Today I’m continuing the room tours with a look at the office. As you know I’m working to update the house tour for the blog and as I’m updating the photos I’m re-sharing the makeover stories. (You can get caught up here – entry foyer, kitchen, family/living room, dining room, master bathroom, screened porch, patio and basement.)
My husband works from home. So when we moved in to this house five years ago the very first thing we did was to repurpose what was a formal living room into a home office for him. Here’s how this room looked shortly after move-in day.
This room has been through a pretty major transformation over the years, and it is easily one of my most favorite spaces in our home; so for these after photos I pulled in the amazingly talented Sarah Grashel Dunn, a local lifestyle and portrait photographer.
I really wanted to capture not just how it looks now but how our family uses this room every day. I’m a lover of beautiful, livable spaces. While this room was designed as an office for my husband, it is also a room where we all hang out as a family.
The inspiration for the design of this space came from this mid century modern desk my hub scored on ebay years ago. My hub has his own, very distinct design style. He loves 60’s inspired design – sleek and simple – beautiful with not a lot of fuss. I tend to lean a little more traditional and classic. We’ve found over the years that merging our styles creates a layered look that we both really, really love. In some rooms my style takes the lead and in others his shines through a bit more. In his home office his love of the “mad men era” really takes center stage.
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| his favorite pants, shirt and tie |
To give the walls some interest and texture, I outfitted the room with an inexpensive grasscloth wallpaper from the Allen + Roth brand at Lowe’s. But without a doubt having the floor to ceiling bookcases built was by far the most impactful design update to this space, although I don’t want to discount how much of a difference pulling out the white wall to wall carpet and replacing it with the dark bamboo flooring made.
The dark bamboo floors paired with the traditional look of the built-in bookcase created a great backdrop for the mid century modern desk. They also made the room feel and look much larger.
I used black paint as a backdrop for the bookshelves and kept the styling pretty simple with mostly old books and a few special accessories.
My husband has a thing for barware, especially vintage ice buckets. So I created a bar area with a few of the lower shelves displaying his collection.
On the wall opposite the window I brought in these vintage chairs we scored (for free! don’t hate us) when an old office building was closing years ago. I wanted to create a comfortable little conversation area.
Continuing with the vintage vibe we brought in this old cigarette machine that once lived at my husband’s grandfather’s lumber company. It’s a great conversation piece, and I love the way the color of it ties in with the cityscape art piece (on old Bombay company find). Because this room has no overhead lighting, I had an electrician add sconces to flank the art above the chairs. I love the way the modern look of the sconces (Lowe’s) blends seamlessly with the rest of the space.
I think what you choose to hang on your walls is an opportunity to really let your personality shine through your decor. Years ago for Valentine’s Day I gifted my hub these silhouettes I found on Etsy. They aren’t your typical silhouettes. These are Star Wars silhouettes (Laea and Hans Solo), and I used a metallic gold zebra scrapbook paper to matte them which ties in with the zebra rug (an old West Elm find).
This is a room we all use.
It’s the first room you see when you walk through the front door.
And while it’s pretty and we all respect when daddy is working, it’s not off limits to anyone in the family.
This is how this room really looks……how it is really lived in every day.
Granted my hub usually outdresses the rest of us, we really do hang out in here together quite a bit. đŸ˜‰ And I’m ever so grateful to have this all so beautifully captured!
Having a photographer capture your family in your own home is really special.
I can’t say enough wonderful things about Sarah Grashel Photography! Local friends if you’ve been looking for a great photographer, Sarah is your girl! I can’t wait to show you more of what we’ve been working on together!
This is SO MAD MEN! What a fun idea to have family pics like this. Love the room. Love the styling. Love Love Love!
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