Before and After: Home Office & Master Bedroom Redesign

The Assignment:
Over the past couple months I had the opportunity to help an amazing family organize their space.  She is a freelance writer {and has some terribly interesting assignments involving food, technology and lots of random facts which would make her a perfect pub trivia companion!}, he a lawyer {I don't mean to make him sound less interesting than her but this space was really for her to work in, hence the focus :)}.  They have a beautiful, fun two-year old son.  When their son came along, though -- so went her office space.  And, so went their master bedroom.  My challenge was to create an office space that would allow her to write, think calmly and have a few moments a day to collect her thoughts.  And, to integrate it into the master bedroom.  Our furniture/materials/accessories budget was limited to $1,000.  So, tight, but completely doable.  We wanted to keep the project as "green" as possible by using much of what was already in the room and searching for a Craigslist gem or two.

I was really excited to tackle this project for two reasons:  (1) after having tried for my five years as a lawyer to create and maintain an aesthetically pleasing and well-organized space in my work office and in my home office to be most effective, I know how important it is to have a system to facilitate organization and thinking clearly; without it it can be nearly impossible to work, yet alone to produce your best work, and (2) I always feel like the master bedroom is the "forgotten" room, an afterthought, but when you think about it, it might be the most important room in the house -- a good night's rest and happy morning go such a long way! 

Actually, after I met this family, I really had 3 reasons; they are such an interesting couple and so genuine and fun, I was really hoping to create a great space for them! 

The Plan: 

The space was large and there was already a separate area for the office in this window nook-like area.  {It's always good not to have to find more space but just to use the space in a better way!}.  As you'll see from the before picture below, the desk and chair were just too big for the space and not the right style.  Some clutter and cords needed to be contained and a peaceful aura needed to be acheived {i.e., finding a new space for all the to-do lists and files other than right in front of her writing area}.

{before!}

After reviewing her style {cottage + retro + arts and crafts + bright + cozy} we honed in on some of the basics for the office {looking for a white wood desk and a wood, swivel desk chair and to keep the lamp {it is great! and retro!}} and her office needs {works best with everything in plain view, but not right in the midst of her working/thinking space; desperately needed a solution for the mangle of cords}.  From there I found various accessories and furniture that met her needs and style, and I was able to convince her to paint the office a grey color {Benjamin Moore Silver Lake} that would complement the yellow in the bedroom {which was already there when they moved in} but more importantly would help delineate the office space and create the feel of a separate area to think and work in.  Originally, she was fine with the yellow in the bedroom as the anchor color, but as we kept talking about the design and organization of the space, she kept showing me items with a deep red color and talking about this brick red color -- turns out it's one of her favorite colors!  Even though red is not supposed to show up in bedrooms, I decided to bring in some brick red accents in the room to tie the grey and yellow together and incorporate this fave color of hers into a space that she spends so much time in. 

Here is the final product!

{just the office area, scroll down to see the bedroom area redesign too!}

{after!}

{a desk with a view! and clutter free!}

The Details:

We first replaced the oversized desk with a streamlined white desk from Ikea.  The tabletop fit perfectly inside the nook area {with a little lip on the right side to set over the radiator that was in the middle of the windows} and the rounded corners will protect against their two-year old's head from running into any sharp edges that might just "leap out" at him.  The sawhorse legs provided extra but still visible and accessible storage for newsletters, magazines, industry periodicals {stored inside one of my favorite organizing items that now come in white and orange in addition to the silver color} and a concealed but again accessible place for a covered trash can {and, it's a pretty nice looking trash can if I do say so myself!}.

When we went through the idea book I had prepared, we were both drawn to a red banker's chair that Pottery Barn {in their evil way} still includes in their catalog {very prominently too!} but no longer offers.  Now, I can see this as a blessing in disguise since after searching and searching for the red one {or one like it}, I found this beauty below on Craigslist for only $50 {saving nearly $350 from our budget! The PB chair was $400 -- there is actually a bright red one on their website now, but not the same as the one we saw and loved -- and ones of lesser quality at Target were around $150-200!}.  The chair cushion is a Marshalls "original" purchased for only $7!  It really ties all of the colors of the bedroom and office area together -- bringing in some of the yellow we lost now that the office area was painted gray and the reds and whites from the pillows on the new bedding {a bonus!  see below!}.

We purchased the chair from a really nice couple who were moving to Texas and had been collecting all this furniture they were going to restore, but needed to part with it now that they too had a little one in the house {a nice parallel to our home redesign story}.  It has already been completely sanded down {a blessing}, and we are going to paint it and replace the casters to look like this:

The Bonus(!):

With the money leftover in our budget from the savings on the chair, I was also able to work with the bedroom area, too, and tie in some of the colors {the greys, the reds} and style we had introduced in the office area.  Before, it was like any other couple's master bedroom -- a comfortable space with books and nic-nacks around and no real way to tidy them up easily every morning. 

{before!}

 Not a major problem, but with a few simple changes, the bedroom area is now more streamlined and purposeful.  And, hopefully, easy to tidy up each day!

{after!}

I removed the side tables that were just getting cluttered and dusty and replaced them with floating shelves for books and magazines.  Once everything is up off of the floor it's easy to clean the carpets and you can almost guarantee a better night's sleep!  {Good for generating brilliant thoughts for her next writing assignment!}  Duvet and shams were inspired by these at West Elm but sourced at Marshalls {$39.99 at Marshalls for a king duvet vs. $169 at West Elm + $9.99 for each sham at Marshalls vs. $24 for each at West Elm}.  The red ticking stripe pillows were found on super-sale at Pottery Barn, the multi-color floral pillow at Pottery Barn {also on sale!} and the red and white patterned pillow at Marshalls.  Instead of trying to add a large painting or canvas over the bed {for two reasons -- the wall is incredibly difficult to get any hardware into, and we needed to stay within our budget} I just added two his and her wall lamps to tie in the red {Work note:  I had originally purchased these wall lamps for over the bed -- the outer edge is a yellow color with a metal inner ring, and I thought it would blend in nicely with the wall color.  But they were THE most difficult to put together -- they just were not going to work.  And, I actually like the "pop" {maybe the most overused word in decorating?} of the red.  Learned the lesson of "always good to have more items to choose from" when installing a room -- just in case!}. 

Back to the details of organizing the office...:
We needed space to organize about 10 projects {papers, notes, contracts, ideas} in a way that she could see them all in front of her {some people work well with hidden files, while others need to see everything in front of them or they will never actually use the files; before the project started, we went through a detailed list of preferences like this to be sure that what I found would actually meet her needs and would be used}.  While the projects needed to be in plain view, they didn't need to be right in front of her, in the midst of her trying to navigate her computer and coffee and coming up with a great article.  Instead of keeping them on the desk, we moved all of the necessary items to a separate piece -- behind her, but only a turn away.

I then replaced the used manilla folders with crisp white ones from The Container Store, busted out my portable label maker, and in no time the files were organized in an aesthetically pleasing manner that blended in with our color scheme.  

And with a few more baskets {a play on her writing career with baskets made from recycled newspapers and magazines!} to hold misc. office items {stamps, envelopes, receipts, etc.}, we had created enough spaces to keep everything organized -- in a way that won't require too much effort to maintain.

Other needs included bringing up her printer from downstairs {there was a built-in office area downstairs, but it wasn't working for them because of how the space was laid out, and there were too many distractions} so she didn't need to unplug her computer, run downstairs, and then come back up to the office {a nice workout but really not functional!}.

She also wanted a place to display mementos, ideas, inspiration, etc.  But with no clear wall to hang a bulletin board {so sad, so many windows and so much light coming in!} we opted for another strategy.  I hung one small magnetic strip vertically above her desk -- in her view while typing, but not massive, cluttered and distracting. 

Then, taking a cue from Pottery Barn's acrylic desk protector {"only" $249!  I mean, really?!} I grabbed a plastic desk protector from Ikea {$5.99} and set it on the desk, under her laptop -- a perfect place to display photos, postcards, ticket stubs, etc.  Easy to pull up and change the mementos out {especially good if you need an excuse to procrastinate -- I would call that purposeful procrastination!}.

We also had to attack the cords!  Our strategy involved the following steps:

1.  Buy two power strips.

2.  In an orderly, calm manner, untangle each cord and create a clear plan for each one.

3.  I hung this clever contraption on the right edge of the desk.

4.  I then slipped a power strip inside of said contraption that the laptop, printer and backup drive plug into.

4.  Seizing every opportunity to label, I labeled each cord with these fabulous tags.  No more pulling, tugging, craning your neck and contorting your body to get to the "right" cord.

5. And, finally I enlisted these oh-so-cute holders for his and her cell phones -- just plug it into the cord waiting for you at night, and in the morning you know exactly where your phone is.

 

 

And while I was at it, I also tidied up the other side of the room.

This was before.

And after!

 

I used a lot of what they already had on this side of the room:  Moved the peaceful sailboat photograph from a side wall to a focal point over the fireplace; moved the glass lamp her father made for her from her side table to her dressing table; created a little sitting area in front of the fireplace with the fantastic bench that had already been in the room.

I did add:  A few interesting baskets to contain shoes and miscellaneous/odd-sized/shaped items, these really classy hurricane lamp-like candleholders from Ikea to go vertical in the room and to play on the sailing/sea theme,

some driftwood-like trays {also to play on the sailing/sea theme} from Marshalls to contain her really fun collection of perfume bottles {the tray in the picture below was really meant to lay on top of a dresser, but I wanted to get some of the bottles up off of the dresser -- so I just put two nails into the tray and voila it is now a wall shelf},

 

 and a whimsical wall hanging that plays on her food writing {and had some hints of yellow but was otherwise very neutral}.

Here are pictures of the entire room:

{Before!}

{After!}

And some of my favorite details:

{I love these speckled bowls from Marshalls -- they bring in that arts and crafts look.}

{Why are old perfume botttles and powder tins so appealing?}

 

{The "knowledge" owl was only 75 cents and I thought could keep her company while writing!} 

And...the pièce de résistance!

 {Purchased by the owner from Eastern Market as a reward for getting herself organized!  It ties into the retro feel of the lamp on the desk.  Also, cleverly placed behind the writer to ignore the ticking of time!}

Final Thoughts: 

It took a few weeks of fun to collect all of the furnishings and accessories and making sure they coordinated with our style and were functional.  And one very full day to paint the office area and install the furnishings and accessories.  At the end of that day, I had a grand unveil {the only way to do this!! so fun!}.  I then received the best complement I could hope to receive -- tears of joy from my client!  Tears then, of course, welled up in my eyes -- I was completely overjoyed and taking in every minute of it.

On the drive home over the Potomac River to Rosslyn, I couldn't stop smiling the whole way.  I had done it.  I couldn't wait to do this again! 

It was then I realized it had been too long since I had felt like that.  I not only felt overjoyed but felt very proud of myself for having taken this leap of faith to help others redesign their homes and, in turn, to redesign my own life.