I spend evenings and weekends marking on the couch and I worked from home during the pandemic. My husband is the one who mainly uses our home office to run our waterfowling business. Our home office also doubles as a fourth guest room. After teaching junior and senior high school from the kitchen table, I spent a lot of time in the summer surfing the web about home office decor because I realized we really needed to revamp the home office so we both could use it and enjoy it.
According to Real Simple, “[A] home office is a place that should inspire the flow of creativity and allow you to get down to business. [However,] home offices can be the most neglected spaces in our homes—messy and [un-inspirational] environments driving us to work anywhere but in the actual office,” (2018).
Based on their 10 suggestions from noted designers and bloggers I decided to transform our home office. Check out how we did it!
*I really wanted to remove the guest room function from our home office because the half and half nature of the room isn’t ideal for the flow of creativity. BUT since it is a shared space, I had to incorporate his preference into the re-design. He pointed out that we have a lot of family and we really do need the space.
1. Think Chic
Accomplished by updating the outdated ceiling light from the 1980’s with the Mercer41 Waymire 3-Light Semi Flush Mount. It features a “chic delicate frame with gorgeous repeating patterns to add a refined touch to the overhead look.” (From: Wayfair)
2. Add Green
Plants have a calming effect, which means they are a necessity in any office to breath life into the space. Bouclair Home has some incredible greenery and florals that are reasonably priced. I selected three in various vessels to add variety to my home office. A eucalyptus in a stone planter, an agave in a gold pot and an apple succulent in a black pot. (From: Bouclair)
3. Get Artsy
We often go shed hunting and have been amassing quite a pile; I thought it would be neat to make something out of antlers to decorate the office. I thought about making three floral mounts hung in a triangle on the wall above the filing cabinet (opposite a gallery wall) would be a nice touch. This inspiration comes from: Ever After In The Wood Blog.
4. Find the Rug
Personally, I am not a fan of hardwood or laminate in a bedroom; I like the feel of carpeting when I step out of bed; since the office doubles as a guest bedroom I picked a soft rug from the Stevens Omni Luminato collection to put the bed on and to add some pop and excitement to the room.
5. Practice Hygge
I had no idea what hygge was and I learned that it refers to: a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being (regarded as a defining characteristic of Danish culture). I was able to incorporate this into the office with the bedding using the Andanza taupe bedding set. (From: Hygge & West)
6. Hang A Gallery Wall
Our guest bed runs along the wall; there is a lot of boring empty space so this Grönby picture (blue landscape) set of 9 is a perfect solution. (From: Ikea)
7. Mix Old & New
Filing cabinets are really ugly so I wanted a piece that would of course keep us organized, maximize space by extending our work surface for a printer, and extra office supplies that didn’t fit on the desk, etc.; but also that looked a little bit more like a dresser. There is a closet for guests to store their items.This Shelby 2-drawer lateral filing cabinets fits in with our overall rustic home because the manufactured wood features a weathered finish and beadboard accents on the doors. It looks old but really is new. (From Wayfair)
8. Let Light In
This was easily accomplished because there is a big window at the far end with wooden blinds that match our laminate flooring. And by keeping the wall colours on the lighter side.
9. Work In Colour
I fell in love with this desk chair when I was perusing a new desk. It is a Three Posts Eckard Task Chair; it looks super comfy which is essential for any desk chair. (From: Wayfair)
10. Optimize Space
This home office/guest room isn’t conducive to larger pieces of furniture so I updated our flimsy corner desk with this compact yet fairly spacious Sardis desk. It features a drop-front keyboard drawer and two open lower shelves for more storage. (From: Wayfair)