A Cozy & Contemporary Home Office
Decorating your home often involves making concessions to reality. Sometimes that’s the reality of your budget or the reality of your space. In the moment, when you have to make those concessions, it can be incredibly frustrating. But if you take your time and keep in mind the feeling you want from your space, you can end up with something that works just as well or even better for you.
We moved in to our home at the beginning of the pandemic and it quickly became clear that a home office was a top priority.
My first step was to think about how I wanted the room to feel:
Somewhat masculine
Contemporary with a touch of traditional
Cozy
Moody
Welcoming
Here’s how I landed on those words:
MASCULINE/TRADITIONAL: My husband and I were sharing this office and he’s always loved the idea of a traditional study, which tend to be masculine. (We’ll get to the practicality/implementation of that later.) SHARE PICS OF INSPIRATION
COZY: Heading in the masculine/traditional direction, these two images (courtesy of ChrisLovesJulia.com) immediately came to my mind.
Don’t these pics just make you want to curl up on a couch and read?!
MOODY: I noticed that the colors in the pictures I’m drawn to for this style of office tend to be darker and moodier and that builds more toward masculine (too much white can often look more feminine). Unfortunately, we’re renting and it’s such a hassle to paint when renting. So I looked for other ways to amp up the moodiness.
WELCOMING: This room is also doubling as our guest room when friends and family come to town. Since we live a six-hour drive from both of our families, we had to assume they’d be visiting often. I didn’t really have any images that came to mind for this that were too different from cozy, but this word/feeling served as a reminder/touch stone for me that the guest room function is an important part of the purpose of this room and that I needed to bear that in mind as I progressed.
Now let’s talk bringing these feelings to life with the pieces in the room. That means MOOD BOARDS!
Pinterest is great, but I quickly save so many things that when I actually need to narrow it down and see what looks good with what, I turn to mood boards.
Several things got in the way of what I really wanted this room to be.
Standing Desk: Denis had already told me at this point that he wanted a standing desk and he managed to find one with a beautiful piece of wood as the tabletop, which you can see here. I was NOT a fan of this idea but I’ve learned/convinced myself over the years that one piece of practical furniture doesn’t automatically ruin a whole design plan.
Sleeper Sofa: I really, really wanted a nice (and comfy) sleeper sofa to make this an easy guest room and to give me a nice spot to sit while writing or reading. Unfortunately, all of the couches I liked couldn’t fit through the door (I wanted something solid and heavy to balance out the thinness of Denis’s standing desk and our bookshelves) or they would take up the whole room once they were unfolded.
Desk for Me: After I got over the couch, I fantasized about Denis and I reading together in two comfy arm chairs. But as the pandemic dragged on, it became clear that one desk wasn’t going to cut it for us. Bringing in a desk for me meant that we only had space for one chair, and even that was crowding things a little. Since it was the last piece of furniture we were buying, I picked my desk around the style of the rest of the space (and made Denis promise that if we ever moved into a home with space for two offices, I could pick out a new desk).
Through all of these changes, I tried to keep those feelings I described at the top of the post in mind and I’m so happy with the result. Do I wish the space were big enough for a fold-out couch or would I want to slap some dark, moody paint on the. walls? Absolutely. But more importantly, whenever I walk in here, it feels cozy and welcoming, which is exactly what I wanted.
My last piece of advice is not to rush or settle.
Trust me, I know how hard that advice is to heed because I want to live in a beautiful home right away, but it’s better to wait a little while for what you love than to get something right away that you regret.
The office looked like this for months while I looked EVERYWHERE for the sleeper sofa that I knew must be out there, the sofa that would physically fit in the room (and through the door) and that would meet my very specific style needs. Turns out that sofa didn’t exist <sigh>, at least not without a custom order, which was definitely NOT in the budget.
Without a couch, there was still a lot of money left in the budget and I did not think I would opt for Ikea chairs. But after mood boarding a bunch of different options, this one felt right.
I ordered one chair to start off with just in case we didn’t like it/in case two didn’t fit.
Turns out that was the right move because, like I said, I ended up needing a desk and we wouldn’t have had room for it if we’d started with two chairs.
Quick side note: Before the desk decision, I was so annoyed by the placement of our painting. It was wayyy to high (okay, okay, it was at most five inches too high, but that felt like a lot) and it drove me bonkers every time I came into the room. But then…
Perfect, right?!
It’s usually so hard for me not to think about what could have been or how I would do something differently, especially when it comes to design. But I don’t feel that way about this room and I think it’s because I had a plan. I took my time, and I kept in mind what really mattered to me: how I wanted the room to feel and how we needed to use it.
But wait, what about the guests? Where are they going to sleep?! At the beginning of April, we had a parade of vaccinated grandparents come through (five visits from four sets) and they all slept on our firm air mattress with a memory foam topper. We could tell none of them were thrilled about a few nights on an air mattress, but after the first night they all commented on how comfortable it was. Win!