Design Behind the Design: Amazing Rustic Elegant Home Office

The Design Behind the Design: Amazing Rustic Elegant Home Office

With most of us working from home these days, we thought we would share the design concept we used to create the beautiful and highly functional office space.

You may have seen the photos of our latest home office design from the Barton Creek Project on our instagram the last few weeks. With most of us working from home these days, I thought I would share the design concept we used to create the beautiful and highly functional office space.

home, office, gray, pink, rustic, elegant, wood, desk, chair, animal, print

The Before

When we arrived, this home office was in desperate need of an overhaul. Our client works from home every day and needs an office that supports her high level of energy and business needs. As it was before, it definitely was not up to the task. We found her buried in stacks of paper in a room that did not have near enough light, natural or artificial.

home, office, before — Before – Desk area overloaded with paperwork

The Design Behind the Design: Amazing Rustic Elegant Home Office 1 — Before – the cabinet on this wall was not big enough to provide more storage or organization

Our job is to first design with function in mind. This means that first we must make sure that the home office is going to properly meet and support the needs and desires of our client. After that, we make sure it is pretty and comfortable.

So, what were the needs and desires we needed to address in our design concept:

more storage
better organization
proper lighting
secondary work space
transitional design
rustic elements
gray and blush color scheme

Design Concept

The first step is to always take proper measurements of space so you can create a custom floor plan designed to make that room work at its best. We knew our primary job was to design more storage and organizational ability for this home office. Our client was literally drowning in papers. We designed custom built ins that fit perfectly with the layout of the room.

One challenge was large window in the left corner of the wall. (see second before photo above) It would not allow us to design the custom credenza from wall to wall all because the wall space was 10″ from corner to window. Our solution? We stopped the centered the standard depth cabinets on the back wall, and then we designed shallow cabinets to recess back from the main unit and continue to the corners on both ends. This gave her 8″ deep cabinets that could be used for essential oil storage and hidden bulletin boards for notes.

The Design Behind the Design: Amazing Rustic Elegant Home Office 3 — Design Solution – 8″ deep cabinets that continue to the corners and meet the adjoining window on the adjacent wall

Once we had the functional design of the space nailed down, we need to source the piece that would drive the aesthetic inspiration. I new the color scheme was going to be gray and blush. We needed a piece that married the elegant clean lines of the room, with the texture elements of the rustic edge. Meet the chandelier the made my heart sing when I found it. It would hang over the desk and be the visual focal point we needed for the space.

The Design Behind the Design: Amazing Rustic Elegant Home Office 5 — Design Inspiration – Aidan Gray chandelier

The After

The end result is a rustic elegant home office that is perfectly suited to the needs of our client. This office is now full of abundant storage to meet the needs of the paper output that is produced on a daily basis. It is also a perfectly balanced design that blends clean transitional lines with rustic pieces to give it some soul, and the right amount of blush tones to soften it around the edges.

The main working area supports the daily task activities with custom designed wall to wall storage and a large rustic desk with lots of work space. The room is properly lit with all three levels of lighting – general, task, and ambient. We provided the needed added general lighting with 4 can lights and the chandelier. The desk lamp provides the required task light, and the four wall sconces on the custom built ins add the ambient lights. We painted the whole room a medium shade of gray – built ins, shutters, walls, and moldings – to make the room live larger than it is.

home, office, gray, pink, rustic, elegant, wood, desk, chair, animal, print, sconces, brass — After – this home office now boasts lots of filing storage and a cozy corner to read in

The secondary wall of built ins in this home office is full of beautiful file storage! In the corner, we added a small lounge chair. We covered it with a light gray velvet with pretty nailhead details that enhances the rustic accents of the room.

home, office, gray, pink, rustic, elegant, mirror — After – a secondary work zone tucked in the corner

No, we didn’t forget about the secondary work space needed. Our client has an assistant that comes in to work with her a few days a month. She needed to have a second workspace in the office that didn’t take a lot of room when it wasn’t in use. The solution? This pretty marble console table that tucks into the corner. The opening between it’s legs is perfect for pulling in a chair in from the dining room to sit at it for a day.

We hope you enjoyed the Design Behind the Design of out latest home office project. We created a strong, bright, feminine space that welcomes and inspires our client everyday!

Let us know if we can help you design your own home office to be a productive and inspirational sanctuary while you are working from home. We offer several levels of design services to meet your different budget needs!

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About Me

Sherry Millien, one of America’s premier interior designers and is known for the unique, one-of-a-kind interiors she creates for prominent clients throughout the metropolitan Houston area.