In June of last year, I took a big chance on something I’d wanted for a long time: upgrading from a one-bedroom home to a two-bedroom home. I did this so that I could have a separate room for a home office and creative workspace, and it’s been sooo worth it.
I can’t lie, it’s also nice to have another room to decorate. 
Oddly, at my last apartment, I never got around to fully decorating my office. I had a few things up, but the room never felt cohesive or coordinated.
When I moved in to this new apartment, I had to give the treatment my office (and myself) deserved. Continue reading to see how I’ve turned this extra room into a warm and colorful workspace.
When decorating a room, I start with determining how I’d like to feel in this space. For this room, I wanted to feel positive, comfortable, and upbeat. Because I spend at least 40 hours each week in my office, it was important that I feel energetic and happy here.
I then determined how I could create these feelings: color, accessories, and images. I started with color. For my 9 to 5 job, I work at a vintage tanker desk that I’d previously painted teal. I wanted to keep the desk this color because (1) blue, especially green-blue, is my favorite color and (2) it would be &*#>% to paint it again.
I also painted my IKEA Linnmon/Adils desk the same color, Behr’s Pacific Teal. This desk I use for all my creative projects and blogging.
More green-blues were added with colored glass decor. The lighter, more aqua votives I painted with Martha Stewart’s Liquid Fill glass paint in Bright Sky. I followed this handy tutorial from Karla at Oh So Very Pretty. Going the DIY route allowed me to customize the decor plus save money since I already had tons of glass items on hand.
I also decorated with turquoise, sky blue, and a few accents of golden yellow. The green from all the plants could also be considered an accent color. You can never go wrong with an analogous color scheme!
Because my office faces south, it receives a glorious amount of daylight. This room has the only window that is inset with a ledge, so I’ve used this to to hold a few work folders and houseplants. I plan to add more plants in the future to make the room feel more tropical and jungle-like.
To give the walls some visual interest, I hung my whitewashed matchstick blinds as a backdrop behind the desks. These help to add texture and a touch of warmth to a room suffering from White Wall Syndrome.
The final touches come in with some of my favorite animals: birds. I bought this birds of paradise calendar half-off after Christmas…
… scored this wood-carved bird at a thrift store…
… and got this peacock suncatcher years ago at Rau’s Country Store in Frankenmuth, MI. It was love at first sight, one of those things I just had to have.
Organization and storage in a workspace is crucial. I like to store most of my tools of the trade in the closet: paints, papers, fabric, decor, etc. Storing these items out of sight helps to ensure a sense of peace and order in the room. The wire basket shelving system is from the Antonius line at IKEA.
However, I do have some items stored out in the open that I need readily available: magazines, books, pencils, markers, etc. I used IKEA’s now extinct Lerberg shelves and their Kassett files for all my decor magazines.
It feels so good to finally have an office that’s put together! I’m so blessed to be able to have a separate workspace, to work from home, and to feel comfy doing it.
Do you have a separate workspace/home office/craft room at your home? If so, how have you decorated your workspace?
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