This is hard question to answer -- simply because the answers depend on how you like a room to feel when you are working! I really like the depth and tone of the paint color -- and think it will work well for an office BUT our own home office/guest room is painted in deep olive! Soooooo ... do you like to work in bright sunny "open" rooms -- or do you like cozy spaces for work? IF you do like a cozy space -- remember to add LOTS of lamps around the whole space. We have two very tall buffet lamps on the main desk -- and a swing-arm lamp over the sofa bed AND a smaller lamp over an antique cupboard! Lighting options can be a key element to making an office space work well. For the back wall -- I would recommend bookcases or bookshelves! For example -- check out the "Billy" bookcases at Ikea. Those bookshelves come in two heights -- you could do two tall bookcases at each end of the wall -- and then a shorter one in the middle. Add an artwork over the smaller bookcase. Add bookcase lighting to the taller ones. Or you could add a long thin console table or cabinet -- with three large bulletin boards over the table -- cover with co-ordinating fabric to the rest of the room. Or check out "art.com" -- and simply broswe through categories that might appeal to you and see if a particular artists name might keep cropping up! I've included a hot link over to art.com -- and a selection from my favorite artist -- Chardin -- from the 18th century. Rich extraordinary colors. Another more modern artist is Nicole Etienne. Check out her artworks at art.com. Other possible art selections -- could be maps (new, old, vintage) of places that you might have lived or visited or hope to visit. Or perhaps a grid of (new, old or vintage) botanical prints? Or perhaps a grid of black-and-white photos of local sites or architecture of your area? Hope this helps! Jan at Rosemary Cottage Here is a link that might be useful: art.com -- Jean-Baptiste Chardin

OK, it took me a while to get up the nerve to try color on the ceiling then to test samples. Hubbard Squash was too peachy. I didn't try turquoises/teals because those don't fit with the rest of my house or the rug that will go in the office (cream, rust, navy, and olive). That left sky blues. After several samples and time spent lying on the floor looking at sample boards propped on top of the bookcase, I ended up using SW Open Air. Here's a photo of the work in progress. The blue looks a little more violet in the photo than in person. I'll post another photo after the room is all together but I like the blue ceiling better than the off white. Thanks!

It looks like we're going with Repose Gray everywhere. It works with the browns in the bathroom and break room as well as the steely look of the offices. And the building's Ash Gray steel is more warm and taupe-ish than blue-gray.

Thanks, decoenthusiaste! I'm definitely taking that into consideration, but since this is a room I can see from nearly every room on the first floor I also want to make sure it flows well visually through the house and that the colors create the right working environment. I agree with a blackout curtain. I have blinds behind the sheers that I'll be using during the calls in the meantime, otherwise it reflects. I may also move the furniture around once it's painted so that the wall is behind me instead of a window - or create a conference corner... Light fixture is definitely going. What do you think of something like these? I'd like to remove the chair rail as well. It may end up being a timing thing though as whatever we do in here will need to be completed over a weekend. The last time we pulled chair rail off in this house it was a PITA, and I'm assuming they also stained this one in place which means fixing the gaps on the window and door casings/trim. Small thing - but when you have two little ones underfoot weekend projects can take longer then planned! ;)