An office to remember
When we purchased our home in the fall of 2019, we immediately knew that we wanted to turn the formal dining room into a dedicated office space. The dining room was located right at the front of the house, to the left of entry through a cased opening. As rooms go, it was the most formal space in the house, complete with crown molding, a thick chair rail and a tray ceiling. With a sizable eat-in kitchen space plus a huge island with additional seating, a formal dining room just wasn’t something we needed.
Original formal dining room
We did need an office though. At the time, neither of us were working from home full time, but we each had a day or two a week we would be working from home, and side hustles that could use a dedicated desk space that wasn’t the kitchen counters.
In the first phase of decorating this space, we reached for mid-century pieces. On the wishlist was an Eames style chair and a live edge desk. These new pieces were mixed in with things we already owned: a family heirloom cast iron mantel, a vintage icebox, our vinyl collection and some artwork.
As the months progressed, we added French doors, and then a bookcase, and then a shelf for the printer, and then some amps and guitars and suddenly, the room was feeling really crowded and a little haphazard. The footprint of the room was rather small, but the needs of the room were incredibly varied.
Starting where all design should start, we focused on the needs. In this case, we did a Rose | Bud | Thorn exercise to identify what we liked, what we didn’t like, and what the opportunities were.
Design Thinking exercise- Rose, Bud, Thorn
The roses were plentiful. We loved the windows and natural light. The French doors had made the space more defined. The Eames replica chair. The live edge desk. The acacia wood bookcase. The guitars. The art. The mantel. The icebox. Everything we loved about the space was mostly about what we had put in the space.
The thorns were plentiful too- but they were mostly about how the space was laid out. The flow was just wrong. The desk chair was ruining the area rug. The space between the desk and the wall was not wide enough to comfortably get in and out of the desk. Only one person could reasonably sit and watch TV in a communal way. Your choices were the desk chair or the Eames chair. We never used the record player or listened to our vinyl because of the seating. The chair rail and crown molding were design elements that didn’t fit with the mid-century furniture we had added.
The opportunities felt endless. We had all these great pieces, natural light, and a friendly layout to work in. On the wishlist was more closed storage and better utilization of the wall space and high ceilings. The office has the only downstairs TV in the house, so we wanted more communal seating space.
Our challenge had become clear. The space needed to utilize the things we loved in a more space efficient way. We needed it to be a space to watch TV and have a chat with more than one person, and a place to work.
After better defining what we needed the space to do, we went searching for design inspiration. Our images kept coming back with lots of leather, dark, rich paint, and natural wood.
Check out our Pinterest board for more inspiration
We landed on a British racing green as the primary color in our palette, and as with most designs, unlocking one element allows all the other elements to fall into place.
We began working with our contractor, A Hammer and a Nail, to design a custom built in on the wall opposite the windows. We had a few goals:
Get some closed storage in cabinetry and drawers
Have some display areas for guitars, books, pretty things
Integrate lighting
Utilize the live edge desk
Make space for seating
It took a few rounds of back and forth to get the design just right, but in the end we opted for symmetry and display. The image below was the first of many, making tweaks and adjustments to find ways to optimize what we wanted to display. Working with a great contractor lets you think a bit more outside the box- while the cabinets on the left and right were easy, integrating an existing live edge desk into the center takes a bit more creativity and carpentry knowledge.
First draft
The decision to use an entire wall for the built-in forced us to look at some of the other things in the original room that we loved, but might not fit anymore. With the desk moving to the wall opposite the windows, the TV, mantel, acacia bookcase and vintage refrigerator needed to move. The only real possibility for seating for more than one was to line the seating on the wall opposite the French doors, and that meant we only had one available wall for all four of those things.
Original floorplan
In the end, we decided the mantel and the vintage refrigerator would need to find a new space in our home. We weren’t ready to part with them, but they no longer physically fit in the space.
New floor plan
As the cabinetry was ordered and installation prep got underway, it was time to talk seating. We already had the Eames chair, but it didn’t really fit the vibe of the space anymore. It was too…obvious for the design and it honestly wasn’t big enough. It’s profile was a little too subtle and low. We opted instead for a matching set of Pottery Barn chairs in a cognac leather. This contrasted enough with the rich, bold green we were drenching the whole room in that it brought balance to the space.
Pottery Barn Tyler Roll Arm Leather Manual & Power Recliner
The big items had been addressed- and now it was time to add the finishing details. We selected the houndstooth area carpet from Ruggable as a nod to my husband being a University of Alabama Alumni. We incorporated some adjustable lighting from West Elm, and added convenient and interchangeable small side tables. I love styling shelves and these shelves were no different- adding books and cigar boxes and little toys to make the space personal.
This Innovate project didn’t go to the extent of moving walls, but we did completely transform the way the space was used to make it more functional. It has an air of nostalgia now, even though it’s a brand new space. As we’ve lived in it, we’ve added a few things and taken others away. A coordinating footstool from Pottery Barn, a new guitar amp, swapping one table for another…but the foundations of a great design remain.