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In the present day, I’m excited to disclose an area in our home that I’ve by no means really proven you guys earlier than. Up till now, it’s been my least favourite room in our residence. Welcome to our residence workplace! Aka that one room in the home the place we threw all of the stuff we didn’t know what to do with. However not! After being in our home for over a decade, Adam and I made a decision it was lastly time to point out this room some love and rework it from a cramped, awkward room into one the place we might be inventive, have conferences, and collaborate on Casa Zuma collectively.
As lots of you realize, we constructed our home 13 years in the past. It’s a endless venture (which is how we prefer it), and we’re hitting that point after we naturally wish to give some areas of the home a clean up. We’ve advanced and our style has advanced together with it—however the problem is to replace our residence in ways in which make sense as an funding and don’t completely blow our finances.
Layout challenges
This home office space has always been one of our most challenging areas. First, the layout makes it tricky—each of the walls has either a door (to the bathroom or a closet) or a window that faces the front of the house, and it feels a bit awkward to have the desk sitting in front of any of these areas.
We also installed a lot of built-ins in the room in an effort to create a lot of storage. While we did accomplish that goal, the permanency of built-in shelves and cabinetry limited how much we could rearrange the room.
How we use this space
Adam and I use this space to meet with each other and people we’re working with, brainstorm projects we’re working on together, and this is also the space that Adam uses for his zoom calls every day. (You guys may remember that I do my solo work and zoom calls my calls in the little front alcove office off our kitchen.)
First, we rearranged the room
The biggest change we made to this room was reorienting where the desk was. We’ve always had it at one end of the narrow room, which didn’t foster any type of collaboration. Only one person could use the desk at a time, and the sunlight was so harsh coming in through the window that we always had to keep the shade down to minimize glare (which made the room feel like a cave.)
So, we decided to move the desk to the center of the room and it changed everything. In this new configuration, the desk feels more like a worktable. It’s way more collaborative, and the room itself just feels more open and expansive. I love when the biggest change to a space is the one that cost zero dollars.
Built-in shelving: pros and cons
Let’s start by talking about the built-ins. Although they did present some challenges to rearranging this space, they do have their pro’s. So rather than ripping them out and starting from scratch, we decided to lean into what was already in the space and see if we could make them over with simplified styling. Here are the details on these shelves and cabinets:
- Material: unstained white oak with a clear laquer
- Size: 3″ thick—if I were installing these today, I would go with a 2″ thick floating shelf. The steel bracket is installed behind the sheetrock so these can hold a lot of weight.
- Pro: They provide a ton of storage, and look more streamlined than having lots of furniture in the room.
- Con: They’re pretty permanent, and restrict how much we can rearrange the space without demo’ing the built-ins (which would be pricey.)
Shelf styling 101
As mentioned, we kept the built-in shelves and gave them new life simply by changing up the styling and what we put on them. In general, I think the biggest hurdle with open shelving is overcoming the temptation to clutter them up with lots of stuff. So the first thing I always do is remove everything. Then I can take a fresh look and decide what I really want to add to the shelves.
For this space, I focused mainly on design books that would creatively inspire us, plus samples and prototypes that we’re working on for Casa Zuma merchandise. I did my finest to maintain the cabinets minimal and streamlined, since I would like this area to really feel actually ethereal and calm.
A unique home office desk—and the perfect chair
This “desk” is actually a teak dining table from Crate and Barrel that we’ve had forever, proving—it pays to think beyond traditional “office furniture” when designing a home office space. Peruse dining tables and dining chairs from your favorite retailers for outside-the-box options that may fit better with your aesthetic.
I’m obsessed with this desk chair from Lulu and Georgia. It is so chic, and perfectly marries functionality and ergonomics with beautiful design. It’s super comfy.
Window shades and curtains
I get tons of questions from you guys about our window treatments, and I’m not surprised—curtains and shades are one of those design decisions that can get really confusing. All of the window treatments in our home are from Graber, and I shared all about them in this Window Treatment Do’s and Don’t’s article awhile again.
Right here was the problem in our residence workplace area: we love having plenty of pure gentle, and in addition needed a transparent view to the entrance yard to see when individuals drive up. However after we’re doing a whole lot of pc work or on a Zoom name, we’d like some gentle filtering to reduce glare on his display. So, we went with a two-part resolution:
First we put in sheer curtains that allow in tons of sunshine. One design trick is to put in the curtain rod just a few inches larger and wider than the window body itself—it makes the window look larger, and you’ll pull the material totally again to let as a lot gentle in as doable.
Subsequent, shades. If you happen to work on a pc lots like we do, it’s necessary to reduce glare on the display, particularly within the afternoon when the daylight shines straight via the window. So we wanted a method to block the sunshine with out making this room really feel like a cave. These solar shades are made to permit gentle to filter into the room, however they block out the tough gentle that creates a glare.
Shop our office with an exclusive discount
Since many of the new items in our office space are from Lulu and Georgia, the model shared an unique low cost code only for you guys so you possibly can store these items for your self. Get 15% off with the code CAMILLESTYLES15.
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And when you’ve got questions on something on this area, head on over to the video tour on Youtube and drop a remark—I’ll be answering them throughout there!
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