Today is such an exciting day because I am sharing the plan for my biggest project EVER. It feels both thrilling and terrifying to say that. My next project will be an entire room remodel for my friends Chase and Jovanna Joyner. They have had an incredibly hard year and this project is one small thing I can offer to hopefully make their home a little brighter.

In November of 2020 Jovanna started to feel ill. She ended up in so much pain that she went to the emergency room where she was immediately admitted. This was just the beginning of 6 months of non stop hospital stays and no answers. She went from hospital to hospital leaving doctors completely stumped. At one point, her body had swollen with almost 50 pounds of fluid over the course of a couple of days, and her kidneys had failed to the point where she had to undergo daily dialysis. After months of no answers she was finally transferred to a research hospital where she was diagnosed with an incredibly rare autoimmune disease called Idiopathic Multicentric Castleman Disease with TAFRO syndrome. You can read more about it here, but essentially the symptoms present as if they are cancer and the disease affects the lymph nodes. Even after receiving the diagnosis and starting a treatment plan, one of the medications caused her blood pressure to spike which resulted in her having two grand mal seizures and again being hospitalized.

Chase became a 24/7 care giver in addition to his taxing day job. Unable to take much time off to care for Jovanna he spent months working from her bedside office-ing out of various hospital rooms. He has now changed jobs and is able to work from home full time to allow time to care for Jovanna. This home office will not only be the first step in making their house a home, but will provide a home office that they so desperately need. After the year they have had, I want to make this an office AND a sanctuary where they can spend time together while still doing their jobs.

OFFICE REMODEL PLAN

Now let’s get into the plan! I want to tackle this room in three different zones. We have 1) a feature wall, 2) built in bookshelves/bench on either side of the window, and 3) a built in desk area.

Zone 1: For the feature wall I want to do either shiplap or beadboard. Because they have 9 ft ceilings that presents some challenges when buying product. The goal is to keep this as affordable as possible. We might need to get creative since most shiplap and beadboard is sold in 8ft or 12ft sheets.

Zone 2: In this section we will be using Ikea Billy bookcases to create a built in bookshelf. We want to add an arched detail and some statement craftsman trim around the windows. We are also planing to build a window seat bench for some additional office storage.

Zone 3: Here we will be using 2 ikea alex drawers and a butcher block countertop to make a built in desk area. The Joyners already owned these pieces so that definitely helps with the budget. To make it look more custom we will be adding drawer fronts and hardware to make everything look built in. I am also planning to add the craftsman trim to this window to match zone 2.

Here is a mood board that I have put together outlining the design style we are going for. Their home is definitely more traditional and I am excited to explore that style of design.

All I know for sure is that we are going to a muted green color for the entire room.

Bookcase inspiration from the talented My Grandparents Chair
Built in desk inspiration from the wonderful Jyll Mackie

I am so excited to get started! Make sure you are following along in stories on instagram.