Home Office Decor and Planning

This past year had many things in store that were quite unexpected. Primarily, the global pandemic that seemed to make the world stop, but there have been so many other things that have come as a result of that. Whether that be taking masks everywhere we go or removing handshakes from greeting one another, there are many things that have changed in our new day-to-day.

For many, home offices have become a bigger priority or maybe these have become your main office altogether. I recently moved to a new job which is a fully remote position that required me to have a designated work space. This was an exciting thought for me because we had a room in our house that was essentially just storage until we took on the Home Office project! So of course, my head was swimming with ideas for what to do.

Now the biggest obstacle with our project was that we really didn’t want to pour too much money into it. Yes, I wanted a beautiful space that I’d want to spend many hours a day in. But, we didn’t want to break the bank nor did we have a huge budget for it. Because of this, I knew I needed to plan the home office decor in advance along with some of the things we had already.

Home Office Decor Inspiration Photo

Planning the Home Office

The first step that I recommend making an inspiration photo or mood board of some sort. I started with Pinterest where I got some ideas of the feel that I wanted for the office first. On my Pinterest boards, I noticed the theme of calm and simple spaces. I wanted a space that was warm, inviting, and not overly distracting for myself or anyone who’d be joining me on virtual meetings. Also, I knew this would be an easier room to transition in the future. If we want to transition it into a bedroom or nursery I think we’ll be able to easily make this room into whatever we want it to be next.

Once I got the feel I wanted for the room, I started to compile some ideas in my head of things we already had. We have a chair from Facebook Marketplace that would fit the space well. Plants galore to make it warm and inviting (including my favorite planter that looks like a bust). There was decor from my old apartment that I hadn’t put anywhere in our house yet and some other miscellaneous items. We then identified some of the items we’d need. A desk and chair were top priority. We also would need curtains for this room (in fact, we really need them for every room but I just haven’t gotten there yet).

One really important part of the home office would be what we would end up doing with the floor and walls. I mentioned the rug earlier which is currently covering our unfinished hardwood floors. Someday we would like to get all of our second-story floors refinished, but it was not a top priority. We did need to fix the walls desperately! There was old paint and some cracks to fill, so that was the first project. After that, we decided to paint with the white we already have. I think this is better because I will always get Dover White for our house so I never have to figure out exactly which paint color it is unless it’s one of the bedrooms which have special paint colors.

Tackling the Project

The start of any project like this usually involves cleaning and moving many things around which isn’t necessarily the fun part. We also ordered all of the things we knew we wanted for the room (desk, chair, curtains, and curtain rods). Our next move was to work on making the floors as nice as possible as well as painting the walls.

I did a couple of coats on the walls when I noticed how much I hated the window frames… The stain that was used on them gave it an orange tint which I didn’t love. I had also been throwing around the idea of painting the ones downstairs black but I couldn’t bring myself to paint them. In this room, however, I thought “why not try it out!” So, I went to find some black paint to get that job done. The saga of prepping and painting the windows was something, so I’ll save that story for another time.

Once we had gotten all of the paint up and dried, we put together the desk and chair. By “we”, I really mean my husband put them together! I do not love doing things like that, I like pulling things out of the box and immediately having them finished. After they were assembled, we started bringing the rest of the furniture that we had decided would go to the office. There was definitely some shuffling that happened as I decided what would make the final cut in the office. I did switch around some things and moved some pieces of furniture in and out of the room, but I finally ended up with a sweet little place to call my office

The Final Result

Over thoughts on the Home Office

My office didn’t turn out exactly like the mood board or how I envisioned it. But I am still so obsessed with it! I think the colors are incredibly calming, I love the line art and the vintage painting/frame. The desk was a Facebook Marketplace find that I LOVE. Overall, the home office decor and planning process was incredibly enjoyable! The room isn’t quite finished since we still have the floors and such to redo at some point. But for now, you’ll find me working away in this office during the week and being pretty happy with that 🙂

If you want to hear a little more about how we got our home during a crazy buying time, check out our story here!