Room of the Day: Breakfast Room Shares Space With Home Office
An inviting area for casual family meals with his-and-her desks offers beauty and functionality
This exceptional house was designed by a talented architect who lived there, and it has a unique style and great architectural details. The new homeowners and their designer, Harmony Weihs, did not want to overpower or distract from the home’s style. However, it is the couple’s “forever home,” and it needed more coziness and functionality for a busy young family of four. For this room just off the kitchen, they wanted an inviting place for enjoying casual meals together, as well as a workspace for both parents.
“After” photos by Cory Holland, Holland Photography
AFTER: “I created this design for them with two zones: dining and office,” Weihs says. “You don’t want to feel like you’re in the middle of an office when you’re eating breakfast.” A banquette on the left is the family gathering area for meals and can also serve as a comfortable homework spot. The designer used the French door as a natural point of division between the breakfast area and the office space.
Elements like the new upper cabinets, the painting and the globe chandelier bring the high ceiling down to human scale.
AFTER: “I created this design for them with two zones: dining and office,” Weihs says. “You don’t want to feel like you’re in the middle of an office when you’re eating breakfast.” A banquette on the left is the family gathering area for meals and can also serve as a comfortable homework spot. The designer used the French door as a natural point of division between the breakfast area and the office space.
Elements like the new upper cabinets, the painting and the globe chandelier bring the high ceiling down to human scale.
The uplighting in the ceiling was existing; it was the only lighting built into the room. “We needed to warm the room up with different light sources for the gray Pacific Northwest days,” the designer says. She added a large chandelier, sconces, undercabinet lights and a task lamp.
The fabric on the Roman shades, along with the cozy banquette and upholstered chairs, also warms up the space. The shades enhance rather than distract from the beautiful wood trim around the windows. The pillow fabric patterns are a mix of geometrics and botanicals at varying scales in muted yellows, grays and blues.
The bench has storage drawers beneath it for linens; kid stuff, like artwork and Play-Doh; and extra office files.
Banquette paint: Grays Harbor, Sherwin-Williams; leather chairs: Crate & Barrel; pillow fabrics: Duralee and Kravet; bench cushion upholstery fabric: Kravet; Roman shade fabric: Duralee; chandelier: Restoration Hardware
The fabric on the Roman shades, along with the cozy banquette and upholstered chairs, also warms up the space. The shades enhance rather than distract from the beautiful wood trim around the windows. The pillow fabric patterns are a mix of geometrics and botanicals at varying scales in muted yellows, grays and blues.
The bench has storage drawers beneath it for linens; kid stuff, like artwork and Play-Doh; and extra office files.
Banquette paint: Grays Harbor, Sherwin-Williams; leather chairs: Crate & Barrel; pillow fabrics: Duralee and Kravet; bench cushion upholstery fabric: Kravet; Roman shade fabric: Duralee; chandelier: Restoration Hardware
Both parents work outside the home but needed space for getting work done in the evenings and organizing the household. “For the office area, I wanted true his-and-hers spaces where they could work together but not share a desk, and wanted each of their areas to feel different from one other,” Weihs says. She first came up with a design featuring two side-by-side workstations but thought it left dead space. “With this arrangement, they can work together in the evenings without feeling like they are in each other’s hair,” she says.
His side has a custom minimalist reclaimed fir desk, a classic midcentury modern Cherner chair and a custom abstract painting from local artist Nikki Easterday. Weihs commissioned the piece to add the most vibrant jolt of color to the room, to stand up to the scale of the ceilings and to balance out the new upper cabinets.
Her side is softer, with wallpaper, a desk with more intricate details and an upholstered chair. Sconces contrast with his modern desk lamp, and spindle legs contrast with his clean-lined desk. Her desk has salvaged staircase spindles for legs and is topped with glass. It has lots of space for organizing piles. Weihs also left enough room behind both desktops for wires to extend down to electrical outlets. “I love the fact that the desks overlap in the corner, as it makes them feel united,” the designer says.
Weihs found the lovely upholstered chair for a great price at Overstock, then had it re-covered in a pale yellow Duralee fabric. “Often I find the perfect chair shape, but it’s in the wrong fabric; I needed to bring more color over here rather than the neutral it came in,” she says.
Wallpaper: Designyourwall.com; sconces: Lamps Plus; spindles: Earthwise
Weihs found the lovely upholstered chair for a great price at Overstock, then had it re-covered in a pale yellow Duralee fabric. “Often I find the perfect chair shape, but it’s in the wrong fabric; I needed to bring more color over here rather than the neutral it came in,” she says.
Wallpaper: Designyourwall.com; sconces: Lamps Plus; spindles: Earthwise
Tip: Cover switchplate covers with wallpaper for a seamless look.
Here is a closer look at the wallpaper pattern. “The architectural details are beautiful and unique, and I didn’t want to disrupt them with something really big, bright or bold, or that would look dated someday,” Weihs says. “With the small pattern, it almost feels more like a texture than a print.”
Here is a closer look at the wallpaper pattern. “The architectural details are beautiful and unique, and I didn’t want to disrupt them with something really big, bright or bold, or that would look dated someday,” Weihs says. “With the small pattern, it almost feels more like a texture than a print.”
The kitchen was not designed by Weihs, but this photo shows the view from the new office and breakfast space into the kitchen and how the two spaces connect. In this shot you can also see that the setup with the laptop on the island was not working out very well.
Interested in seeing more of this unique house that Weihs has been working on room by room? See the great room and dining room.
More:
Share a Home Office, Keep Your Marriage
11 Ways to Create a Multipurpose Office Space
Interested in seeing more of this unique house that Weihs has been working on room by room? See the great room and dining room.
More:
Share a Home Office, Keep Your Marriage
11 Ways to Create a Multipurpose Office Space
What happens here: A family of 4 has meals together, and the parents have their own office areas for working from home and running the household.
Location: Kenmore, Washington
Size: 144 square feet (13 square meters); 12 feet by 12 feet
BEFORE: The room has beautiful architecture, including vaulted ceilings with exposed trusses, but nothing below was addressing the soaring height.
“Their lives are very busy, and they wanted a more comfortable spot to eat together,” Weihs says. They also wanted a place to pay bills, do some work from home and keep the family calendar and household tasks straight. “We needed to keep those things accessible but find a place to organize it and put it away,” the designer says.