separate office nook behind the dividing wall felt like more usable space.
My advice when tackling an ambitious rework like Marcel’s is to focus on one thing at a time. “This was a big project with a lot of work to do, so instead of thinking about all the things to do at once, let him focus on one task at a time so that it will all be done in the end.” he said. he says. “I was a little overwhelmed when I took on this project, but it’s finally done. It feels perfect.”
Inspired? Submit your own project here.
