Home Office Reveal - Before & After!

1/9/2019

Home Office Reveal - Before & After!

I'm so excited to finally share my office reveal with you guys! Working from home, I spend the majority of my time sitting in my office, and ever since we moved into our house two years ago, I've been dreaming of creating an office that really felt like me. I wanted a space that would inspire creativity and productivity and have a calm and happy vibe. I wanted it to be both beautiful and functional - it needed to have a place for all of the pretty decorative items, cookbooks, and nutrition books, and also some storage where I could hide the not-so-cute things like my shredder, printer, cords, and client folders.

​While there wasn't anything necessarily "wrong" with my office before, it was always an unorganized mess, there were things shoved in every corner, and I wouldn't say that it was super fresh and inspiring.  Here's what we were working with before...

I did have my Gray Malin triptych of Coogee Beach (a gift from my best friend of the place we studied abroad together!) hanging on the mint green wall. That was definitely the highlight of the office, but besides that, this room needed some help.  I was in serious need of some built-ins, and after looking into creating a DIY "built-in look" from IKEA, I decided I should actually go for what I really wanted - something totally custom.

As a birthday present to myself, I set up an appointment with California Closets, and when my super talented and adorable designer, Taylor, came out for the free consultation, she totally understood my vision and said she'd have a mock-up for me within a few days. Taylor sent me her initial ideas, and after talking about my storage needs, adding in some filing cabinets (Mitch likes to file everything, ha!), changing the countertop to a light gray wood to break up all the white, and finding the perfect gold hardware, she sent me the final design!

We were good to go, and then came the fun part... turning our design into a reality, organizing the room, and decorating the built-ins! Here's how it all came together!

What a difference, right!? I couldn't be happier with how it all turned out - it really turned into my dream office! It's bright, happy, fresh, feminine, and so organized! When I walk into the office, I immediately feel calm - the mint green and white definitely help with that too. It's amazing to have a space for everything, and I love having all of my books within arms reach (before they were all just shoved in a cabinet or in the corners of my office!) and all my cords and equipment hidden away. 

When it came to decorating the built-ins, I grabbed my cookbooks and nutrition books that I had around the house, and then my mom and I (she's the real expert here) headed to Home Goods, Target, World Market, West Elm, and Serena and Lily to fill the rest of the space with plants, framed photos, baskets, and some fun tchotchkes.

We were tempted to get all the decorative items at once, but instead decided to take our time, grabbing a few things here and there until it finally felt complete. My mom would come over with a new vase or box or a cute stack of decorative books, and we'd move things from shelf to shelf, then stand back a few feet with our heads tilted, and go move things around again until we got it right. We spent hours on it, but the process was so much fun, and the end result was worth it!

In case you're working on decorating your office, I figured I should share some of my favorite things so you don't have to run to 10 different stores to fill up your space! Here are a few links to the main items, but if you have any questions, feel free to comment below the post and ask away!

West Elm blush Swivel Chairs | Potterybarn Desk | Lulu and Georgia Rug (similar) | Bookends | Symmetry Objects | Geode Stands | Chandelier | Gray Malin Coogee Beach Triptych | Baskets | Gold Frame Stands | Scalloped Candle Holder 

Thank you guys for (virtually) touring my office with me! What do you think of how it turned out?

​By the way, I was so pumped about how my office turned out, that we ended up doing our closet too! Now that was a serious before-and-after! Our whole closet reveal will go live on California Closets soon, I'll make sure to share the link when it does!

Photography by Kristen Schellenberg