Forgive the late post am not sure quite where the morning has gone, but its gone non the less. As you all probably know I am not the greatest fan of minimal interiors, I tend to prefer filling rooms with stuff no matter how big or how small the room maybe. I’m particularly taken with creating little nooks all over the house, which I can use to sit, work, flick through a mag, research and so on. Mini home offices if you like that don’t look like home offices – which brings me nicely onto the subject matter of the day ‘Adding some zing to your home office’. You can plonk a home office anywhere any little nook will do the big trick is to soften with stuff in order not to make it look and feel a fish out of a water. I went to someone’s home office a while back(will not mention names) which was in the box room (nothing wrong with that), except all it had in it was one desk, chair, computer, printer, filing system and one overhead light. White paint, beige maybe pale grey carpet I think not sure as had a funny turn and had to get out quick. Shouldn’t our homes be a reflection of who we are and shouldn’t we be surrounding ourselves with things we love?
Lets talk about adding zing. Pictures over desks, maybe the odd mood board propped up or some fab wallpaper or a bookcase, shelves anything that tricks the eye and holds it’s attention meanwhile distracting from the more officey stuff below. Lamps on tables are fab they cosy it up and add another layer and layers as I’ve said maybe a zillion times add interest. As for the desk any old table will do, I’ve converted an old claw footed dining table into my desk I just sprayed it teal rather than leaving it brown not a big fan of brown furniture. I’ve softened it up with books (serious art tomes, plonked an old wooden head on top sporting my latest sunglasses and wham bam its there). Shelves also make fab desks I remember seeing Martha Stewart’s apartment in NY yonks ago and she converted the smallest little nook into a work area – her desk was really a shelf with shelves and books above, beautiful.
I also gravitate around the house with the ipad so I have lots of little perching nooks – the console in the hallway, the console on the lower ground floor, the kitchen island and what is fab about all of them is that they have the same vibe as my desk – candles, books, lamps, art – comforting, homely stuff that makes work not feel like work.
Love this desk area, in corridors, halls , alcoves it doesn’t matter where they go as long as they don’t feel like and look desk like.
This is one of the offices at lonnymag.com, simple yet clever. Opposite the office chair an impromtu chair for meetings, its upholstered its not officey and it sets an interesting tone. Lamps on desks are a must the bigger you can go the more drama you add and love the idea of stacking them on book to ramp up the height
Finally my home office or studio, three lights – floor, table and gnome!, heaps of books, zeebra rug skimming the floor and a floor to ceiling bookcase and I love it!
[...] Adding some zing to your home office Abigail Ahern Tue, November 8, 2011 11:35 AM UTC Abigail Ahern Rate this story Share this story (function(){var [...]
Hi Abigail- did you paint your table yourself? I’m in the middle of a similar project but am afraid to spray it myself as I don’t know zilch about painting furniture. Plus I don’t have a ton of space as I live in manhattan so I’ve no way to spray it inside the flat as I don’t want the rest of my furniture to turn high gloss! (tho that might be fun too) can’t find a car shop that would do the job either, and found one furniture painter who’s charging me more than the table that will be painted! Help!!!
Don’t spray inside the apartment promise you it will go everywhere. Few thoughts you can spray yourself but the trick is to use glossy paint so it has that lacquered shiny upmarket kind of look. I found it rather impossible to get the finish the way I wanted it and you must do it outside or at least in a space with nothing else in. Re the car spraying problem – many car sprayers won’t do it but I found the smallest little garage around (big boys all say no) that were happy to take cash in hand and quickly spray. Any chance you could look out of Manhattan or is that a nightmare transporting it?
Also veeto furniture places you really need a garage – mine charged me £50 for a small occassional type table, £100 for a larger one. Also I actually went round there and talked to them after I had had a few no’s on the phone like you – it might make a difference. Good luck
Hi Abigail, love your home office/studio. Am looking around for a chair for my home office, something like yours would be ideal. Just wondering if you could please let me know what you use. Big thank yous.
Mine is vintage sorry to say – found in an antiques market – sorry good luck with the hunt
You MUST share details about your super fabulous table — paint color? maker of the table? Where you found such a unique, ornate table? I’ve got to find a table as cool as this! I might be in love…
Table was a vintage find which got sprayed a teal colour by the car sprayer, the closet match to the colour is from the Paint Library and the hue is teal. Hope that helps z
Hi wondered which version of the paint library teal I should use ? Emulsion, flat, oil ,eggshell so many versions which would give me that gorgeous glossy look ? Thanks for sharing all your thoughts I am in a re decorating frenzy thanks to you and loving every moment ! X
I think it depends on what you are painting – wood so doors, trim, furniture I generally stick to eggshell. If you want a truely glossy finish then go for oil
Hi Abigail, not sure if you’ll get this response as it’s so out of date but I wanted to try and stay on topic rather than ask this question on a recent but off-topic thread. With regards to spray painting, do you provide the garage with the paint you want or would they have paint for you to choose from? Excuse my naivety but I know nothing about this and want to go armed with as much knowledge as possible when I start hunting down local garages.
Ps. Just booked on to your design course on 14th June. Can’t wait! x
The garage have to use their paint which because its for cars is more limited than what you would normally find don’t let that put you have their are still of lots of options x