When we first moved into this house, this room was dark and honestly pretty bleak. It had one north-facing window and not much natural light. As you do in a new house, you move in the furniture you have, so we moved Terreeia’s enormous L-shaped desk straight in from our previous house because, well, it was her office.
Except she didn’t want another office.
The challenge: An office that feels like a lounge
Her request was very specific. She wanted this room to feel more like a lounge where she could watch TV, read, work when she needed to, and actually enjoy spending time. The giant desk needed to go.
Here’s the office when we took posession:
The floors got refinished throughout the house including in this room. This is what they looked like before. The stain was too dark, and you can’t see it in this photo, because the room is dark and the overheads are on, but they were also a little too violet/red to be perfectly timeless.
First objective: bring in more light
The room was positioned perfectly in the layout to be the ideal home office, right inside the front entrance. However, it was much too dark to be habitable all day. So after we moved in, we added another window (below), which immediately changed the room. Letting in the light opened up the possibilities and the plan became much clearer. Instead of designing everything around a desk, we created a proper sitting area and tucked a much smaller desk in front of the new window (above).
A multi-use gathering room
The space became much more inviting, perfect for meetings between the two of us during the day. And it also doubled as a cozy room for evenings watching a show since this is the only TV on the main floor.
Once the floors were refinished lighter to a timeless neutral medium brown, the wood ceiling matched much better. It’s really a beautiful detail. We had pretty and functional millwork shelving installed and painted an airy, friendly light blue to compliment her beloved orange. The colour palette was pulled from the blue and orange area rug.
Custom orange and white drapes add soft pattern and colour.
The must have TV sits happily surrounded by a gallery wall. Lucy has beds all over the house and this is her spot in Terreeia’s office.
In case you missed it! My House Tour on Homeworthy
Terreeia’s office was featured in my Homeworthy tour of our entire house and gardens last week. If you missed it, you can watch it here.
I’ve been watching a lot of Homeworthy tours lately. Clearly, when it comes to lighting, people seem to fall into one of two camps. Either they completely understand lamps and every room has that warm, layered glow, or they don’t, and the entire house is lit from the ceiling. Recessed lights everywhere. Tiny pin lights everywhere. And hardly a lamp in sight. It’s amazing how much decorating power gets left on the table when this piece is missed. A few well placed lamps can completely change how a room feels at night or on a gloomy day. Plus a lamp does double duty. It gives you better light and instantly makes the room look more decorated.
Styling School: Learn how to layer in the details
And with dark season coming, consider this your annual reminder that lamp season is here.
Every choice in this room is something you can learn, not something you had to be born knowing. That gallery wall up behind the sitting area wasn’t hung by feel. And neither was the decision to put gingham pillows on those orange chairs instead of something that matched the fabric exactly. Or to set a lamp on the round table next to them instead of another candle.
That’s what Styling School teaches. If you’ve been staring at a blank wall wondering where to even start with a gallery wall, Give Your Art a Family walks you through building one, even from a single piece you already own. If you’ve bought pillows that matched perfectly and still looked wrong, Pillows Aren’t Supposed to Match shows you why, and what to do instead. And if a room still feels flat no matter what you move around in it, it’s probably missing what this one has, which is You Don’t Need More Candles. You Need More Lamps.
All three easy-to-digest modules are $197, and you can start using them in your own house today. Shop it here.
Related posts:
Join Me for a Lamp Tour in My New House
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