From dining room to den: Our ‘Ikea hack’ study, part 2

The finishing touches

In part 1 of ‘Dining room to den’ I described how we turned our old dining room into our perfect study / home office by customising an Ikea kitchen worktop and storage units. In the second part of the series I’ll describe how we completed the look with carefully chosen accessories, artwork and soft furnishings.

In my experience, the most challenging aspect of a room makeover is getting the finishing touches right. Yet, it’s the finishing touches that can transform a room and make it special.  In the past, I lacked confidence when it came to interior design but nowadays I delight in planning a room makeover and I love searching through magazines and websites for ideas and inspiration.

This time I tried to pay attention to all the finishing touches with some shiny new things and some lovely pieces we already had, (Lego Wall-E, Subbuteo Bottle opener, handmade guitar pick bag, Pantone mug, Yamaha guitar amp)

I made the personalised box frame for Richard’s 40th birthday and the draw string bag for his guitar picks.

In the case of the study, Richard and I were inspired by the resurgence of the ‘retro’ theme and early on we spotted Jeremy Harnell’s Mix Tape print on the King and McGaw website, (A great place to start when you are looking for ideas as you can search by artists and categories). I love Jeremy’s work. His designs are simple but so effective with their bold use of colours. I could have chosen two or three of his designs for our study but in the end, the Mix Tapes beat the Ghetto blaster and the ZX Spectrum! The print is available in a range of sizes and there is an option to add a frame.  As we were conscious of costs, we ordered the print and mounted it in an inexpensive Ikea Ribba Frame above Richard’s desk (using the Ribba frame meant I had to use a craft knife to shave a little bit off either side of the print but you can’t tell).

Our Jeremy Harnell Mix Tapes Print from King and McGaw looks great in the Ikea Ribba Frame

Cushions for our Wrafton 2 Seater sofa by Home & Haus from Wayfair.co.uk were next on our list but despite trawling Etsy, Notonthehighstreet and endless online stores and department stores we just couldn’t find anything we liked.  So, I had a flash of inspiration and surprised Richard by making my own Retro Mix Tape cushions using material I had in my fabric box to compliment our Jeremy Harnell print.

The handmade retro cushions help to finish off our study makeover.

I’m delighted at how these handmade retro tape cushions turned out.

I love symmetry so I wanted another Print in an Ikea Ribba frame for my side of the desk. I wanted something that complimented the colour scheme of the Mix Tape print, so in the end I decided to make something myself. I was inspired by the Betsy Benn personalised Favourite Places maps on John Lewis’s website so I created a ‘Taylor Family Favourite Places’ map in Photoshop in the colours of our choice.

I’m pleased with how my ‘Taylor Family Favourite Places’ print worked out.

Orange is the new black! Our Taylor Family Favourite Places framed print compliments the colour scheme.

Everything else fell quickly into place after that when we spotted the stylish Benson Wall clock and the adorable Balloon Dog Money Box in The Range (We have balloon dog ‘mark 2’ in the study now as our first Balloon Dog lost his head when he plunged off the window ledge whilst I was closing the blind).

I love the raised numerals on this Bentima Benson Clock from The Range.

The Balloon Dog Money Box from The Range is one of my favourite pieces. We usually keep him in the window. How much is that doggy in the window? Only £8.99!

Then we drafted in Richard’s guitars, the Lego Wall-E the girls got for Christmas. Finally we added a fabulous Retro Tape sellotape dispenser and pen holder we spotted in Homesense.

J-me Retro Tape Dispenser from Homesense.

Lego Wall-E feels right at home in our new study

Job done! Dining Room to Den Ikea hack study is finally finished and we are delighted with it!

I mentioned in Part 1 of ‘Dining room to den’ that I will be running a competition to win a Balloon Dog Money Box. This will be up for grabs in a later post (when I have figured out how to run a competition)! These lovely money box pooches are no longer available on The Range website, so make sure you enter!