small home office ideas (modern southern bungalow week 27)
We are at the point in our remodel project where I can’t believe it will still take two months (fingers crossed) before we can move back into the house. At the same time, the outside of the house still hasn’t been painted, the tile is still incomplete, the floors unfinished, the cabinets still in process. So, yeah. How will it possibly be done in two months?
Once again, every sub-project depends on another sub-project. The tile team won’t finish the tile until they come back to do the kitchen walls. The kitchen wall tile can’t go in until the counters are installed. The counters can’t be installed until the cabinet boxes are complete. We are still waiting for the delayed master bathroom floor tile that was supposed to ship the first week of April but has not yet shipped and doesn’t seem to have a ship date. I ordered the tile in February.
Meanwhile, the remodel budget is dwindling. Our project is no different than any other renovation. It is commonly understood that any remodel or build will cost more than estimated, yet we still dive in with hopeful hearts. Our project has had the typical (frustrating and avoidable) errors and changes. Unfortunately, we still have quite a way to go.
The three major groups of decisions that I need to make yesterday are lighting, paint colors, and cabinet pulls. It feels like none of these decisions are pressing since not much changes in the house on a day to day basis but I was informed on Friday that I need to have paint colors for the inside of the house picked within the next two to three weeks. Of course, that means I started trying to decorate my office instead of looking at paint colors, lighting, or cabinet pulls.
My office is at the end of a long flex space created by finishing the attic over the original part of the bungalow. It is only semi-private since it has no door but it is partially walled off by the laundry room on the east side. The west wall has a bank of three windows with a fourth small window above it. It is possible that this is my favorite little space in the house.
The room is narrow - only 10' across - but very long. I would like to divide the space into two zones without adding walls so that light still moves across the space from the windows on the east and west sides of the original attic. The north and south walls are 5'2" before the ceiling slopes up.
I'm not a fan of looking at a wall when I work, despite the fact that it makes sense to put a desk on one of the short walls. I much prefer looking out the window. Putting a desk against the window wall would cut the window light in the space overall because the windows are so low to the ground. I could face the desk towards the windows, but it is bad feng shui to put your back to the entrance to your office. So I'm thinking about putting my desk square in the middle of the space, with my back to the south wall. That way, I can look out the window to my left and have good feng shui.
This is a fairly ugly rendering, but you get the idea. I already have the desk, stool, and hula lamp, as well as some art that I would hang above the book shelf. There are two things that I loved about my old office: the pink floors and the bookshelf behind my desk. Putting the desk in the middle of the room allows me to add a bookshelf against the low wall. This gives me more work surface and provides a place to stash samples, office supplies, books, etc.
Now I can't very well paint my brand new floors pink, so have to come up with an alternative. I've loved this pink rug for quite some time. The price I do not so much love. My search for alternatives yielded rugs that I loved even more and were even more expensive. Shopping is not supposed to work that way, people. I did find a few vintage rugs that were cool, though, so maybe I can adjust the rug size a bit. (Caution: some of the following links are affiliate links. Double caution: if you buy the rug that I wanted for my office and I can't get it any more, we are no longer friends.)
The east wall of the space (the other side of the laundry) is the only place in the house where an armoire that we already own will fit. I suspect I will use it to store fabric and paint samples. I originally thought about adding a small sofa bed to this part of the attic so that we can use it as a guest room when needed (we do have six kids not currently living with us, after all). However, there has been some discussion in our house about not using our tulip table in the dining room after all because it may no longer be the right size post dining room changes (don't even get me started on this - it is the one piece of furniture in our whole house that I am attached to). I may end up using the tulip table in the attic as a meeting/planning/extra work space.
bookshelf / lamp / lamp shade / baskets / strong women / frame (this one doesn't actually fit the print - it's just for show) / tulip table (or the more budget friendly version you see everywhere) / bench / jute rug /
I'm also a fan of these pink chairs, mostly because they are $40 each. Did I mention budget was getting tight?