Hi all,

I need some help with doing up my study which I would like to look built in, or at least well designed and upmarket, without spending a fortune.

Our study is potentially a nice room, has high ceilings and nice character features and is about 3 m by 3.8 metres. It runs off a central hallway and the door is offset slightly to one side on one of the shorter sides of the room - the window is centred on the facing wall and has white timber shutters which I like and will keep. The room has pine floorboards and off white walls which will stay as they are. It is mainly used for me to work from home in and also to keep my husbands books which are enough to almost fill old bookshelves along one of the longer walls (we have 4 old Ikea bookshelves along one wall, with top extension pieces) . It needs to have space for 2 people to work at a computers simultaneously and also a bit of storage for my work folders and stationary. We also need to accommodate 2 printers.

My vision for the room was to have built in white cupboards with handlefree doors along one of the long sides concealing all the books and work stuff, and looking very "clean" - I wants an unfussy minimalist environment to work in, but my husband's books will always look messy to me, so hence the doors (they are a must for me). I was planning a long desk along the facing side which I was advised would need to have a join in the middle - supported around the (wall) edges and also with a small filing cabinet in the middle.

I had chosen a good quality laminate in white for both the desk and the cupboards. I want a mostly monochrome look so was going to bring in some black and just a little bit of colour with black framed children's art, a big black feature pendant light and possibly black seats....maybe a rug.

The quote for the built ins (desks, cupboard/bookshelves) from a cabinet maker has come in at over $6k which is more than I would like to spend ideally - has anyone achieved something similar that looks built in and is good quality for materially less than this , or does anyone have any ideas how to reduce the cost ? Any ideas or photos appreciated,

Thanks

Janet