How to create your own ‘work from home’ space  

Find yourself working from home? Geneva Vanderzeil from Gen Collective is here to help you do just that!   

After growing up in Brisbane, Geneva first moved to London in 2008, then Hong Kong, to begin her career in DIY fashion. It was there she launched her first blog, A Pair & A Spare, virtually kick-starting her whole career in working online, working in books, and doing DIY for a living. 

“I think for me it’s always about the creative challenge of seeing something I love and thinking how can I do that myself? I think a big part of what I’ve done in this house and what I do all the time is about challenging myself to re-create the things that I see.” 

 These days Geneva’s work is a lot more focused on interiors and styling, and DIY in the home. A big part of what she does is tutorials – like showing people how to make terracotta vases, how to completely overhaul their office or how to make a painted bedhead!    

“I think what really draws people to do DIY is that it’s such a satisfying feeling to make and create yourself… particularly now as we become more aware of our footprint and sustainability and we realise that you don’t have to throw things out! You can breathe new life into them.”  

Given the current climate, and with a lot of us now working from home, this means your ‘work from home’ space probably needs a bit of work too… thankfully Geneva has a solution!  

“We had a spare room that we’d been meaning to upgrade for a while into an office, but we just hadn’t got around to it. We had some cupboards that we really loved, but didn’t like the format of them. So, we had three and we pulled one out and separated the other two to the sides of the room and then we created storage and desk space in between.”  

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All in a day’s WFH 🙌🏼. I couldn’t be happier with how we repurposed the wardrobes in the spare room into this shelving and desk set up! Perfect for taking conference calls in a cute top and pyjama bottoms 😂. You guys will remember that when we first renovated we made these gorgeous wardrobes by hacking @kaboodlekitchen cabinets (adding mid century legs and doorknobs). After a while we realised we needed more shelves and more desk space in this room rather than wardrobes, but didn’t want to get rid of the them because they’re just sooooo nice. Instead we decided to give them a little glow up – separating them and creating built in shelves and a desk in between. It was an inexpensive update that worked so well! We used timber and shelf brackets I bought from @bunnings a while ago, although any plank of shelf would work as long as it’s wide enough. I have to say, it was a bit of a marathon that we embarked on… And obviously when I say we I mean that Frankie climbed all over us and I mainly stood around chatting while Ben pretty much did it all. What a gem! Another thing I did was completely reorganise my craft supplies during Frankie’s nap (mini tour coming soon), which was VERY satisfying but I have to say a few hours laying on the sofa would have been MUCH better lol. Anyway, feel free to swipe for the before picture of this space, but let me warn you it’s not pretty… Sharing the details for this over on the blog soon! Excuse me while I lay down for a while. Oh also just so you know, I use a way more ergonomic (aka ugly) chair for day to day work but this one just looks so good here 💅🏼. #diy #builtindesk #workfromhome #upcycle #repurpose

A post shared by Geneva Vanderzeil (@genevavanderzeil) on Apr 1, 2020 at 3:34am PDT

And voila! There are so many easy projects people can do at home right now that don’t take a lot of materials and are just really satisfying to work on… if you’re feeling inspired, head to Geneva’s website here for more ideas.