Swing lamp for the office

The renovated office was a bit dark in one corner, especially where one might want to lay back on the couch and read. So George found the perfect swing lamp at Restoration Hardware. It was back-ordered, but finally arrived today. Just what we wanted.

New carpet for the office

At the Rose Bowl swap meet, George found a guy selling rugs, and bargained him down on a lovely Caucasian carpet to go in the renovated office (replacing an old Pottery Barn rug). We like the geometric tribal designs, and the wool, while a short pile, has a nice soft feel and good sheen.

Home office: Finishing the custom desk

Today the California Closets folks came to finish up the new custom desk, adding the shelving units above the new desktop. And of course George being George had it magazine-worthy staged before the construction dust had barely settled. We're delighted with how it turned out. Now we both have grown-up "his and his" desks!

Installing the Caesarstone desktop

Today the Planet Stone folks came out to fabricate and install our desktop. The desktop came with its "apron" already attached on the front and left side, but they make it a bit larger than specified, and do the final trimming to size, as well as drilling holes, on site. To avoid any measuring errors, they created a template out of wood strips on the plyboard where it was to be installed, framing the overall desktop as well as the places where holes needed to be drilled. They then carried the template out to the driveway, where they did all the cutting and drilling. Good thing, as the stone cutting kicks up a huge amount of silicon dust. Once all the cuts were made and holes drilled, they brought it in and glued it in place. Similar process for the backsplash. We are really happy with how it turned out. The Caesarstone looks and feels great, and the color we chose (4360 Wild Rice) looks great with the desk, wall, and floor colors. So exciting!

New drapes and shade for the office

Part of our home office renovation included getting new drapes and shade for the windows. We liked the look of the grommeted drapes that we had there, but wanted a different color. We ended up going back to Restoration Hardware (where the previous drapes had come from), and got their brushed linen cotton drapes in Sand color. The window got a Roman shade in the same fabric and color.

Painting the office

The office was one of the last rooms in the house to have the original Navajo white walls. That changed today. It's now freshly painted in Pigeon Gray (DE6214), the same color we used in our master bedroom and bath, with Light Beige (DE6211) for the ceilings. Looks rich with the new dark oak floors and the pop of white trim.

New office chairs

In anticipation of redoing our office, our old office chairs needed to go. Tom's chair was still comfortable, but showing that you get what you pay for, with stuffing starting to leak out where the fake leather had broke open. So the boys went shopping. As usual, George was looking out for "form" while Tom was checking the "function". We found some super-comfortable chairs at the Container Store made of bungee cords, but they just looked a bit too much like patio furniture to suit our nice new desks. We found some decent-looking chairs at Crate & Barrel, but just not very comfortable, except for the one that was over $1,000. Finally, we found some chairs that were nice looking, comfortable, and a good price at a store called Blueprint that our neighbor the designer recommended. The store specializes in mid-century modern furniture, which isn't a major theme of our style, but they had some great pieces. We'll probably look there again when we eventually replace the sleeper sofa. But meantime, we got some great chairs.

New floor for the home office

Our home office remodel included ditching the carpeting, and getting a hard floor. We were initially looking at bamboo, but became persuaded that laminate was the way to go. It's the most durable for a high-traffic area like a home office, especially with office chairs rolling around on it. And some of the laminates these days look really good. Initially we were thinking something to match the maple floors we have elsewhere in the house, but then we decided to go darker, setting the office apart with a richer more "studious" look. We shopped at several places around town, but ultimately found the best selection at Linoleum City in Hollywood. We finally settled on the Old Town Oak Planks (UF 1935) from Quick Step's Reclaimé collection. The floors were installed today, and they look beautiful!

Pulling up the old carpet

One of the drivers for redoing the office is that the carpet in there had got rather well worn traffic patterns. Our new laminate floors are coming on Wednesday. So we spent Sunday getting the furniture moved out of the office, and pulling up the old carpet.

Home office project colors and materials

We're going to paint the office the same Pigeon Gray (DE6214) that we used in our master suite and really liked. We chose a beautiful textured melamine called Milano Gray for the desk and hutch, set off with a Caesarstone desktop. Caesarstone is a manufactured quartz that we'd heard of from our designer friend, and had been seeing in new homes and remodeled kitchens. It has the rich look of granite, but with a durable non-porous surface. There are a number of manufactured quartz products out there these days, but we really liked the colors and textures of Caesarstone. Saturday we went to Planet Stone to make our final selection. We decided the richest compliment and contrast to the desk and the wall would be 4360 Wild Rice.

Home office redesign

For 14 years, this has been our home office set-up in the downstairs den. I had a beautiful oak roll top desk that had a lot of neat features, but wasn't particularly suited to accommodating a computer. And poor George was squeezed up on a printer cart, with little surface space and no real room for knees. We've always said that someday we need to redo the space, and put in some custom desk space that better fits us both. Something like this:

Well "someday" has finally arrived. We signed a contract with California Closets to put in a beautiful custom desk and hutch. We're also replacing the carpet with laminate "wood" flooring, and the walls in that last room of our house still in the original Apache white will finally get some color. This is all going to come together over the next several weeks, starting with the floors coming in next Wednesday!