Inspiration for A Gorgeous Home Office

The home office....usually "pretty" doesn't come to mind.

I started toying with the idea of turning my front sitting room into "my niche" in the house. This room gets used at Christmas....literally, and that's about it.

It's the first room you walk into from the front door and it faces the dining room. When we moved in, we really didn't want to close it off and add a big expanse of sheet rock and doors to what was a such an open floor plan. So we did what we were supposed to do with the "sitting room." We added two leather chairs for...well, "sitting."

Oh, and we also added a big black wooden bar because I guess in our minds we were supposed to use the room as a cocktail lounge across from the dining room. Yes, this is such the lifestyle we lead...lavish soirees every weekend, sitting and sipping on cocktails with our guests till the wee hours of the morning.

I have to laugh.....What were we Thinking???

This is MY house and should be lived in be ME, right? With that said, it doesn't mean I'm going to sacrifice style along the way. :-)

Here's some inspiration for a "pretty" but practical home office.

I love how feminine this office is. Notice how they blended modern, sleek furniture

 such as the desk and shelf above with a beautiful Louis style upholstered chair.

Pottery Barn always does it right :-) I love this secretary-style desk with a glass door hutch above. A great style for small spaces.

Loving the mix of textures and patterns in this room. Interesting placement of furniture. Look at that transom window above the door...sigh. :-)

I just got an antique cane-detailed chair like this one and I've been trying to decide where to put it and how to reupholster it. I painted the wood frame cream and I'm loving the neutral fabric like this one. Looks like it's going to be my new reading chair in my new office. :-)

I'm getting pretty excited to start my home office makeover. Hope you got some inspiration of your own! Happy Rainy Monday!

Style for the Little Guy Too....

Everyday for the past few months I've been walking past our powder bath and groaning at the sight of the neon green and blue step stool from Walmart looking back at me. It doesn't really fit the motif I had in mind for the bathroom when we had it painted deep shades of mocha and cream.


The harsh reality is that we are Potty Training so in keeping with good hygeine around here....we have to allow the little one to reach the sink on his own and scrub those mitts.

I had to take action and it was time to break out the big guns....
Materials:

1. Wooden Step Stool (we had a firetruck step stool upstairs....this one was by KidKraft and I'm pretty sure it wasn't "real" wood)

2. Primer
3. Cream Latex Paint and Finish Spray of your choice4. Stencil5. Acrylic Craft Paint in a deep mocha brown

After some priming, a few coats of paint, and a little stencil action with some mocha craft paint.....VOILA!

Our Perfectly Pretty and Functional Step Stool

Now Mommy doesn't wanna gouge her eyeballs out everytime she walks past the powder room... and Nikolas can still reach the sink. It's a win-win situation for all!!! Happy Sunday!

Love,

Kristen :-)