Beautiful Home Office Updates
3 years ago, when we moved into the Yellow Cottage, I knew we wouldn’t use our formal dining room as a dining room. First, we aren’t formal at all. We use paper plates for every meal and for special occasions, we use fancy paper plates. That’s how we roll. Second, I had a large table custom made for our eat-in kitchen/dining room and it’s only 5 steps from the refrigerator. Convenience is key! Finally, I have 4 school-aged kids who I wanted to give a place for them to do their homework. I had these grand dreams to give them a homework room, including visions of all of them peacefully growing their minds in the perfectly laid out room! Desk space for all!
After painstakingly designing, purchasing and setting up the homework room, my children never bought in! Womp! Womp! It became a trash heap of paper, half completed art projects, lego filled drawers and not a single space to put a laptop on the desk. I had a desk colocated with their mess and absolutely hated spending any time in this hot mess of a room! Not to mention, this room is one of the first rooms people see when they enter our house. Totally unacceptable!
In August, I decided I was going to reclaim this space as my own. I began selling desks; relocating bookcases; and acquiring furniture to make this space my own. As is true with just about any project I tackle, there were furniture pieces that arrived damaged and lots of back to the drawing board trying to find storage pieces that were both affordable and aesthetically pleasing.
I spent a weekend painting the office walls Sherwin Williams Peppercorn. I honestly didn’t know if I would like the dark walls, but I absolutely love them! This room gets a ton of natural light during the day from the 4 east facing windows on the front of the house.
Since I already had 3 IKEA desks, I decided to sell one, move one to my son’s room (I actually sold that one recently) and then kept one to use as my own! Between you and me, I positioned it in the center of the room facing out so that I could watch TV while I’m working. I’m lazy at my core and if I’m home alone, which is a really appealing idea in the midst of our current Stay At Home order, I do like the noise.
One of my real needs was hidden storage! I like to keep supplies for School Memory Boxes, Sunday Basket Workshops and other organizing supplies within reach, but out of sight! I actually made sure I would have room to put a printer inside this console table behind my desk! The day we did professional pictures for our MLS listing, it was a great place to hide random visual clutter! Our secret!
As the room began to come together, a rug was a necessity! Am I the only one who stresses over rugs? Most are so expensive and it’s often hard for me to tell on my laptop screen what the colors really look like. And I had to find a way for the rug in this room to somewhat coordinate with the rug in my living room because the two rooms are open to each other. Woo! I’m a hot mess! I ordered this rug in a square, for something a little different and at first, I thought it was a little small, but since I didn’t want to deal with shipping it back to Amazon, I kept it. It works! The fact that the picture on the Amazon ad shows it paired with a blush pink chair and pillows swayed my decision – not gonna lie!
When I’m on my A-game, I like to get up a little earlier than my family to read and have some quiet time. My A-game has been traded for about the D-game these days, but I’m working on getting back to A! All of that to say, I wanted to create a little nook to sit and read and get ready for what’s on the day’s agenda. Cue this little mid-mod chair from the Walmarts, my little footrest and this Hektar floor lamp from IKEA! It’s the perfect little retreat spot!
The final piece to this puzzle was the addition of this midcentury modern book case! If I remember correctly, this was the second bookshelf I tried because the original one came damaged or missing a part. It never fails when I’m doing a project that there’s not a little hiccup or two. It’s how the cookie crumbles, but the crumbles still taste like cookies! The convenience of being able to pick this up at my local Target made it a no-brainer substitution.
I’m so grateful I tackled this project and reclaimed this space as my own. The kids are creeping back in now that they’re remote learning, but I keep pushing them back out!
*This post contains affiliate links. Anything you purchase from these links provides me a small commission at no additional cost to you.*
Shop The Post
Tracy
April 15, 2020 at 1:45 PMI am trying to work on this so advice is welcome thanks.
Jen Wade
April 15, 2020 at 2:21 PMSure! Maybe I’ll work on an essentials for a home office type post!
Nicky Liz
April 16, 2020 at 9:03 PMWow! Beautifully done! I am terrible at designing and getting things to look as nice and as organized at this. It looks so neat and beautiful but also very functional! Great job!
Laura Lee
April 20, 2020 at 2:11 PMI love it! I reclaimed a room that was a catch all for everything no one knew where to put. It looked like a trash heap. I redid the whole room and I love it. It’s my happy place. And, I, like you…..like the noise of the TV. 🙂
Jen Wade
April 20, 2020 at 2:41 PMYay for reclaimed spaces! It’s so nice to have all of my business stuff in one place!
Hillari
April 20, 2020 at 2:34 PMOh my goodness, I love this space so much! You did such a beautiful job! I aspire greatly to have space like this – right now it isn’t possible with my kids at home, but at some point I will get there.
Jen Wade
April 20, 2020 at 2:42 PMI totally get it! I have 2 of my kids sitting in my office with me now doing school work.
Tricia Snow
April 20, 2020 at 7:11 PMKeeping your office space organized is so important. When my husband lets his get out of control nothing gets accomplished.
Kirsten
April 20, 2020 at 7:45 PMI love what you did here–both times actually! What beautiful design!
Debbie
April 20, 2020 at 9:55 PMBoth looks were awesome!! You have a talent for design!
Lisa Manderino
April 20, 2020 at 10:16 PMI am not much of a formal dining kind of person either! This looks great!
Eva Keller
April 20, 2020 at 10:41 PMWhat a great space! I hope to have a bonus room one day that I can make into my own little sanctuary. I’m always looking for hidden storage spaces too.
Jen Wade
April 21, 2020 at 7:40 PMThanks, Eva! After establishing this as my space, I think it’s always going to be a priority no matter where we live.
Holly
April 20, 2020 at 10:56 PMWOW! This looks amazing! Lots of room and an inspiring place to work!
Jen Wade
April 21, 2020 at 7:39 PMThanks Holly! I’m loving it.
sandra r barckholtz
April 21, 2020 at 12:27 AMSuch great ideas…. I’m always trying to get my kids out of my office too!
Jen Wade
April 21, 2020 at 7:37 PMThanks! The kids just can’t stay away. They’re like little magnets and like to come sit in my chair.
Lee Anne
April 21, 2020 at 1:11 PMHidden storage is my jam! Everything looks awesome!
Jen Wade
April 21, 2020 at 7:36 PMThanks! Yes – we can’t let everyone see all of our junk!
Carrie Cochran
April 21, 2020 at 5:19 PMVery cute space! It’s so fun decorating a personal office, but it can be a little overwhelming as well. I love your ideas 🙂
Jen Wade
April 21, 2020 at 7:36 PMThanks! It was a fun project and very gratifying!
KENDRA
April 21, 2020 at 6:55 PMIt’s so awesome to have an inspiring space to work in! Love it!
Jen Wade
April 21, 2020 at 7:35 PMI love it! I spend lots of time sitting at this desk these days.
Santana
April 21, 2020 at 7:04 PMI’m so jealous of both setups! I just sit on the couch and work off of the coffee table 😂
Jen Wade
April 21, 2020 at 7:35 PMI used to do a lot of work sitting on my bed. This is a much better setup.
Shirley
April 21, 2020 at 8:00 PMThis looks amazing!! You did a fantastic job. I love the colors and the design. Thanks for sharing. This makes me want to redo my office space!
Sansi
April 21, 2020 at 8:17 PMYour office looks great. I’m at an old desk, very old — with a card table for storage. Time to upgrade.
Tiffany
April 22, 2020 at 12:14 AMThis looks amazing! I might have to think of something for our “play” room because right now it’s just a hot mess.
Linda Egeler
April 22, 2020 at 1:19 AMI commend you: I don’t have that artistic eye. I see rooms as they are, and have trouble seeing anything else. I’m envious of those like you who can envision something entirely different.
Sara - Seek Discover Learn
April 22, 2020 at 3:22 AMI am in the middle of purging/organizing my home office/homeschool room this week. I also like having the clutter put out of sight, and am struggling with how to make everything hidden but easily accessible. I feel like I have too many “categories’ of things, or too many projects that I’m in the middle of. I’m also trying to work with what I already have on hand as far as storage solutions since everything is closed, plus I just don’t want to be spending any money right now. I love how your office space turned out, it looks great!
Suzan | It's My Sustainable Life
April 22, 2020 at 11:33 AMLove the color & great job! Although as I’m writing this on earth day, maybe forgo the paperplates 🙂
Jen Wade
April 22, 2020 at 12:11 PMLOL! That’s a good point! Maybe we’ll use real plates today! We do recycle everything we can.
Maria Gustafsson
April 23, 2020 at 8:24 PMNot only did you do a lovely job, but what an awesome room to have as your project/craft space!
Lisa
April 24, 2020 at 4:45 AMLove your organization! I can’t wait to make our office space a place that is more functional.
Cindy
April 27, 2020 at 5:03 AMWhat a pretty and functional space! I love how your office turned out.
Jen Wade
April 28, 2020 at 12:42 PMThanks!
Ruth Iaela-Pukahi
May 3, 2020 at 11:25 PMBeautiful! I LOVE it! I hope to have my own office space too someday in the near future. I’m not as talented at making an area look as pretty though…great job!!!