Thanks so much to Sauder for sponsoring this post!

Dave has been working on his master’s degree online since the beginning of summer, so he’s been spending a lot of time up in the previously unused half of our master bedroom. The plan for this space has long been to turn it into a kind of office/den area where work stuff can happen and maybe where we can escape from the kids and watch some TV sometimes. We’re still waiting on the quiet TV watching retreat part to happen, but getting the office part in here was already long overdue. Because this is the space poor Dave had to work in:

That’s a cheapy desk from Ikea that we bought years ago, the curtain still hanging up from when this was Abe’s nursery, and a lamp he had to steal from his bedside table because there’s no overhead light on this side of the room.

So when Sauder invited me to participate in the “Prepare to Entertain” Design Challenge, I knew exactly what room to work on. I picked the worst room in the whole house, so as to make for an extra exciting transformation. Ready?

It’s better now, right?

A lot of people say that using bright colors is outside their comfort zone, but I’m pretty much the opposite. I default to colors sticking with neutrals always feels a little unnatural for me. But I knew I wanted this to be a calm space for Dave to work in, so we went with mostly neutral colors and played around with texture to keep things interesting.

The first thing I had to consider here was that this space is part of our master bedroom. Here’s the other side, for reference:

Perhaps it’s a little weird to talk about how the office is neutral when the walls are a deep teal (Benjamin Moore’s Newburg Green). But it’s about as neutral as I can manage at any rate. So we needed to keep the general mood of the office compatible with the master bedroom.

I got to pick out three pieces for the room from Sauder, which was tough because there were a lot of great choices. I knew he needed some kind of desk or work surface in here, so we went with the work table from the Cannery Bridge Collection:

I love the (“lintel oak”) finish on this, and it’s a super solid, sturdy desk with tons of storage (the two bottom “drawers” are actually a door that opens up to a nice sized compartment). I won’t lie; this thing took quite awhile to put together because of all the detailing on it and the need to assemble the drawers. But the process was totally straightforward, and the instructions were very clear and even included the occasional joke to keep our spirits up. Because I’m not a very careful reader/measurer, I didn’t realize until we put it together that the work table is counter height and needs a stool instead of a standard chair (it would also make a great standing desk). We picked up that stool at Homegoods, and, frankly, I like the way it looks way better than Dave’s old desk chair, so I’m secretly happy that it worked out this way.

Then we picked out a chair for comfy reading or for if Dave has a study partner over sometime. We went with the Ellis accent chair, because how could we not?

Isn’t it lovely? It’s super comfortable, too. I actually keep thinking about stealing it from Dave for Abe’s room, because I think it would look perfect in there, but, alas, I don’t think there’s really a good place for it. Also, Dave wants to keep his chair. Selfish.

And, finally, we needed a shelf for books and, of course, for pretty accessories. This bookcase from the Edge Water Collection fits perfectly into the space between the windows:

And then, with the main components in place, it was time to figure out all the details. I had picked up the shag rug (it’s originally from Ikea) at the thrift store awhile back. It fits in perfectly with my neutral + texture mission in this space. Also, the dogs really love to roll around on it.

I had a very hard time figuring out curtains. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money, but curtains tend to cost a lot of money (especially if you don’t feel like making a trip to Ikea). But then I came across these curtains on super sale at World Market. I paid $21.50 a pair for them, a price so low I wonder if there was some kind of mistake (like that that was supposed to be a price per panel instead of for a pair). These are great in here because they fulfill the neutral requirement mostly, but they do have some subtle color woven in to the horizontal stripes.

I pulled all the books and accessories for the shelf from elsewhere in the house:

We’ve had that chess lamp for a few years (it’s from Home Goods), but it’s never had a good place before. The painting next to the lamp is maybe my favorite thrifted painting ever.

We picked up some stuff for the desk from Target, including that fabulous brass lamp and the pencil holder:

And here it is set up for any mathematical entertaining Dave might do in here (that dry erase calander is also from Target). You can see that we moved Abe’s whale, Martha, in here, now that his room has lost its ocean theme. I’m really glad she has a new home:

Finally, I felt like there needed to be something definitively mathy in here, so I made this little banner:

It might be my favorite part. I bought the collection of math/number related vintage stuff on Etsy years ago and used some of it for a similar banner in Ari’s room. I’m glad I held onto it so I could bring it back out for this.

Dave is much happier working now that he has this space. I think next we need to put another desk in here so that I have an office, too. Just saying. And Fergus agrees with me:

 

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This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Sauder. The opinions and text are all mine.