When my daughter moved out to go to college, her bedroom was an empty reminder that she was grown and independent, a sad thing to accept as a mother. Passing by her empty room every day got depressing, knowing that she would never be a little kid again.

As a home health nurse, I work from home a lot, doing my patient charting on my computer in the evenings when I get home. I would typically do this at my kitchen counter, which was distracting with my son watching tv or my husband talking on the phone. I needed my own quiet space to work and concentrate, so I decided to turn my daughter’s bedroom into my home office.

Pretty much the only thing left in her room was a rug, so I had a blank slate. What I didn’t have was a ton of money to spend. I knew I needed a desk, a chair, and storage, so I started with some shelving. Built-in shelving is expensive, and bookcases are expensive, so I decided to buy several of the white shoe shelves that go in a closet and just line them up together on the back wall to give the look of being custom shelving. I ended up getting five of them, and at around $20 each, that was only $100 for an entire wall of shelving.

I love to read, and had books stored all over my house in cabinets, on my nightstand, under the bed… Now I have a spot for all my books. I had my printer stored in a cabinet in the living room, and I had to get it out every time I needed to print something, and now it is on my new shelves ready to use whenever I need it.

Next I needed a desk and chair. I needed something cheap, but also something I was excited to sit down at to do my work. And thanks to amazon for the win! I found this small, rustic desk on their website for less than $100, and this cream colored velvet rolling desk chair for less than $60. The desk has two small drawers, perfect for storing desk supplies and the power cord for my laptop, and the chair is feminine and comfy.

Now that I had a work space, I still needed the room to function for guests or for when my daughter decided she wanted to spend a night or two at home. There was no room for a bed anymore with the office furniture, so I had to think outside the box. I went with a black futon from WalMart. It’s a Serta brand, so it’s good quality and surprisingly comfy, but still doesn’t take up a lot of space when it’s folded up as a sitting area.

The futon was only $100, and I had all these throw pillows lying around in closets that I put on it to add some color and texture.

And even though this is supposed to be my work space, now that there is a sitting area in front of my desk, my husband and son wander in every now and then to sit down and hang out with me while I’m trying to work! But of course I don’t mind the company every now and then ha ha!

There is also plenty of room to fold the futon out into a bed for when we have guests.

So now not only do I have a quiet, pretty, comfortable space to work at home, but I don’t feel so sad passing by an empty room every day! And I was able to turn the room into an office AND a guest room for less than $400!

Thanks y’all!

-Nikki