Before & After Story :: Home Office

Working from home is a new normal these days, isn't it? When I began working full time at home back in March as I started my business, I thought I'd be in the small percentage of people with a home office. Soon after, when the pandemic induced quarantine hit, it became more apparent that I'll be in the majority.

As a one-woman startup, I was content working on the couch and at the dining table. Not having a proper place to work, however, began affecting my focus and, that's when I decided to create a home office. Not just any home office but a workspace that feels intuitively connected with who I am as a person and what I do for a living. It's been a few weeks of working from this space and I can confidently say that having a workspace that's specially curated for me and reflects who I am, makes me want to innovate more and accomplish more of my goals.

Luckily, the 'before' situation didn't need too much undoing. It was a blank canvas. When my husband and I moved into this home back in December 2019, we focused on making over the living, dining and bedroom, leaving this room pretty much the same way the previous owners left it.

Paint

After I developed my vision for the space, I started my first decision with paint. I chose Crystalline, an absolutely gorgeous shade of light green with a grey undertone from Benjamin Moore for the accent wall and White dove, also from Benjamin Moore for all the other walls. White dove is a clean white but feels comfortable to the eye, it has a slight creaminess to it. Since it had neutral undertones, it complements Crystalline very well especially when the morning light floods this east facing room.

The 'before' paint look

The 'After' paint look. Crystalline and White Dove (BM)

Design

For the design concept, I wanted a space to feel fresh, relaxed and inviting to put me in a head space to work productively every single weekday. I also wanted it to feel like it should reflect who I am as a person and help make me feel motivated and my most focused self. I tend to be inspired by nature, natural textures, geometry and the feeling of lightness more than anything else. So I went with using warm earthy woods for furniture, natural accents here and there, plus geometric shapes for light fixtures. Using crisp freshly washed linen for curtains allowed the natural light in while providing a soft filter all times of the day.

Space Planning

Placing the desk right in the center helped create a sense of openness. With a large medium-wood-stained solid wood table to anchor the space, I went about creating aesthetic compositions and practical solutions for the remainder of the room.

Putting a sideboard behind the desk and chair did two things for me. One, it made for a beautiful space to decorate with vignettes and my art and, two, it provided plenty of storage for all my essentials that I didn't want displayed. I highly suggest making your sideboards or console tables double up as storage - you can do this by simply bringing in baskets for a cozy yet clean look.

I'm a big book reader and I love to collect design books. It is in the nature of what I do as a designer to always have reference books handy because I never know when I need some. Instead of getting a shelving unit, I opted for a simple stacking of all my books on a little stool so I can see what I need and quickly grab it. This is very much a working space so I wanted it to feel true to what happens here. I also added a cloth pin board for when I need to pin things when developing my design concepts.

And that sums up this 'Before & After story'. Check out the full of view of the home office here. I'm going to breakdown styling my sideboard on the next post so be sure to subscribe so you won't miss out!

Hope you enjoyed this blog post. Thank you for reading. Feel free to comment on your thoughts below or find me on Instagram @shastudioinc.

Have a lovely rest of your day!