Home Office Makeover

My condo is a one bedroom with a den. To be honest, I’m not really sure what the intent of a “den” is supposed to be and it seems the previous owners didn’t either. The den is directly on your right as you enter the condo but was just an assortment of random furniture and floor lamps, collecting dust.

I converted the den to a dining room (soon to be featured on the blog) and repurposed the area the prior owners were using as a dining space into my home office. With a large concrete pillar to contend with and a massive sliding door into my bedroom, I had to get creative with how to best use the remaining square footage nearest the windows.

As you might imagine, not all of my time blogging is spent shaking up cocktails and shooting beautiful edible creations, much of my effort is spent at my computer, editing photos, writing my posts, and managing my social media channels. With that in mind, I wanted to curate a sumptuous workspace that invited me to work and inspired my creating.

Storage was a major consideration too. While my unit has three closets – none of them have much in the way of shelving and wouldn’t be suited for my liquor, cookbooks, and glassware. My good friend recreated the 96″ Wall-Mounted Stairway Black Bookcases from CB2 in his metal shop and made them more narrow to fit my space.

BEFORE

AFTER

In case you were wondering why nearly all my liquor is top shelf liquor, that would be because I didn’t measure the height of liquor bottles before having these shelves made. Standard heigh 26-ounce bottles won’t fit on any of the lower shelves. Slight oversight.

A stepladder is required (tall men wanted).

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As you can see, I’ve colour-coded the shelves to create some visual consistency and tried to avoid overcrowding them so that there’s a nice vignette on each shelf. Luckily, glassware and liquor bottles make for great eye-candy.

This creates what I’m calling my “liquor library.” I’ll take it over leather-bound books any day.

For the desk, I chose a dark navy wood desk with lucite and brass hardware. I am channelling the colour palette from my kitchen (also to be revealed to you soon) which features navy cabinetry with brass hardware.

Velvet has been having a major moment in home decor for the past couple of years and while I love the idea of velvet couch – it seems like a big commitment (and expense) for a trend that might run its course sooner than later. Instead, I’m incorporating the luxe material on a smaller scale with this elegant ivory velvet office chair with brass legs. I’ve also pulled the fabric into accent pillows in my living room.

I added texture with the faux cowhide rug in coffee and ivory from local home decor haven LD Shoppe. I opted for a rug in an irregular shape so it wouldn’t make my home feel too blocky – with 5’x7′ rectangular rugs grounding my living and dining rooms.

In terms of accessories, I wanted to bring some natural elements to the space with the use of dried grasses and a fresh floral bouquet in a precious golden giraffe planter. I’ve used dried pampas grasses for height – to help balance the scale of the room, given my very high ceilings – and feathers for a bit of froth.

I’ve also cut down from lagrus grasses from LD Shoppe in the small blue vase next to the lamp. I am not exactly a green thumb so I opted for dried florals that wouldn’t die on me.

I’ve also perched a portrait I captured of my friend Dianne during our time in Morocco a couple of summers ago on the top ledge of the desk. Although this obscures the view a bit – I like the visual impact it has when you walk into my apartment – as it’s directly in your sightline upon entering. It’s also a bit more visually exciting than office towers and condos.

On the whole, I am delighted with how this space turned out and am so glad to have a lovely little nook to work at, instead of slouching on the couch with my laptop.

If there are any items not linked in the gallery above that you’d like info on, drop me a note in the comments below!