Office Makeover Inspiration

Last Updated on December 2, 2022

With both bedrooms wrapping up, I have decided to keep being crazy the old ball rolling on the home makeovers. This time I’m looking at you my horrid office. It’s a hot mess of books, papers, magazines, vintage treasures, vases, lamps, random pretties I like to Instagram and then forget to put away and possibly an old sandwich. Oh ya, that wouldn’t surprise me you guys.

When Jen Harrison (aka @fleamarketfab) visited the house the other weekend, I told her, “You can’t go in there. It’s embarrassing.” Unfortunately for me, it’s where I was stashing tons of homeless knick-knacks, and we had to shop the house. We had no choice to venture in. Oy. What a mess. I hung my head in shame. Right then and there I decided this room was next, but I needed some office makeover inspiration stat.

Besides my bedroom, my office is the one room where I spend a good portion of my time (sad, but true). When I was pregnant with Little Maus, I lost my office upstairs. It became my son’s bedroom when he moved out of the nursery, and she moved in. As soon as we finished the basement, we threw everything into the space without a design plan. The main objective for the transition to downstairs was to get my computer up and running. I’m also slightly confused and intimidated to design it. Being an artist, my tastes change often. I can love something one minute and then I hate it the next. I’ll admit it, I’m very wishy-washy. I want this room to be a space of creativity, but it also has to function.

I turned to Pinterest from some office makeover inspiration and after a meh attempt of searching unique office spaces, I switched gears and started just looking for inspiring spaces I thought were beautiful. I opened the door to researching anything that tripped my trigger. From bathrooms to living rooms to bedrooms to typography. Inspiration is inspiration, right?

So after reviewing the board, I came to the conclusion that my home decor aesthetic is bipolar. I go from modern, clean, sleek white walls to vintage primitives and flea market treasures. What am I going to do with this conundrum? But after studying the board, I noticed a trend…neutrals. Muted colors. More texture. Remember this post?

I think what scares me the most about this space is that I’m on my own. I have no Jen (@fleamarketfab) to bail me out. No Decorist to save the day. This is just me. I need to figure this office makeover out on my own and not take another 4 years to perfect it, but it will take me some time.

I also have a big old nut for a budget. I can’t spend a dime and will be shopping my house for goodies. Ok, maybe one thing from Craigslist, but I cannot use the credit card. That is off-limits…or rather, I’ve been cut off…whoopsies. Although I think it’s doable without spending money. I have 2 desks (one for blogging and one for work), a pretty vintage Jens Risom chair, and my pipe shelf to work with. Do you think I can do it?

My work desk is this huge mid-century modern executive desk. It’s deep, it’s awesome, it’s comfortable. And most importantly, it fits my Mac tower and honkin’ big monitor. Being a graphic designer by trade, I need a lot of desk space for my tools of the trade. Also, since I sit a lot, a while back I treated myself to a Herman Miller Aeron chair. Needless to say, this is where I spend most of my time unless I’m in the photography studio.

Meanwhile, my blog desk (aka the desk that I’ve never sit at) holds my laptop, a gold lamp, a pretty gold stapler, a white and gold trinket holder for my brass paper clips that I Instagram, a printer, a 2015 calendar I never hung, my camera bag, camera lenses, 4 blankets, a stack of magazines, 14 vintage glass vases, a box of fancy pencils, a bunch of photographs, a few letters, papers from work, 2 planners that I decided not to use, 2 lucite lamps, 4 candles, a sweater…and this is where I think I have buried that sandwich. Basically, I Instagram most everything that resides on this desk in my studio, and then it gets placed here until I need it again. It’s so sad because everything is so pretty, it just doesn’t have a real home.

I am presently sitting here in my yoga pants and top knot staring at my mess and reading what I just confessed. Hmmm, debating on scrapping this post. Do I really want you to know the truth? Probably. Back in the day, the mission of this blog was wanting to keep it real. Wanting to show you the good, the bad, and the ugly life of blogging, working a 9 to 5, and being a mom. I don’t just sit on the sofa and eat bonbons all day…well, not every day.