After a year of buying items, taking them back, selling old pieces that didn't work for me and finding a few new ones, I give you: my office. This room was a difficult one for me for some reason. I started off with a very dark X-leg desk from Pottery Barn that I purchased right out of college. It was such a beautiful desk and it hard a large, heavy glass top. I loved the desk, but I could never seem to find anything to make it pop in the room. I temporarily gave that desk to my husband when I found one made of faux shagreen at HomeGoods. I was obsessed! It looked so high-end and chic. The only issue with it was when you would write on top of the faux material, it would leave indentions in the fabric of the desk, which was quickly depreciating it and making it look God-awful. Some pieces from HomeGoods are great, but others make you realize, you get what you pay for. The drawer eventually stopped opening and was basically worthless. I got so irritated, I eventually took it back and exchanged it for some decorative pieces in my office. There I was, once again, without a desk. My office over the last several months has been any cozy spot in the house...the couch some days, my bed, and when the weather is nice, it was the outdoor dining set. While I've had no problem plopping down with a cozy blanket to work on the couch, it was making my work extremely disorganized.
I started looking at desks again last month, and decided to give World Market a try. I found this gorgeous desk there on sale for only $200! What I love the most about this desk is the space! It is really long, which nicely holds my Thunderbolt screen (not pictured) on one side and all of my papers and decor on the other. It also has a working drawer! Imagine that. The color of this desk is great and I think it has a timeless look. Most of our home is fairly traditional, and I wanted to make sure that this desk fit into the formality of the home, while keeping the space feeling casual. In order to accomplish that, I decided to layer a faux zebra hide rug atop my seagrass one to dress up the space a little. I also added this giant gold sunburst mirror to glam it up.
Mixing casual and formal to keep it the perfect blend, I painted this Vittsjo etagere from IKEA with gold spray paint. You can find that
tutorial here along with a few old pictures of my office. I added some design books and wine books to my bookcase, decorative accents like these stunning wood boxes (HomeGoods), and a marble urn to add height and complete the look.
This little basket is hiding behind my blanket, but when I'm not using it as a blanket holder, I line it with a trash bag and use it as my office trash.
I'm obsessed with this marble bookend! I originally saw similar ones on Williams-Sonoma's home website, retailing for $200 each! I was thrilled when I found a similar one at HomeGoods for only $20.
In my drawer, I organized my pens, binder clips, ruler and pencil sharpener in a cute gold and glass window box from Target. The desk accessories were also purchased at Target in their $1-$3-$5 section over the summer. I'm a sucker for rose gold.
I recently splurged and decided to purchase a diptyque candle. I decided on the Baies scent because it has such a fresh smell...almost like fresh clipped flowers! These candles are worth the money. They give off a ton of scent that fills several rooms in the house, and they burn very slow. I've been really happy with it.
Tucked on the other side of the room is more storage and my giant chinoiserie blue and white urn. It stands at right about 3 feet tall. It really ties my office into the other rooms. Overall this office cost me less than $500 to create! Not including my curio, of course. I say always start with a few inspo photos of high-end designers, and shop around to find similar looks for less. This room's pieces are all from Target, HomeGoods, Amazon (for books), WorldMarket, and Ballard Design's outlet store.
