We are thrilled to finally post that our empty attic to beautiful office conversion is DONE! We have finished transforming what was once an empty attic space into a lovely, useable, modern office and flex space for our family! This is also an equity-booster – adding close to 300 sq ft under air to the Forest House. Here is a full tour and many before and after images from the build.
When you walk to the top of the brand new stairs, this is your view of the finished attic office. To emphasize the unique A-frame ceiling, we installed white lapboard and cedar beams to provide contrast.
Cube poofs from Inspired Home Angel, Cream White, Linen Ottoman
Then, when you turn around and look back towards the stairs, this is your view. Crisp white walls and ceilings, pops of blue and teal, and an overall bright and inviting space.
From Blank Wall to New Stairs!
Let’s take a walk back in time to when this finished attic office space was nothing more than a dream! This was the view before we had stairs leading to the attic space. Just a sad, empty wall right outside of our master bedroom door.
Then, we cut through the wall and built stairs leading up to the still very rough (and non-insulated) attic space.
Even after we insulated the attic upstairs and installed drywall, the stairway was functional, but not very attractive!
Now, the stairwell is finished with bright white paint, a custom “lighting bolt” handrail, and glorious new carpet. This is a completely finished space leading to an entirely NEW room.
Attic Space
The old attic space was, well, just an attic. Super cold or wicked hot (depending on the season), dusty, and a little sad. The space had so much potential, but so little love.
After the stairs were installed, we set to work on the plywood subflooring and multi-layer insulation.
Then, we added drywall, white lapboard for the ceiling, and cedar beams fitted with lighting.
The final step was installing and whitewashing the solid wood floors.
We are in love with the finished look! Bright walls and gorgeous floors!
We used some of the white lapboard planks paired with some rustic pipe fittings to create a simple shelf for Melissa’s books and decor. You’ll also see one of the chairs we reupholstered!
These ‘desks’ were made from repurposed retail store tables and computer keyboard drawers.
Looking Back Towards the Stairwell
Okay, one last look back to before the stairs to the finished attic were built. The view from the center of the attic to the back of the house was a little underwhelming (womp womp). In fact, you’ll notice that there was no access at all! Just scattered insulation, some sketchy wires and beams, and lots of stuff to crawl over.
Once the new stairs were built, we finally had a way to access the attic space safely.
Once the insulation was mostly up, we could really see the space coming together…like a REAL ROOM (as Melissa said with a Pinnochio inflection).
The white lap board really cleans up the room and makes the almost finished attic space so much brighter.
Finally, the finished view looking towards the stairwell reminds us just how far we’ve come.
We created an art/craft/school work station for Jolie to use at her desk, located next to Melissa’s desk.
Archer and Evie (not pictured) both approve of the new space too!
Summary
This project took about 18 weeks to complete – from initial conception and permitting to final move in. We primarily did the work on weekends and holidays, so it took a little while to complete. The final finished attic office room is wonderful and we love the new square footage (264 sq ft) we gained in the Forest House.
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Costs:
We often get questions about cost. So, here are the details for the finished attic office.
We estimate we spent approximately $7500 in total. Around $3500 of that was paying to have the stairs built and the remaining $4000 was spent on construction materials: floor beams, insulation, plywood, drywall, lapboard, cedar, wall texture, paint, flooring, and trim. Also, our electrical work was overseen by our good friend, also named Chris, so we didn’t pay for that out of pocket, ’cause he loves us.
For comparison, before we began this process, we received quotes ranging from $16,000 (for a rough-in only) all the way to $40,000 for a fully finished space. So, we estimate that we easily saved between $25,000 – $30,000 by doing the work ourselves. Sweat equity score!
We hope you enjoyed this reveal and trip down memory lane with us! You can check out all the posts related to this finished attic office here: Start, Stairs, Multi-layer Insulation, Lap Board Ceiling and Cedar Beams, and the Whitewashed Floors.
What did you do with the I beam (I think it’s called) that sticks up higher than your joists? It looks like it’s a bit taller… we’re dealing with that issue in wanting to finish the space above our garage.
We love this idea! Your attic looks a lot like ours does, and we want to do something similar. Just so we can get a similar ratio – how tall is the peak in your attic? Ours is about six feet and we think we’ll have to do recessed can lighting instead of the beams idea – but if yours is six foot we’d like to do what you did as well!
Hi Dee, Ours was between 7-8 ft in the center peak (we don’t own that home any longer, so I can’t double-check) and then it went down to about 3 feet on each side. Chris is 6’4″ tall, and he could easily pass under the beams in the center, that I know for sure. If you can forgo the beams, you could still have a super clean look. I hope yours comes together!
Hi! My husband and I are trying to turn our upstairs “attic bedroom” into our master bedroom. We are looking into diy spray foam kits but like what we read about the way you did your ceiling insulation. My question is though how effective has it seemed in both the winter months and the summer months? Does the room temperature seem to fluctuate a lot or does it stay relatively nonhumid and mild in your attic. We don’t want to make the wrong choice especially when we are doing the work ourselves.
Thanks!
Allie
Hi Allie, We looked into spray foam kits too, but ultimately decided against them for the attic space at the Forest House. The primary reason was cost, but also, we knew that the rest of our attic would not have been spray foamed (again, cost), so we chose to keep the attic ventilation and used baffles behind the ceiling. We have read and talked to folks about attic venting and spray foam — essentially, they don’t mix well. So, if we had gone all in and spray foamed the entire attic (not just the space we finished), closed off the ridge vents, and created an airtight space, we might have been able to make the spray foam work — but again…the cost was prohibitive. If you can create an airtight envelope though, that can be a great solution. As for comfort, it will depend greatly on where you live, tree coverage, and which way the space faces. We had almost no tree coverage, faced the southwest, and in the southeastern U.S., we found that only the tail end of the summer was hot in the afternoon. The rest of the year was pretty comfortable. I hope that helps and GOOD luck to you on your upcoming project!!! — Melissa
Very good explanation!
This looks great! We have about the same height in our attic nd we are turning it into a bedroom for our teenager, I like the long tables you are using as desks. Where did you find them?
Hi Kara-Lynn — We found the tables at a Gap store that was going out of business (see the post here https://renosemipros.com/retail-tables-turned-diy-desk/ ) These spaces would make great teen bedrooms! Best to you on your ‘conversion’ project! 🙂
How do you eat and cool your attic? What size lights did you use in the beam?
I would love to hear what you did (if anything) for heating/cooling? Assuming insulation does wonders?? Thanks!
Hi Kristen! We rerouted an existing A/C duct line for use in the attic office. Because we were up there every weekday actually using the space as an office, I can attest the only time of year we felt it wasn’t completely comfortable was in late August, and then only in the late afternoon. The rest of the year was very comfortable. Fall and Spring were lovely and winter was nice and comfortable. We originally wired a 220v for a small mini-split on the outside wall thinking we might need it, but we didn’t ultimately install one. Insulation is definitely key though! Several neighbors with similar spaces found them almost unusable most of the year due to them being under-insulated. Good luck on your project!
Hi! My husband and I are trying to turn our upstairs “attic bedroom” into our master bedroom. We are looking into diy spray foam kits but like what we read about the way you did your ceiling insulation. My question is though how effective has it seemed in both the winter months and the summer months? Does the room temperature seem to fluctuate a lot or does it stay relatively nonhumid and mild in your attic. We don’t want to make the wrong choice especially when we are doing the work ourselves.
Thanks!
Allie