The journey to completing our home on Binney Street has been a long, and at times, stressful one. But it’s also been filled with joy and excitement as we get to see the house come together, room by room. As I mentioned in my last blog about interior design trends for 2021, the home office is coming back in vogue in a big way. For Brian and I, however, a home office has always been a must. And I’m excited to share with all of you a deep dive into the completed home office space for Brian today.
Layout
Whenever we begin the process of building a room, we consider what purpose we want it to serve individually, and within the structure of the house as a whole. For instance, you want a kitchen to be centrally located to the home and provide for enough traffic flow so that you can cook and entertain without tripping over each other. For the home office, we wanted to find a place within the house where it had its own sense of privacy far enough away from the main living areas. We also wanted the room to act as a statement piece for the rest of the home. So we decided to put the home office on the main floor, right off the front entryway. To properly showcase this room, we obtained beautiful custom doors from Weldwork. These glass and metal doors allow us to really spotlight the thoughtful design that went into making this room happen, and I’m excited for this to be one of the first things that draw your eye when you walk in.
Features and Details
A well-designed room comes down to how it uses its features and details to create a cohesive feeling. Here’s a rundown of some of the choices we made.
Colors
Picking a room’s color can be one of the most stress-inducing steps. It’s easy to spend hours agonizing over different swatches. However, for this room, we already had a pretty solid color ballpark thanks to its layout. The large windows bring in a ton of natural light, which made it a no-brainer to use a dark, moody color to create a beautiful contrast. However, we did still spend hours agonizing over different swatches (how could you not?!) and finally landed on Benjamin Moore’s gorgeous Cheating Heart. What I loved most about this color is that it can evoke tones of gray or blue depending on the time of day and how the light hits it. So it gives this really spectacular color shift throughout the day. I wanted to create a sense of unity with the color scheme, so I applied this color to the walls, cabinetry, trim, and even the ceiling. It creates a really strong visual contrast against the white oak floors.
Lighting
Lighting is always a crucial element when designing a room. Lighting decisions can affect how the whole of the room comes together, and how each element stands out on its own. For this room, I wanted something elegant. I chose gorgeous brass picture lights and an eye-catching chandelier from Circa Lighting. This lighting creates a soft glow on the dark color scheme, and really makes for a handsome, proffesional home office.
Little Details
I wanted the small features and staging elements to play off the larger design decisions made for the room. The brass hardware piece for the cabinetry was a no-brainer, matching beautifully with the lighting array from Circa. Staging-wise, I sought decorative elements in bright colors to help draw the eye and build off the ongoing color contrast throughout the room.
I am so happy with how this room came out, and it’s a great introduction to how my philosophy has grown throughout the years, and how I’ve used that growth to make Binney a truly wonderful home. I can’t wait to share more with all of you! For more photos of the home office space, don’t forget to give me a follow on Instagram so you can see them first!