Creating an Inviting Home Office—One You Actually Want to Work In
Our office has historically been the spot where we drop all the things we’re not quite sure what to do with. Since its located in the back corner of the house it was a place we weren’t as diligent as we should’ve been in keeping it tidy. And let’s be honest, running two businesses out of our home, the office needs to be more of a priority.
So, after putting it off for too long we’ve recently revamped it and made it more organized AND prettier! Two things that help tremendously when it comes to actually wanting to spend time in a space, right?!
First step—Function
The home office is a workstation first and foremost. So that has to be the beginning focus. How can we make this space FUNCTION better?!
Part of the reason ours was the unofficial junk room was nothing had its designated place. Gosh, as I’m typing this I’m asking myself why it took so long for us to do something about it?! Argh, don’t be like me—do something about your office sooner rather than later.
Once we decided we should stop being irresponsible, we made up our minds to do something about it.
The first thing we did was hire a local woodworking shop to make us some built-in cabinets. A place to house all those items that our home office needed, but we didn’t want out in the open. Drawers for files, drawers for office supplies, a cabinet with shelves for my vases and some of my table linens, a cabinet for our household toolbox… We even had them make a special cabinet for our printer, and a place to house the large bag of Mo’s dog food!
We also had them build us a bookshelf to live on the top of one of the built-in cabinets. A place for books and pretty things!
This was the first step to getting more organized! When things have a place to live the clutter component is much less.
We chose these cabinet pulls cause they looked so nice alongside our 1920’s Art Deco door knobs.
Second step—Paint
To be really honest with ya, even our new built-ins still didn’t get us over the hump of “junking up the space”. It helped us to be slightly more organized. But we still kept dumping the I-don’t-know-where-to-put-you things and the I’m-too-lazy-to-put-away items.
Well, this is a new year right? A new opportunity to begin again and make new habits. In the book Atomic Habits, James Clear says, “Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behavior.” (great book btw) We had changed part of the environment of the office but we hadn’t gone quite far enough.
So, armed with the idea of a new paint color on the walls and better styling on the bookshelves, I jumped in and decided to give the space the rest of the makeover it deserved.
Back in 2016 when we moved into our house we painted the room Kendall Gray. While that’s a lovely color, I wanted to go with a hue with a bit more punch to it. I also wanted a color that would get along well with the other paint colors in our home—one that would look like it was also a part of the fam.
My goal was a mid-tone green color that would look great with my white shuttered windows and our new white cabinetry.
Just like when I was trying to choose a paint for our home’s exterior, I ordered several samples from Samplize. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you’ll have heard me talk about this company before. They’re a great place to source large hand-painted, peel-and-stick paint sample swatches. They use the genuine manufacturer paint, so you get the real deal with each sample. I use them with all my painting projects and recommend them to my E-Design clients.
When you’re trying to decide on a new paint color its super important to see the paint in your space. And those tiny little samples you get at the paint store just do NOT give you enough of a visual to get a good take on what that hue will look like in your home.
Tip—Whenever you’re testing paint samples, place them on a large whiteboard (like a posterboard) to get a truer idea of the paint in your room. The whitespace around the paint sample will help your eye cull out all the other colors in the space that are vying for attention and detracting from the sample you’re considering. ALSO, it’s super important to hold the sample up on the wall in a vertical fashion. The light will hit it differently on the wall versus on a horizontal plane.
Armed with my paint swatches I narrowed it down to Benjamin Moore’s Palace Green. Ben Moore calls it “a mixture of Prussian blue, white and naturally occurring yellows, this rich, well-appointed green imbues rooms with style.” Isn’t that a fun way to think about this lovely green hue? A mixture of blue, white, and yellow!
Look how lovely it looks on the walls!
Third step—Styling
With the new hue on the walls it was time to give the bookcase the attention it deserved. The girl needed styling! I wanted to fill her up with books, family photos, and personal items that mean something to us.
Don’t let styling your shelves scare you! Here’s some easy tips to make it a simple exercise—
Tips for Styling Your Shelves
Start with empty shelves
Begin with the large pieces, like boxes, urns, and baskets
For visual balance be sure to spread them out across the shelves
Layer in stacks of your large books
Bring in more books, and display them in a horizontal and vertical mixture
Step back and view what you’ve done so far—does it feels balanced?
Layer in art and family pics
Add a few organic elements like plants
Finish off with smaller decorative pieces
Styling the shelves and removing the clutter was the ticket to treating our home office with more respect! Turns out that changing our environment really did help motivate us. I’m happy to report that we’re doing a much better job of keep things organized and tidy!
Ok, so there’s our new and improved home office! What are your thoughts about my color choice? Have you heard that most of the big brand paint companies have chosen a shade of green for their 2022 color of the year? I had no idea of this when I was choosing my color, but it is an interesting reminder that trends affect us way before we’re even aware of it!
If your looking for some pieces to spruce up your bookshelves here’s some of my latest fun finds to whet your appetite—
