We are in week 2 already and I’m here to show you the plans for this parlor office. My functional requirements for this room break down into the following:
- Obviously a desk and chair to work at (on my computer).
- SO MUCH STORAGE. Serious storage. Both in the room and in the closet. I need drawers and cabinets and bookshelves. I need it ALL.
- A comfy side chair that I can place by the bookshelves. A good portion of my work is visual research, usually looking through design books and magazines. This will also serve as a place for dogs to cuddle up when I’m working at my desk. (I know! I let them on the furniture! Scandal!)
It’s a bit tricky to fit this all into this small 8′ x 10′ room. But I have a plan. (I always have a plan. That’s what I’m good at. Anything that requires massive overthinking and extensive research.)
Currently the room is laid out like this:
The pocket French doors into the parlor from the entry/living room are there on the right. The French doors that lead directly out to the porch are at the bottom. The cute high windows are on the left, and the closet is at the top. See current layout photos here.
Remember that I just crammed some cheap furniture in here so I could have a place to use my sewing machine. I struggled with how to lay the room out, even with this minimal amount of furniture. I do not like sitting with my back to a door. I sat in an office cubicle for a few years where I had a nice window in front of me, but that meant my back faced the door. And people walked up behind me all the time without me knowing. (Mostly because I had headphones on playing really loud music to block out open office sound.) I hated it. So I let that uneasy feeling rule my layout here and I put the desk across the French doors that lead out to the front porch. We don’t ever use them—they are super unnecessary as the front door to the house is located six feet to the right (in this drawing).
When I rethought this room, I realized I shouldn’t be giving into that uneasy feeling. Who is going to walk up behind me at home? It’s just the Man of Action and our two dogs around here. And I play music loud all the time, but not through headphones here. Plus sitting in front of those doors is SO COLD. We have weather stripping on the doors but these are all panes of (beautiful) old glass. They leak so much air. Even though the radiator for this room is there right next to the desk, I usually sit here with two blankets over my legs in the winter.
So here is the new proposed layout:
I’ve moved the desk to the window wall. It’s a better use of the space and will allow a full view of the pretty French doors. I’ll be able to hang floor to ceiling curtains around those doors now and that will help with drafts in the winter. I’ve added ALL the storage I can fit in here. There are two cabinets flanking the desk. The Man of Action will help me build shelves around the pocket doors—one side built on top of IKEA Sektion drawers, and the other built around and above the radiator.
The IKEA Alex cabinet that holds all of my sewing notions moves into the closet, in a spot that the drawers can pull out when the closet door is fully open. I’ve also added an IKEA Elvarli storage unit to the closet. It will have drawers and shelves to hold bigger sewing supplies and folded fabric, which I tend to accumulate at an alarming rate. To the left of the Alex cabinet will be open space to store large rolls of fabric and paper plus a few of the Man’s guitars. And yes, you are reading that drawing right, there is a window in the closet. It’s adorable. I haven’t seen it in years.
Back out in the room, I want to add a side chair with arms by the built in shelves so I can sit there comfortably and rifle through design books when I need to. It will also serve as a dog bed—the littles like to be with me when I’m working. One on a dog bed on the floor and one on the chair usually.
The aesthetic story of this room really started with a desire to create a more refined space to work. Not hard, right? Seeing as the current state of the room is so ridiculous. But as I mature I wish for more refinement and calm in my house. And to me that means deep colors and soft layers. One of my favorite paintings ever is Georgia O’Keefe’s Blue and Green Music. I feel a connection to it—when I was in college (at Northwestern) and over-stressed I would head down to the Art Institute of Chicago and stare at this painting until I felt better. I definitely connect to the feeling of music, but I also love the color palette. So that’s the starting point for the color story in this room. I pinned a room a while ago that fits that story too:
You can see that both of these images influenced my mood board at the top of the post. The blue paint is the same color that is already on the living room walls just outside the parlor, so I’ll carry that into this room on the trim and built ins. (Oh boy, internet, you’re going to love that, right? I’m PAINTING woodwork. Good thing there’s only about three people reading this and they’re all related to me so I don’t have to worry about pitchforks.) The green paint will go in the closet. Both are by Benjamin Moore. I swear by their paint. When we first moved into this house we used paint from either a big box store or a Benjamin Moore competitor and every damn time I had to paint five to seven coats to get full coverage in dark colors. The first time I used Benjamin Moore was a revelation, I’ve never had to do more than two coats in even the darkest colors.
And the big impact from the room will come from the Anna Hayman Siouxsie wallpaper. I’m sewing curtains from Duralee Tropic Ferns by Robert Allen. And I’ll build in a fabric covered pin board using the Schumacher Deconstructed Stripe. As an anchor to it all, I’m using Flor Cut Corners tiles in the silver color way as a very soft neutral. The wallpaper and the fabric are where I’m spending a good portion of my budget. I like layering pattern and texture for more sophisticated looks. The furniture pieces are less expensive to accommodate this.
I’ll also add artwork—I put a couple of prints in the mood board, but I’m on the prowl for at least one original piece of artwork, I just haven’t found it yet. (If only there wasn’t a pandemic! I need to hit art gallery shows.) I’ve been browsing through Saatchi Art and I think I might try buying through them.
Anyway, that’s the plan. I’m tackling the closet this week. Wish me luck. If you don’t hear back from me, send help.
