Terracotta Office

Often when we start a project in one room, it bleeds into another. That's why going into a project thinking you will only focus on one room can be limiting. That was the case with this office redo but in an unexpected way.

The office was once a catch-all multipurpose room. A guest room, office, file storage, storage for random stuff that didn't have a place anywhere else in the house. Covid came a-knocking and demanded a dedicated office space. No guests would be coming to visit for the immediate future. The state of the room prior to the redo was grim and my client didn't want to spend 8 hours a day working off a tiny desk in a lifeless room.

Before pics: catch-all room

Tiny desk.

The most important thing in an office space is a desk. While a laptop measures only 12x14 inches, I value a large desk. It should be a main focal point. A place where you can spread out and luxuriate as you do paperwork. The desk she had was cute but small. The kind of desk she needed, I suggested, was exactly like her dining room table. Well, it turns out that she didn't like her dining room table. She wanted a round pedestal table with leaves to expand when hosting dinners. Problem solved. We moved the dining room table up to the office and used the small enamel desk on the side to create an L-shaped configuration.

The orientation of the desk is now facing the window and the door. Fung shui compliant. My client wanted the space to feel warm, inviting and "her." We all want our space to feel "me". But what does that mean? For her it meant a place to display all the things she had picked up in her travels through Africa - lots of wooden items with warm brown tones – and from her grad school days in New Orleans. The room is oriented north-east which means cool light. While she originally wanted green all the samples looked dead in that light when we put them on the wall, so we went in the opposite direction with a warm terracotta.

Greens not making the cut.

The other pieces she needed were a storage cabinet and a lamp. Can you go to Staples and get an office-y cabinet? Yes, you can. But this is boring and who wants to have a home office that feels like an actual office? Weren't we all glad to leave that behind? We went consignment shopping and found a beautiful antique buffet. The cabinet and drawers are deep and store all her supplies perfectly and it looks super-hot sitting in the corner.

Now the lamp. In my mind’s eye I saw a large gourd-shaped oatmeal colored lamp. We started with the easy route and went to a lighting store, but we didn't find anything. Everything looked too polished and contemporary and wouldn't complement her décor. I took us to my favorite thrift shop that has been conjuring up the very thing I have been looking for since I was in high school like some sort of voodoo doll. Sure enough, there was the lamp. We got the lamp and schlepped back to the lighting store for a shade. Hot tip, folks. If your lamp is looking drab it's probably the shade. I always like getting a high-end shade from a lighting store. The light coming through a fancy lampshade is much better. It's worth the effort.

The final result is a beautiful office where my client feels at home in. She gets compliments all the time on her video calls. In fact, we designed the space with zoom calls in mind to create an attractive background. Very important and in 2020, she was ahead of the game.

Stayed tuned for Part 2 about her dining room table.