When we bought our house, I knew one of the first things I wanted to do was turn the landing nook into a small office. This odd nook in the middle of the hallway seemed like an afterthought by the builder [or a creative way of adding useless square footage]. The entire space is approximately 5′ x 5′ so finding the right things to make the office feel both useful and comfortable was a challenge.
Starting with the furniture, I needed space that would allow me to keep a wide variety of things at hands reach, without taking up too much space. For a desk, the Ikea LINNMON table ended up as the perfect fit. Paired with a 4 square KALLAX I had enough storage space to keep everything I wanted near by. While functional, I didn’t really love the space and even though it works, I still would take my laptop over to a coffee shop or the library to focus and get work done.
As my own personal Valentine’s Day challenge, I wanted to see what I could do to take a functional space, and make it into one that I LOVE to work in.
Without a ton of room to work in, the first thing I wanted to do was create a gallery wall that would help keep me inspired whenever I sit down to write. When I’ve been wanting to find a place to display a faux animal head in my house and the Mini Virginia Deer from Wall Charmers was the perfect color and size for the space. At 14″ tall, it wouldn’t overpower the space and the grey would add a contrasting color that compliments the grey wall on the other side of the stair case.
I love how detailed his face is!
Next I needed a space to catch all the papers and magazines that come into my office and to display to do lists and notes. I am obsessed with the Daily System from Pottery Barn, so this was the perfect space to starting putting a few of the modular pieces together. This is a 24″ display rod, a letter bin and cork board. Someday I want to fill a wall in my house with these but for now, just a few units is perfect! I was honestly surprised to discover that the white is not actually a pure white like I was expecting. It’s a bit more of what I would describe as antique white or cream. It compliments against the white wall nicely, but I figured its worth noting for anyone who’s ever had one of these on their wishlist!
To round out the gallery wall, I added a few prints and a monogram that I painted. I’ve had the “well behaved women rarely make history” print for so long that I can’t remember where it originally came from but its one of my all time favorite quotes. The frame is from Ikea and the brown mat was custom cut by Michaels (also where the A came from). The small quote ‘You were once wild here. Don’t let them tame you.” actually came with a pair of earrings from One Wild. I thought this was the perfect addition to the wall so I’m glad this little surprise gets to find a home in my decor.
Since this is a landing, I don’t want to have too many tall items that would draw focus from the room below, so most of the decorations on my desk are on the shorter side. Again, all the frames are from Ikea but the prints are an assortment of places. When I was in college I filled an entire wall of my room with black and white vintage kissing prints. Most of them didn’t survive being moved every semester but this one [At the Fountain] is still one of my favorites. The blue print [Brave, Bold, Kind] is one of the messages of my sorority, Delta Delta Delta, as is the pen holder. My sorority experience is a huge part of who I am, so keeping both of those on my desk is a good daily reminder.
The OttLite in the corner is perfect for adding light when I don’t want to turn on the yellow overhead staircase lighting and doubles as a speaker to keep work music flowing. This amazing little light was a gift from my aunt for my birthday and I love how much use I get out of it! The white glow is also perfect for Facebook live videos and can be angled to remove shadows on your face!
I’m really pleased with how the final look of my small office turned out and I’m happy to finally have a space I love to work in. Part of the challenge of decorating a small office is taking photos ;). The image below is a good depiction of exactly how small this space is!
Disclaimer: I received a product sample from Wall Charmers to include in this post. All thoughts, writing and opinions are my own.
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