Our New Design Offices

I finally found a new space for our offices. It's close to home, the kids' schools, and most importantly, decent lunch spots. It's much smaller than our current space, but we will have actual walls. Now we can all be on the phones without sounding like we're in a call center.

I haven't been able to focus on much else beside the aesthetic of the new space. Green is always my office accent color. But after years with boring gray walls (my mistake!), I want to bump up the drama and paint the walls a rich emerald green.  My cabinet maker is retrofitting our cabinets, including installing these brass library lights with black shades. Of course, because I'm the client, there'll be lots of Empire and Chinoiserie touches, crystal, and gilt. Mercifully, the landlord agreed to let me replace the current 80's fluorescent lights and bad carpet with these crystal fixtures and white wood floors. 

Have a look at the inspiration board. (Unfortunately, we will also have to bring along the less attractive storage stuff.) Stay tuned...

Shop the look...

Empire Chest with Cararre marble top, $3,900

Brushed brass library light with black shade, $255

Lightweight zinc-look Regency planter, $ 175

Everlasting Pink Peonies, $375

Art Deco crystal fixture, $425

Everlasting boxwood topiary, $232

Gilded crystal chandelier, $695

Emerald green storage bench, $300

Scalamandre le tigre velvet pillow, $475

Bamboo desk chair, $375

Her Office...Apple and Apricot

Just playing around with palettes for a new client's office. She loves green, like her designer. I've gone round and round. So many gorgeous options. I thought Green + Orange + Blue, Pink + Green, Green + White... But this morning I'm loving 

Apple + Apricot

DIY paper flowers

These giant paper flowers are most definitely this weekend's fun with my girls. Thank you, God, for my craft-loving daughters!

Possible textiles for client's office. Mary MacDonald's Fretwork linen as a banded roman shade or maybe run it vertically down the desk chair. Quadrille's Zeze in Apricot for guest chairs. Scalamandre Hand painted strié paper (but in solid, not the stripe). And the Mary MacDonald's Chinois Palais panels framed on the back wall. Very fresh, very feminine, very much like my office, where I just realized I've got a little Apple + Apricot + Chinoiserie thing going myself.

One of a pair of 18th C cloisonné ginger jars in my office

Workin' It

...or just majorly procrastinating. Once again, I'm feeling overloaded and, as it often does when I'm stressed, my mind is wandering through irrelevant design territory. (Luckily, I don't bill hourly, lest my clients read this in horror). Looking around my office, though, I realize the perfect solution to greater productivity isn't necessarily gettin' down to business. It's a redesigned office space! While some might consider this a "distraction," I consider it a creative warm-up exercise.

So here's what I believe is really impeding me from redrawing my client's lighting plan: 

I don't have this full-wall bulletin board to fill with my inspirations! I could break down sections by clients, but let it all bleed together, as it often does anyway. How many times have you had something lying on your desk for one client when you realized it was perfect for another? Or knew you'd pinned or bookmarked something somewhere that would work here or there? This wall is the perfect solution for total access, total recall.

And if my desk looked like this...well, I'd have little or no workspace. But! I'd be so inspired.

Maybe I'd be less distracted if I whipped up some draperies to hid my bookshelves...

Or could always find my scotchtape...

Maybe a little greenery would oxygenate my brain...

I've been meaning to add French wire baskets for fabric samples like the ones in this cozy eclectic space There's even my bit of brass and one of my favorite fabrics on the chair. Must be a sign...

Okay, well, I'm sitting in that chair below; I already have those white boxes; I even have that mac. I guess it's the  Carrera countertops that I'm missing in my office!

Sources: Domino (Aerin Lauder), Coco+Kelley, pinterest, pinterest, pinterest