I am so happy that we are finally getting to share our home office space with you! What I love most about this room is how this is the first full room that Trey and I completely decorated together. I bought our home a few years before Trey and I got married. So many of the rooms in our home were pretty much complete before he moved in. Of course we updated lots of things together and added touches that feel very us, but our home office is the space that feels completely different since Trey moved in. I remember talking about how we wanted to decorate and reorganize this space while we were on our honeymoon—and now it's a reality!
Here's a little peek how the room has evolved over the past two and half years. 1.) My brother and my niece lived with me during the first year or so that I owned this house. This space used to be my niece's bedroom. It was filled with toys, clothes and kid furniture. I left the room the color it was when I bought it (a yellow tan), and Penny added a few crayola drawings and stickers during her time there. 2.) Once Penny moved out (and after I finished mourning her departure!), I had the old, somewhat stained carpet replaced with wood laminate (closely matching what was already in the hallways and living room). I also had the popcorn ceiling scrapped and retouched white. That's all I had finished by the time Trey moved in. For the first month or so, this room became kind of a catch-all for things: mismatched chairs, yoga mats, musical equipment, etc. 3.) We painted the walls and baseboards a creamy white, added a wrap around standing desk, a curtain for the closet and lots of touches that made the room feel very us.
The first thing we did when we started planning our home office was identify our needs and intended uses for the room. Trey plays and records music in his spare time. He has a band. And he needed space for all his music equipment, instruments and home recording studio. We built the standing desk for his studio. I guess I'm using the word "built" pretty loosely, as it was super easy to make.
Well of course there's a crafting area. This is, after all, a blogger's home. In all seriousness, full disclosure here, I haven't made time to use my sewing machine yet. I know, it's terrible! My uncle gifted me this machine (my first) as a wedding gift. I really want to learn to do simple things this year, like hem jeans. I also really like our book shelves that we installed above the sewing area. This is a great place to store random supplies, books and my birthday card collection (so I hopefully don't miss a friends birthday this year simply because I don't have a card on hand).
And we can't forget our macrame curtain, which felt like the perfect solution for the closet space. Funny story I didn't share in the tutorial. We have a beagle puppy slowly getting out of her teething phase and Steve (we're pretty sure he's an American dingo) who will chew literally anything. Together they can be, hmm, I guess we'll call it destructively adventurous. Because of that, we're always super diligent to shut the doors to the bedrooms/office when we leave the house. Well, apparently one day we forgot to shut the door to the office, and our dogs seem to have a knack for finding the worst things to chew. We came home and found the whole curtain rod on the floor with the rope in a knotted pile. They went straight for the macrame curtain that we JUST finished. Luckily they just honed in on strand, so the damage was manageable. But if you look extra close, you can see one strand is quite a bit shorter than the rest. 🙂
The last main area is this wrap around standing desk. This corner is communal but I think so far mostly I've been using it. I've done all manner of random activities here: personal finance stuff, wrap Christmas gifts, work on a writing a novel (personal project), edit our book (it's coming out this summer!), etc. I love having somewhere to work at home that isn't our dining room table or in bed with my laptop. I like having the option to sit or stand, sometimes you just don't feel like sitting.
The decor in this room is pretty eclectic and personal. I really wanted this space to feel inspiring and feel like us more than making the colors work together or anything like that. Most of the art hanging on the walls has some personal meaning behind it, the rug was something we both fell for in a big way. And even though the space is used for about a million different purposes, we still fit it all together somehow. It's a metaphor for marriage.
No? Too far? It's getting kind of weird now. Ok, ok. I'll tone it down guys, geez.Thanks for letting us share our home office with you! In case you missed it you can also see our livingroom, kitchen, bedroom and dining room too. Happy decorating! xo. Emma (and Trey)
Sources: rug/Turkish Crafts Arts, desk/DIY, curtain/DIY, shelves/DIY, sewing table/DIY, metal chairs/Amazon, orange chairs/thrifted, abstract painting/Elizabeth Chapman (my mom!), female figure print/Caitlin Shearer, constellation print/Ello There, quote art on white/Fifi du Vie, quote art on black/homemade from Youth Lagoon quote, desktop calendar/Elise, metal lamps/Target. If you have a question about anything else feel free to leave a comment.
Credits // Author: Emma Chapman, Photography: Janae Hardy
The rug is lovely.
Good luck with your sewing machine! I learned to sew 2 years ago & now make my own clothes. It’s very therapeutic 🙂 I absolutely love it.
http://prettyflorals.co.uk
Great use of space! Inspiring! Also, love your vest! Is it handmade? Or did you purchase it and where?
Where is the ceiling pendant from?? Can’t believe no one has asked yet!!
Yes, where is the grey jumper/sweater vest from? I want one!
Emma, love the blend of band and blogger! Also trying to pick a project and go for it! We’ve been in our house almost a year and still don’t feel fully moved in or decorated! From a practical stand point, (I love the clean simplicity) but where do you organize all your albums and bills and mail and clutter? I need a better plan! 😉
Slightly off topic, but where did you get that knitted vest you are sporting? It’s lovely!
So…I’m always happy to help you with the sewing stuff. Just let me know if/when you want to get together. I can also recommend some good resources for you. You can totally do it 🙂
Love the standing desk! Where did you get the shelf brackets? Thanks!
Love it! Where did you get the overhead light?
Such a wonderful room Emma, I love how you’ve styled it together 🙂
Gorgeous, this room is a really light, airy creative space. Perfect place to write your novel!
Love the space! So creative!
Very nice, hoping to have a nice home office space with my partner James one day…need the house first though. I love the wraparound desk idea!
x Morgan
www.writtenbymorgan.blogspot.com
Did you paint the cover of the notebook yourself or is it something you purchased? Beautiful office! Thanks for all the info!
Love the glasses! Where are they from?
Ummmmmm LOVE this space!! Such a unique office – I think it looks so cool how everything is hanging on the walls – desk, shelves, etc. Great job! Thanks for sharing 🙂
I love the homemade corner desk, it saves so much space. Are you going to stain or paint the wood its made from? I like the plain wood, but I’d probably stain it. Very beautiful. Just found your blog on “stumble upon”.
Glenda
i like your shelf/desk. i’ve been thinking on getting something like that for myself for a while now, but i didn’t know if it was strong enough to support a computer. i’ll give it a try.
I’m loving the new do, Emma. You seem to really be coming into your own 🙂 congrats on the room looking great!
I LOVE this room! I think it’s awesome how you made it both industrial and homey at the same time. I’m currently trying to re-purpose my dining room into an office, and so far it’s been a nightmare. It’s the first room you walk into when you open to door to my apartment, and it’s been extremely difficult to fix up! Thanks for the inspiration!
xx lauren
www.wheredyagetthat.com