As our team heads into a brand-new month with a whole slew of pending projects on the horizon, we’re looking to find new ways to be as productive as possible. That’s why we were all ears when we heard that Darling Magazine’s own online managing editor, Nicole Ziza Bauer, had made over her home office in order to have a space that promoted her productivity and creativity. Scroll on to see the stunning before-and-after photos of her space, and then click through to Darling Magazine to see three essentials to include in your own home office project.
Though BEHR sponsored this post, as always, all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.
Your home is your haven. Or at least, it should be. Yet, sometimes those areas that we set aside to get stuff done end up absorbing all the stuff we don’t get done—aka clutter, which is anything but inspiring.
After a recent move, Darling’s online editor, Nicole Ziza Bauer, was very much feeling the latter. Her home office, where she spends a bulk of her time, had accumulated all those leftover moving odds and ends and was in serious need of a creative kick. See how working with Behr PREMIUM PLUS® paint gave her the boost her space needed.
Keep scrolling for the full before-and-after. Plus, find the three essentials any good workspace needs to have!
From Ziza:
Before
Lazy. That’s how I felt every time I entered my home office. After organizing and rearranging every other room in the house, for some reason all will left me when it came to my office, which isn’t the greatest feeling to have when you need to work.
While the original grey color wasn’t particularly bad, it felt cold and a little drab, and those bird decals, though cute, didn’t really feel like my style anymore. Overall, this room just stressed me out.
After
Not wanting to repaint the entire room, I focused on just one wall to experiment with. While I know that the white-wall look is very much “in,” I just love how color can evoke emotion—particularly calming ones. I went with a duo side stripe (darker Flapper Dance #T13-13 on bottom and lighter Mountain Peak #N430-1 on top) to blend a little modern with a touch of the unexpected, and I love how it turned out.
I had been looking for a way to display this painting from my grandmother’s home for a while and once I decided on these colors, I knew it’d be the perfect backdrop for it.
I’m drawn to pieces with a story, so almost all of the furniture in this room has been sourced from estate sales or thrift stores. That chair and ottoman I scored for $20 and still pinch myself about it. The French writing desk was won at an auction, and that chair is a part of a fold-up card table set from the ’70s. My sister drew the framed picture of our dog, and the black-and-white sketch is of my husband. We met an artist on the side of the road in Slovenia, and he offered to draw him. It’s probably one of my favorite travel memories to date.
I’m a sucker for a good collage, but to keep the walls from feeling too messy, I limit my thumb-tacking to just one section of a wall. The rug is a few months old from Urban Outfitters, the pillow from Loom + Kiln and the desk lamp is from Target.
Click through to Darling Magazine to see more photos, plus three easy essentials you shouldn’t forget to include in your own home office makeover!
Love Nicole’s sense of color!
The big plant: do you have any idea what kind that is? I’d love to know!
The plant is a Dieffenbachia. I’m chagrined the three things in the title are not laid out or specified in this post — the technical editor in me wants to blue-pencil the heck out of it! On my second time through I see the link to the full article. I see more than three things that were added to this room: color, light(ing), art, comfort, textiles, and simplicity/a lack of clutter. Off to read the article and see what the author thought were key.