My Home Office Update

When we initially decided to make our extra room into a study a few years ago, I thought I’d be nice and let my husband make some of the design decisions in there. He chose to paint the walls a sandy/beige color (after I convinced him to not paint them red), we settled on a beautiful Kazak rug (that I absolutely adore), and I also agreed to style the room with some of his cricket stuff. If you’re new to the blog or just haven’t seen it, you can see my old home office post here.

Honestly, I still do like the way it looks, but now, after years of staring at beige walls (not really my color), I decided that it was time to take my room back. Also, to be fair, I spend a lot of time in our home office. I spend at least half of my day working, designing, painting, and just being creative in there, so I think it’s OK for me to have my say now. Luckily, hubs likes my design choices so he was totally on board with some change!

My inspiration and starting off point was this amazing paint color, “Icy Blue” by Jotun, that I found through Rincey Philip, a Dubai-based interior designer, who used it in a fabulous bedroom makeover. I knew it was risky to go with a dark color in such a small room, but I needed to try it! This was also a great opportunity for me to try physically painting a room by myself. It was really time consuming, but strangely satisfying.

Overall, I was looking for a space that felt interesting, rich in color and texture, and was totally me. I’m beyond thrilled with the result…

As you can see, I kept a lot of the same pieces in the room (I actually need them!!), but just changed the color scheme dramatically. I added a few pieces that don’t necessarily match with the existing items, but do look fantastic in the mix.

I actually love designing spaces with mismatched furniture… It makes a room look less formal, but I think it’s a great way of making a space your own, and making it super interesting as well. I also don’t worry too much about matching colors, but I do try to make sure that I have a color concept in mind. I wanted a high contrast look in the room, so I moved my custom made blue ottoman back into this room from the living room, tied it in with more blue accessories, and then used the warmer colors in the rug and surrounding paintings as accent colors. I also switched out my old white and gray chevron curtains for white ones to neutralize the space a little.

And since this room doesn’t get a lot of natural light, I brought in a floor lamp from Pottery Barn and a table lamp from IKEA (that I got ages ago) to go with my existing work lamp. I also added some neutral furniture and storage pieces, like the BESTA unit in gray, to make the space look lighter and brighter.

I had a couple of furniture pieces custom made for this room by some of my absolute favorite vendors in the Eastern Province. This stunning desk that I had seen online was recreated in oak by Arabian SAS. We spent about a week going over every single measurement, a few hours at the workshop going over the stain, and after 3 weeks, I got a gorgeous feminine looking office desk.

The other piece that I had made for this room was a beautiful bookshelf that Desert Designs was able to make for me in wood and wrought iron. Honestly, I knew it was gorgeous before I put anything on it, but after styling it, I was shocked at how much of an impact it made in my space. The best part is that it barely takes up any space!

I framed one of my watercolor paintings in a bone inlaid photo frame that I got on sale from West Elm. The plant and pot on the bookshelf and on the BESTA unit are both from Sultan Gardens. The plant pot/basket next to the custom made desk is from IKEA.

The white ceramic pot and agate bookends are from West Elm. I bought the fossilized shell, being used as a bookend, from a guy who brought it back from Medina, and was gifted the lovely little ceramic bird candleholder. The wooden tray on the blue ottoman, the wooden picture frame next to my table lamp, and the round wooden ball on the bottom shelf were all recently purchased from Desert Designs.

Annddd that’s all folks! Kinda sexy, right??

I hope you enjoyed seeing the transformation and I hope you have a fantastic weekend full of oodles of inspiration!