I am so excited to finally share this home office makeover plan.
After three years in this house, we are at last starting one of the biggest projects we have wanted to tackle since the day we moved in. This room, located right beside the front door, was always meant to become a functional and beautiful home office.
If you have followed along since our first move-in day home tour, you may remember this large space near the foyer. From the beginning, we imagined it as a dedicated office where we could work, create, store supplies, and eventually design for others.
UPDATE: Want to see the finished home office reveal? You can see it here.
Instead, it slowly turned into a cluttered storage room. Like so many unused spaces, it became the place where random items landed when we did not know where else to put them.
Now that we are ready to make it work for our everyday needs, the priorities are very clear. This room needs smart storage, comfortable work zones, better lighting, and a design that feels connected to the rest of our home. Since Robert and I will both use this office for computer work, planning, projects, and organization, the space has to be practical as well as pretty.
Before we landed on the final direction, we considered several home office mood board ideas. With a lot of thought and helpful feedback, we found a look that feels like the perfect balance: light, bright, classic, moody, and highly functional.
The Before:
The Plan:
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The goal for this home office design is to create a room that feels open and bright while still bringing in the moody contrast we love throughout the rest of the house. That contrast is one of the details that helps our rooms feel cohesive instead of disconnected.
Tall Cabinets – These IKEA cabinets will give us much-needed closed storage. We plan to paint them ourselves, which should help save money compared with some of the more expensive options we considered. They will be ideal for hiding office supplies, small decor pieces, a printer, routers, and other items we do not want sitting out in the open.
Desk Drawers – A desk along the wall will become our main computer workstation. The drawers will add practical storage for files, craft supplies, paperwork, and anything else that needs to stay organized but easy to access.
Desk Top – This butcher block desktop may get a darker stain, but either way, the natural wood tone will bring warmth and texture into the office.
Work Table – A large work table was high on the must-have list. I often spread out big projects for painting, gluing, crafting, and planning, so having a roomy surface in the center of the office will make a huge difference. The table is unfinished, which means we can stain it to suit the room.
Rug – This rug has the balance I kept coming back to: soft blue tones mixed with warm neutrals. It should ground the room and add pattern without feeling too busy.
Chairs – Rolling armchairs will make it easy to move between the wall desk and the work table. They are comfortable, practical, and exactly what we need for a flexible home office layout.
Pendant Light – This pendant light blends modern and traditional style beautifully. It will also provide much-needed lighting over the central work table.
Art – Soft, painterly landscape art feels like the right finishing touch for this office design.
The Before:
The Plan:
Adding a pair of closets is an important part of the plan. By building closets and closing off the opening to the room with doors, this former dining room turned office can technically function as a fifth bedroom. That added flexibility could be a benefit for the home in the future if we ever decide to sell.
I also love the idea of making the closet doors look like bookcases with faux book spines. It would give the room so much character while hiding practical storage behind a more decorative feature. I am still working through how to turn that inspiration into a DIY project, but the idea is too good to ignore.
The Before:
The Plan:
I keep picturing picture frame molding in this office because it made such a beautiful impact in Regan’s nursery. It is one of those details that adds a lot of character without requiring a huge budget. These sconces should also help bring in extra light and make the room feel more finished.
The Before:
The Plan:
To connect this office with the rest of the house, we plan to continue the black door motif by adding double French doors with frosted glass. The frosted glass will help hide office clutter while still allowing natural light to flow into the foyer on the other side.
That is the full vision for this home office makeover: built-in storage, a wall desk, a large work table, cozy wood tones, practical lighting, picture frame molding, and classic French doors. Now we just have to turn the plan into reality.
What do you think of the design direction? I am ready to grab a paint roller, pull out the power tools, and finally transform this storage room into the functional home office we have wanted from the start.
