New clients assume that the size of their decorating budget is in direct correlation to how happy I and they are with the finished product.  This is truly not the case.  For example,  I recently completed a one room project for a young woman living in her first house.  She had a spare bedroom that she was using as an office but she wasn't happy with how it functioned or how it looked.  She was interested in moving the desk into the closet so that the rest of the space could be used as a lounge/study.  You can read about and see the transformation of the closet in the blog I posted on April 25th (Converting a Closet to an Office).

Before

Before

A few paychecks later, she was ready to furnish the rest of the room.  My client had a few pieces she definitely wanted to keep: an art-deco wing chair covered in black leather with white piping, some of her artwork, and her pink dress form.  I was happy to accommodate these requests.  I also suggested keeping the hot pink Ikea bookcase. By turning it on its side, we were able to use it as our media console and still have storage for books. A budget friendly solution.

I often consider furniture made for children when furnishing small spaces. In this case, we used a love seat in a light gray fabric with tufting detail from PB Teen. Using a "teen" company allowed us to find a piece that was smaller in scale (just what we needed for this petite lounge).


To go beside the love seat, we found a three tier glass and brass table from West Elm.  The three glass tiers gave us the function we needed without making the space feel crowded, while also relating to our Ghost style chair in the desk area.  A white ceramic lamp from Z Gallerie atop the glass table provides light and some feminine curves. The only other piece of furniture we purchased was West Elm's Martini table in white.  This petite table provides a place to set a glass or the remote but keeps the space feeling open and can easily be moved to anywhere it is needed.

The final touches are what really put this room over the top.  The hot pink and cream toile drapery in a Robert Allen fabric gives a nod to our Parisian mural on the desk wall.  Pillows in the same fabric really pop on our gray couch and bring a little pink to that side of the room.  A few more gold accents were added for sparkle and the client's artwork was hung back on the walls.

I love the way the space turned out and so does my client.  I've had clients with bigger budgets but this room is one of my favorites.  We were able to give her an office and a lounge in 120 square feet, marrying function and style. It seems perfectly suited for a young professional woman.  The pink little girl's room all grown up!

A fun project was presented to me recently in the form of a home office. The original space was overwhelmed with a desk and chair in the center of the room, allowing for no other activities in the limited space. To maximize the space, the client wanted to make the closet into an office, allowing the rest of the room to be a cozy relaxing place to hang out.

Before: Desk is literally in the center of the space.

Closet before

To start, all of the previously stored items in the closet were removed. The client, a young, design savvy, professional woman shared some pictures she had found on Houzz of built in desk areas.  She had some great pictures with some clever design solutions.  My challenge was how to give her something different from what she had already seen but not make it so "designed" that it was more about form than function!  I knew I wanted to do something interesting with the wall because this is what the client would be looking at as she sat at her desk. My brilliant assistant and I started brainstorming ways of making the small space interesting. We discussed some standard solutions for office closets, and came up with unique paint applications, wallpaper, and creative shelving solutions or cork boards, but what really inspired us, and caught our clients attention, was the idea of a mural. 

Mural after installation

My client came to me with an established color scheme of gray and pink, which I loved. The gray walls led me to settle on a black and white mural on the closet wall. Now to find the perfect photograph. I had it in my head that I wanted a Parisian street scene and after surfing the web, we found what I think is the perfect picture. The mural is what makes this space interesting and unique while not sacrificing any function. The other inspired purchase was a reproduction ghost chair.  I give credit to my client (I told you she was design savvy) for suggesting it. The chair's classic french shape subtly ties into the Parisian mural. A desktop and shelving were installed next. Pink accents and accessories really pop against the gray and white background.

This room is still a work in progress, but in the weeks to come we will add a sofa, draperies, and fun accents to bring this room to a spectacular finish. What had been a functional but uninspired office, has now become a fun and stylish workspace for this young client. 

After