My Home Office Makeover Reveal

2020 was to be the year of my Home Office Makeover. In February, I started the transformation of our guest room into my office. Although we had already set up an office in the basement it has no windows and both of us found it difficult to work down there for any length of time. As a result, I ended up doing most of my work at the kitchen table where it was open and brighter and closer to the door to let our dog in and out (and in and out). An office on our second level would allow the natural light in and also provide good storage space to keep things tidy.

Little did I know when I began to design this room last winter, that this new office space would become such an important and essential room for our house. What began as a long awaited jewellery studio for myself would turn into a shared space. With the sudden shift of my husband working at home full time it quickly grew necessary for him to be in a space that had a closed door. His phone calls and Zoom meetings consumed the whole main level and it was for both our sakes for him to take the office.

Luckily, my design of a light filled space with clean white walls and pops of inspiring colours works equally well for either of us. I’ll take you back to the beginning of my design process.

sort, organize and purge

The first task in this makeover was cleaning out the room. This spare room had become a dumping ground of anything we weren’t sure what to do with and in addition, during our kitchen/mainfloor reno it became a full time storage room. So, needless to say, I had a lot of work ahead of me purging, sorting and organizing. Many, many hours but finally things were organized and the room was empty and I had a blank slate to work with.

Choosing the palette

Now for the fun part. Painting. I have a definite love/hate relationship with paint. Physically it can be exhausting but it is the quickest way to transform a room. First though, I had to decide on the paint colour for the wall. I knew I wanted to go light and bright. I wanted this space to be uplifting and cheerful and a place that would inspire creativity. Colour also had to play a part in the room. I didn’t want it to be too vibrant or overpowering, but neither did I want it boring and monotone.

finding the perfect white paint

Choosing a white or off-white paint colour is one of the most difficult paint choices and a topic that definitely could have it’s own post (which maybe I should do in the future). There are so many variations and undertones that can really affect how they look on your wall. Some may be too yellow, too pink, too blue, too harsh, or just too blah. Also, natural and artificial lighting play a huge role in the way a colour appears. It can be very overwhelming.

A paint chip is really not big enough to determine the right colour and I would always recommend narrowing it down to 2-4 colours and buying sample jars. Paint these directly on the wall near each other so you can really compare each of them.

➡️ pro tips for picking paint colours

A paint chip is really not big enough to determine the

Look at blogs and Pinterest to help choose your colour, speak to your local paint store
Pick up paint chips, or if you paint a lot, purchase a paint deck
Narrow your choice to 2-4 colours and buy sample jars
Paint these samples right onto your walls and do two coats to get full coverage
Look at these colours at different times of the day and at night with the room lights on

I chose Paper White by Benjamin Moore for the walls. An off-white with a blue-grey undertone. Out of the can it definitely looks white, but it dries to a beautiful soft grey that leans neither warm or cold. I knew this was an instant win when I started rolling it on.

adding in colour

One of the major design stumbling blocks for this room was to hide some ugly wall to wall carpeting that was on the list for replacing but currently not at the top. I found this gorgeous Margo Selby Squares Cotton Rug at West Elm. I love the fun geometric blocks of colours. It’s the perfect combination of neutral with some playfulness. With a 9’x12′ size rug I was able to almost completely cover the old carpet with leaving room for the air vent. The no-pile rug was even thin enough to not interfere with the door swing.

adding the furniture and accessories

Now the fun part, to add the furniture and accessories. This turned out to be a little more difficult at the time because I had to make all purchases on-line. With a few expected shipping delays it all finally came together. With all on-line shopping a measuring tape is your friend. Also, a good tip is to tape out the furniture dimensions onto the floor to give you the visual of size. This gives you the added confidence that everything will fit.

I wanted to keep the space simple and uncluttered. I added this small wood Mina desk, the Polly chair, the black metal Skyla shelf, and cozy bouclé Shepard Chair from Structube. The braided jute footrest is from CB2, the light fixture from Home Depot and the plant stand is from Ikea.