Monday, June 8, 2009

Redesign the Living Room into the Office

Posted by ImagineCozy at 2:24 PM

My neighbor called and said he had a
Design Emergency!
They had been looking for a desk --- a manly desk ---
well, he found it!
The problem was the desk was about 7 feet long. They wanted to change the living room into a home office, but were sure that the "great"desk they had found was now too big for the space.


Here is the living room BEFORE.
It had a piano and a china hutch as well as a chair.
When they brought in the desk it felt so . . . BIG.


Here is the same corner AFTER. This part was such fun!
We turned the desk the other direction,
and out in the shed they had this great old trunk.
It was a perfect fit for the bay window, giving some weight to that side of the room.
On the top is a kangaroo skin from Australia.


The china hutch behind the desk balances out
the weight of the large desk.
Notice how we have a lamp and a few natural elements,
they add to the coziness of the office.

On the day we did this redesign there was a huge yard sale in the housing community just behind our home.
I saw this large piece of art and it had a definite masculine "office-den" feel.
(If you look in the first before shot the art that was originally in the room was too small in scale.)

We picked up the piece and it was just the right fit

Love it when that happens!

Notice how we made a "unit" with the chair and the items hanging on the wall. The homeowner had spent some time in Australia and had some wonderful items that we were able to incorporate into the office.

Here is the living room BEFORE, and the china hutch before.
We took off the doors and took out the leaded glass,
then added a little darker gel stain over the top.

It went from rather fancy to quite masculine.

We added a throw blanket on the chair for a fabric element.



BEFORE



AFTER
We also found the green palm at the yard sale for $5.00.
It was just what that corner needed.
So this Living room became an office for "the man of the house".


It is full of things that are meaningful and things that are useful, and it feels COZY!





 

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6 Comments:

  1. Marty@A Stroll Thru Life said...
    June 8, 2009 at 6:37 PM  
    Wow, what a transformation. It looks gorgeous. YOu did a fabulous job. Hugs, Marty
    Bonnie said...
    June 8, 2009 at 7:35 PM  
    I love it when people re-purpose their never used living rooms into something where the space is used. This looks great. I like how you took the doors off the hutch. It looks functional and masculine enough for a guy to feel right at home in it. Good job!
    Terry said...
    June 9, 2009 at 5:03 AM  
    I love what you've done!I also thought about converting our living room into a formal dining room but realized that we wouldn't use the room. Now I'd like to convert it into a library. Thanks for inspiring me with your creativity!
    LuLo Designs/Blue Eyed Tango said...
    June 9, 2009 at 7:03 AM  
    This is so wonderful! That IS a manly desk indeed! Great job! Luanne
    Pauline Wiles said...
    June 9, 2009 at 3:07 PM  
    Really like this transformation, and I might explore taking the doors off a small hutch also.
    Amy said...
    June 13, 2009 at 10:33 PM  
    We love our new room, We are sitting here enjoying it right now. Thank you for making it happen! Mark and Amy

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