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Design Dilemma Home Decorating

Design Help! How do I transform a room with only 2 walls for office?

3 years ago

My home office is in a balcony/loft area at the top of the stairs. One wall is floor length windows and a glass patio door onto a balcony (which I’d love to design as an extension of my office). The other two walls are plain and flat, and the fourth “wall” is wide open to the hall/stairs/balcony/bedroom hallways (I currently flank with suede curtains). Basically I have two walls for bookshelves/decor, and my desk. As a transformational life design coach, I often do virtual calls, and with Covid, I don’t anticipate holding in-person visits for a while, so I’m unattached to sofa, though I like the color. Ultimately I’d like my space to feel clean, organized, cozy, and chic, but feel bound by the glass wall and the wall-less wall. Help please!

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Comments (2)

PRO
RoominessTV
3 years ago
Hi April!

I think you have a great space and some wonderful pieces to start with. I had a look at your ideabook for offices. Just glancing through the photos, it looks like you’re interested in a more “structural” look, with grids and shelves for literal and visual organization.

You could easily pull off one of those looks in your space! Take the “Project Barton Creek” photos for instance. The shelves and cabinets forming the credenza behind the desk bump out into the space in the center of the wall. You could do the same sort of thing on one of your walls. Unless you want to repaint a lot of trim, you’d probably match the cabinet to the trim color. If you want to keep the existing art that hangs on the wall to the right, leave a space for it in the center of the wall cabinets. On either side of the cabinets, create board and batten panels on the wall to keep the built-in look going. Then you just need a great desk to float in the space. When clients call in, they’ll see your great cabinets and art centered right behind you.

I love it that you have purple in your room! To go with your new organized motif, you might line up the sofa, rug, and fuzzy ottoman with the walls. Leave a little space behind the sofa. Let the chair float out in the middle of the room. If you’re looking for more lightness and softness, having beige or grey carpet bound to be a room-size rug is an option. To balance the cabinets on the other side of the room, you could do board and batten panels on the left wall as well.

One more thought. Your description suggests you’d like a better sense of enclosure on your open wall. How about two square columns, each about a quarter of the the way into the opening. Build them to match the new cabinetry, with molding panels like you see in your ideabook. But leave the side facing into the room open to create thin shelves for books, art, or accessories. That could give your room a little more enclosure as well as storage, without closing it off completely.

Those are just some thoughts. Maybe someone else will chime in with some different ideas!

Best of luck! - Doug
Yvonne Martin
3 years ago
Be sure to plan your room so that it looks good on a zoom call.
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Knowing that this the only room on the first floor, now I understand why you have a bath there. It's nice that guests could use the bathroom without climbing stairs (and that you can, too, while you're working from home in the home office). I think the tiny sink on top of the toilet is pretty ingenious, given the space limitations - I've never seen anything like it! I'm not a pro, so please take my thoughts with a grain of salt (or a heaping spoonful): Squeeze as much of your bedding as possible into the closet. If it doesn't all fit, consider getting a storage ottoman or bench/chest and squeeze the rest of the bedding into that. You could use it as a footrest for the couch most of the time, and then tuck it alongside the far wall as a nightstand when the pullout bed is extended. I like the idea of mounting the TV opposite the current couch position on the wall. Then you could see it from the couch/bed. Are all of those paintings just possibilities you are temporarily resting there? The space will look less cluttered if you get rid of some of them, and if you hang them properly on the wall rather than leaning them against it. Consider getting a white fan that will blend in with the ceiling. The current wood color of the fan blades doesn't go with your floor, and I think it makes the room look smaller. Find a spot for the lamp elsewhere in the house. Edited to add: Consider getting a rug in soothing colors; something with cream like your walls, taupe/brown like your couch/floors, or a soothing accent color (soft green or blue?). I'd avoid a bright bold pattern like your current rug, given the limited size of the room, and that I generally desire my office and bedroom to be calming spaces.
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