My home office makeover – Alcove bookshelf

_{Some items have been gifted}

If you’ve got alcoves in your home, even the smallest space can be turned into a handy storage area. Here’s how I added shelves to a corner of my home office to create a cute bookshelf…My home office isn’t huge. I’m not complaining; I love how cosy it is and it heats up well (as I’ve discovered after the recent snowy week!) thanks to the high BTU-rating radiator I added early on. It means I’m always keen to go into my office and do some work. But the smaller room space size means I’ve not got much room for all my books, magazines and files. It’s therefore been really important for me to get the storage right in my office. I don’t mind having a tiny room as long as everything has its place and I can keep the space tidy. I’ve been using the same storage units that I had in my caravan to stow away my craft supplies, sewing kit, fabrics and on-going projects. They’re designed for kids’ bedrooms so they don’t take up much space.I’ve had a pile of books in the corner of my office for months, and I fully intended to add some shelving to the room to store them neatly. There’s a tiny alcove behind the door, and this seemed like the obvious place to add some built-in shelves. But I’m on a budget and don’t want to spend out ££s on wood, so I’ve been holding back on this project for a while. When I spotted some old wood in a skip recently, I asked if I could rescue it. It didn’t really matter what the wood looked like as I knew I could paint it; I just needed some thing sturdy that would fill the alcove space. It’s about 30cm deep and 30cm wide, so these old pieces of wood would do the job nicely.I cut them down to size and used the off-cuts to make strips that I could use as brackets on either side of the alcove to support the shelf. I gave the old wood a coat of primer and then spray-painted the shelves and brackets bright gold. The most difficult part of the process was fixing the brackets to the wall, because I was drilling into brickwork. I used a masonry drill to make the holes to fix the brackets to the walls. I left a gap at the bottom of the alcove to hold a storage box. I needed a tall space to store sheets of paper, gift wrap, wallpaper, tissue paper and so on. This little space keeps these bits and pieces looking neat and easily accessible. I added magazine files to the shelves, including a pretty pastel pink striped design from Paperchase, to keep paperwork neatly out of sight. All of my books fit onto the shelves – I just need to make sure that I don’t buy any more, haha! I’ve stowed magazines inside some of the magazine files and I have added another triangle shelf from Red Candy to match the other three that I previously installed in the office. This has given me more space to display magazines where my articles have been featured!I added a double hook to the back of the door to add another space to store hanging items. After searching for a laptop bag for ages, I finally got a new backpack that will fit my laptop and has lots of compartments to store my essentials when I have to work away from the office. I specifically wanted a backpack because I always get a crick in my neck if I carry a shoulder bag or satchel, so this one with padded straps is really comfortable to carry. It’s from the Refresh & Reboot collection from Paperchase. I’m so pleased that I’ve managed to shoe-horn in some extra storage space and it just goes to show that the smallest alcove can provide ample storage if you add a few shelves. What do you think of this corner of my office? Do you have any tips for adding storage that doesn’t take up much space? Let me know in the comments below or tag me in pics of your own home office on Instagram @cassiefairy.

PIN THIS PROJECT FOR LATER..!

Some items in this blog post have been gifted to me and the pink links indicate a gifted product, affiliate link or information source. All thoughts and opinions in this post are based on my own experience and I am not responsible for your experience 🙂