My cozy home office makeover

Cozy home office

My home office is one of my favorite places in the house. It’s the place where I do my writing, make new teaching material and it’s the place where most of my books live. It’s not a big office but it’s cozy and inspiring to me. During the Autumn and Winter months, this is the place where I usually start my days. I turn on the fairy lights, I put on some cozy jazz music in the background, light a candle and I start to write. This is my favorite way to start the day early in the morning when it feels like most of the world is still asleep. It’s a calm an nourishing way to start the day. However, I felt like a cozy home office makeover was exactly what this room needed.

I asked myself what would my cozy home office makeover need? What are the ingredients? What should I pay attention to? I came up with the following:

• Color
• Texture
• Lighting
• Art & wall decoration
• Candles
• Plants and flowers

Before

Six years ago, I loved the idea of having mostly green walls and one wall covered in floral wallpaper. I don’t know why, but though that wallpaper was beautiful, it always felt a bit off to me. I wanted this space to feel warmer than it did. And it was time to spruce things up anyway.

Indoor rose garden

So this year I decided I wanted to do something about it. At first I thought I wanted earthy beige tones like our bedroom. But then I thought how much I love roses and how amazing it would be to have my indoor rose garden during the dark and cold Autumn and Winter months. I’m a gardener, I feel happiest when I’m tending my garden. It is a way of connecting with the earth and releasing any pent up stress or anxiety. Nothing makes me feel more connected and grounded as gardening does.

Inspiration and mental health

Not being able to work in my garden and seeing things grow and flourish for months, does have its toll on my mental health. Especially because it gets so dark during Autumn and Winter, barely any sunshine out here. This not only makes me feel physically and mentally fatigued, it also makes me feel very uninspired. And I for one, need to be inspired in order to function well. I guess that is why I read so much, garden and want to be surrounded by beautiful things… Yes, even a beautiful faucet or doorknob is something that can inspire me.

The hunt for new wallpaper

So a few months ago I started the hunt for wallpaper. I visited 2 big interior stores that sold paint and wallpaper. In addition I perused the internet but I eventually bought it in a store because I wanted to see the wallpaper and feel the texture. I didn’t always know this, but the texture of the wallpaper you choose also matters depending on the vibe you want to create for that particular space. I always start by choosing the wallpaper first and from there I choose a paint color that is also present in that wallpaper.

Flower wall

I had my doubts about this wallpaper, not that I didn’t think it was beautiful but I was afraid the black would be too harsh for the atmosphere I was trying to create for this room. However, after perusing many, many wallpaper catalogues, it was clear to me that this was the one I was going with. If you look closely, you can see that it’s not only roses but also white hydrangeas. Two of my favorite garden flowers. What I love about it, is how the print and the texture of the paper makes it look like a painting.

To create a spectacular effect, I decided to only put wallpaper on one wall. The other walls, I decided to paint. This balances out a room, the light and colors. If I would’ve wallpapered all the walls, it would’ve looked and felt a lot darker and claustrophobic.

Choosing paint

I love pink! Especially a soft powdery shade of pink. However, I still had my doubts to whether or not it would be too much and too girly. And then I thought to myself , ‘what is wrong with girly’?

Well, turns out, absolutely nothing!

I was even more convinced when I saw this beautiful Homeworthy episode on YouTube about Erin Conway’s stunning home. I was amazed at how neutral pink could be, how it calms a room and how well it goes with many different shades of soft green and gold.

Home to my books

I love reading! In fact, I inhale books and have been doing so since I was a child. So evidently, my home office is also my personal mini library. One wall is what I call, my library wall. Six years ago, there used to be a door to the kitchen from this wall but we closed up that door since we had no use for it and we wanted to gain space in the kitchen, as well as in my office. Instead we had a built in bookcase made by very talented carpenters that built this beautiful piece of craftmanship. They did exactly what I asked. And six years later, I am still in love with this bookcase.

Color coded bookshelves

I used to organize my books more or less by the author’s name but then the mishmash of colors made my eyes hurt. So this time, I emptied the bookcase, gave it a good clean with warm water and soap and made book piles according to their color. It was fun to do but also intense so I didn’t do it all at once. With a book collection of around 400 books, you can understand how intense it gets.

Balancing colors

Then I started to think about which color should go where. Since the wallpaper has a black background, I decided to put the white-ish books closest to that wall. You know, to balance it out and create more light in that corner. A dark color absorbs light and light colors, reflect light.

The middle section of the bookcase contains all of the  blue, purple, green, yellow and pink books. Which means that the black, brown, red and orange colored books are next to the pink wall. This too balances out the colors.

Bookcase décor and organization

Some shelves have only books on them, while others also have additional décor. Things such as pictures in a frame and things I collect such as seashells, insects ( I did not kill them, I find them mostly in the garden) and bird feathers. I love nature, can you tell? Also, did I mention I’m a biology teacher? Anyway, you don’t have to be a biology teacher to collect things that you love.

The lower section of that wall has 4 big drawers where I keep my art supplies such as paint and paintbrushes and extra material for school. On both lower ends of the bookcase, are 2 shelves. On one side I keep mostly school material and a self-improvised system for grading my students’ evaluation. On the other end I keep boxes with keepsakes and baskets that also function as storage.

Wall decoration

I know lots of people are a bit reluctant to hang up wall decoration such as pictures or art. But to me, my cozy home office makeover would not be as cozy without wall decoration. Me personally, I love gallery walls and since I am very visual, I love to be surrounded by pictures and images that I love and am inspired by.

The wallpapered wall does not have any art or pictures for very obvious reasons of course. However, the wall opposite to the bookcase has one low dresser with cube shaped shelves from ikea where I keep school books, ink and paper for the printer and a basket where I keep the laptop chargers. On top of the bookcase I only have a plant on one side and a printer on the other side. I keep it simple because the wall is filled to the brim with pictures and art. I mix and match the frames and I shuffle them around at times.

Doors

There are 2 doors, one to the garage and one to the botanical room. The door to the garage, I painted in black chalk paint so I could use it as a blackboard. The door to the botanical room was custom made when we renovated the house. It is inspired by Parisian doors and has beautiful glasswork which allows me to see the botanical room and  the garden when I am sitting at my desk.

When we bought the house in 2011, the space that is now my office, was used as an extra storage room for kitchen supplies. It was a very dark room with no natural light coming in. So we had a skylight built in the ceiling and a glass door so there would be natural light in this room.

Intentional design

It’s not about perfection and I know this is not easy, being a recovering perfectionist myself. It sounds tempting to have your home ready in one sweep, décor and all.  But then again, where is the fun in that? The entire process of  brainstorming, collecting, editing… is what makes it so much fun.

I loved the enire process of my cozy home office makeover! The point is to have fun, and not take it all too seriously. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in interior design, is that a room is never entirely ‘finished’. You add things as you go and as you find the items that really fit the room. Also, we have to be mindful about what our budgets allow. Best to do it in steps as not to overwhelm yourself and your bank account.

This was my cozy home office makeover.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my office makeover, I sure loved writing it!

Love,

Wendy