Holy cow a lot has happened since I last blogged! I started writing this blog post on FEBRUARY 2nd and I am only just now circling back to finish it! I've had a baby, we've been in the depths of a global pandemic and I've now added virtual kindergarten teacher to my resume (actually, I'm not sure if I should add it because I'm not sure it is something I'm all that good at...). I have so many projects to share, just not enough time to work on the blog. But, I miss blogging and I hope one day I can get back to being more regular about it.
Here's a little bit about a project I worked on pre-baby, pre-pandemic that I really enjoyed. The irony of this post is that the timing of the project couldn't have been more perfect for this family now that everyone is spending a lot of time in their home offices!
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I have been working with a lovely family on multiple projects for the past year or two. We've been working through different spaces in their home as time and budget allows. I really love working with clients long-term like this as it gives me a chance to really get to know people and their likes/dislikes and needs and also allows us time to find perfect pieces for spaces.
They had a large office in their home that was a space that she spent a lot of time working and not a lot of time loving it. Further, her husband didn't have a desk of his own for when he needed to work and so piles of his things would be stashed around in various locations. Not an ideal scenario. After completing several projects, my client made the decision that it was time to address the office. She asked me to first come up with a design plan for how to best utilize the space and how it would feel. So, I set to work.
The first thing that needed to be fleshed out was the layout. As I said, the room is large. They already had a couch and two wing backs in there for a seating area. I felt like the couch was good looking and that a seating area was the perfect plan for that side of the room. It is something pretty to look at when you see the room from the foyer and offers a nice spot to take a conference call away from a desk or to sit and chat with folks as needed. The problem was that it didn't feel finished or pulled together.
The second issue that needed to be addressed was that both the husband and the wife needed to have a space to call their own. A partner desk crossed my mind but I because the room was so large and there was adequate space, I decided that two desks facing each other would allow both of them to have plenty of room to spread out and would help with the symmetry in the space. Previously there was a functional but unattractive filing cabinet and table for a printer and so I also thought finding an attractive solution to house office supplies and necessities mixed in with some pretty and meaningful accessories would be a good idea.
Here was the design plan I put together:
I am so bummed that I don't have before pictures of the space to share. I swear I thought I took some but I can't find them...oh well!
The first order of business was to lighten and brighten the room with a fresh coat of paint. We chose Sherwin William's Whitetail for this. I cannot tell you what a difference the fresh coat of paint made for the room!!
As I said, the existing couch, chairs and rug in the sitting area of the space were all in great shape so we decided to work with what they had and just add some finishing touches. So after we selected the paint color, we picked two great fabrics to make some beautiful custom pillows for the couch and decided to do some custom linen curtains with some beautiful trim tape. While the animal print tape that we originally thought we would use was stunning, it was just too cost prohibitive so we picked an alternate option that turned out beautifully.
Here is a close up of the custom pillows we did - I love doing a contrast cording when doing custom pillows to make it obvious that they are custom. The little hit of animal print against the floral is so pretty!
The next order of business were the desks - she loved the one from the design plan so we bought a pair, pushed their backs together and made a full sized partner's desk scenario for she and her husband.
We used brass accents as the cohesive finish in the space and we pulled that in through the curtain hardware, the pair of eterages holding office supplies and pretty objects, the desk lamps and the gallery frames for the walls.
A pair of these pretty eterages on the wall behind the desks hold office supplies including a printer on the bottom shelves. I used some pretty storage boxes on them as well to mask some of the less pretty office necessities and styled the top shelves with both personal objects as well as a few frames, books and vintage pieces I sourced.
They had these beautiful postcards that they had collected from special trips to one of their favorite places, The Bahamas and she had been saving them wanted to use them for a while. The problem was they were postcards and so they were small. But, I knew that the colors were perfect and there's nothing better than using meaningful art in a space so I decided that if we framed them with over-sized mats and grouped them in a gallery situation that they would be able to be substantive enough to use in the large room.
Lastly we got the curtains up, my client scored some new side tables, I sourced a rug for under the desk and some lamps for beside the couch and then I came in to style, help with art placement and the final details.
See how beautiful that curtain trim turned out? I love that it picks up on the other gold/brass accents in the room so perfectly!
I think they have been pleased with both the functionality of the space for them now but also because it is prettier and feels more pulled together. So glad we could get this finished up pre-pandemic so they could utilize the space!
