JLD Office Reveal- a grandmillenial office space (and why I'm moving out)

I am SO excited to share these photos of the office with you today! I have had a shared office space over at The Creative Chateau for the last year and if you had told me I would be writing a blog post about moving out of that space a year ago I don’t think I would have believed you. Moving into that office was a dream and I truly cherished it, but a lot can happen in a year. My dad passed away in the spring and I started re-evaluating everything. It led me to spend a lot of time reflecting and trying to understand what my real passions in life are. I looked back on the time I spent designing my office and realized how exciting that process had been for me, it brought back the excitement of the interior design career I had pursued in college. I have been devouring home design and renovation blogs for the past ten years…in my free time at night after my kids had gone to bed that is most likely what you would find me doing- reading all the blogs. It made me wonder…why not do what you are most passionate about in life? And while I will always have a love and passion for weddings and events, and definitely still want to leave a small window open for that passion, I am ready to move on! I still have a full wedding calendar this spring, but a few months ago I made the decision to stop taking new bookings.

It’s all scary and unknown, but I’m excited to start this new journey. I fully realize that it may go nowhere, but if I don’t try I think I will always look back and wonder…what if I had gone out and done exactly what I wanted to do? I want to show that to my kids too, show them to follow your dreams even if you spent A LOT of time charging down one path that you originally thought was your dream and realized maybe it wasn’t. It’s ok.

I have been listening to the Second Life Podcast (highly recommend) a lot lately and it’s all about these insanely talented women who are in the top of their field and most of them started out doing something completely different. Second Life is all about their pivot and changing directions in their lives. So here I am at my pivot- changing directions. If you were here for the wedding stuff, I hope you stick around, if you are new on this train and here for the interiors I am SO excited to have you following along, and if you are also in this place in your life where you want to make a leap and shake things up- come along with me! Let’s do this together.

So before I officially moved out of the office I wanted to capture it completely finished! Here is the mood board I created for the office around this time last year. If you haven’t noticed this is where my designs always start. It helps me visualize how everything will work together.

lamp | desk | black and white pillow | blush pillow | mauve tassel pillow | gold frames | rug (9×12) | desk chair | coffee table (no longer available) | blush arm chair | sofa (vintage)

I was going for a mix of modern and french traditional. Similar to what I am going for in our new house actually, but probably toning down the modern quite a bit. I wanted it to match the interior of The Creative Chateau, which is just beautiful and classic, but also be girly and feel like it fit my branding as well. I fell in love with this sofa image that I found (the gold framed one in the mood board)…I honestly don’t even know where it came from, but I knew it was exactly the vibe I was going for. I also knew that if I wanted to buy a sofa that already looked like that it was going to cost thousands of dollars.

I also wanted there to be hits of blush, a few small touches of black, but mostly super light and airy. I had eyed that coffee table from CB2 as an option in our last home so I knew I wanted to include it. I originally found the desk on one of Emily Henderson’s round ups and it was a black version that was no longer for sale, but they have this white one…which I honestly think worked out even better! And you might recognize the rug– this is the same rug we used in our master bedroom. I had ordered it for in here first and loved it so much that I ordered it again. It is so soft and looks very expensive, but it’s not. I also always create a floor plan to make sure that the pieces I am looking at will actually fit in the space. Drawing up a floor plan can also tell me crucial details like what size rug do I need? and are these awesome chairs that are a great price actually a decent size or are they going to look like doll furniture?

So without further ado- here is how it turned out! I love it so much, and the sofa really became the star of the space.

I originally found the sofa on facebook marketplace and it looked like this. I was able to snag it for $30.

I found an upholsterer pretty close to me who said he could do the labor for $750. He also told me how much fabric I would need to provide and he got started. I waffled for awhile about whether or not I wanted to paint the frame gold. He was going to sand the wood down and I knew it would look beautiful with just a clear coat of stain on it…but I finally decided to go with my original inspiration image and have him paint it gold. He charged an additional $200 for that labor, as well as the paint that I provided to him, which I think was around $50 for the quart. Oh and did I mention that the couch leg had fallen off in transit? So this thing was truly a pile of trash when it arrived in his shop…but he worked some REAL magic.

My only regret is that I didn’t ask him to re-make the cushion into one long bench cushion. I love that look, but I didn’t think about it until it was too late. It’s still beautiful…and the entire process of turning trash to treasure made me want to rescue more pieces.

I used my favorite Ikea Vittsjo shelves ( I think I’ve bought these shelves 3 or 4 times over) in the corners of the office to hold inventory. Vases, cake stands, cloches, votive holders, etc.

On the other side of the room is this large window- it let so much amazing natural light in which made the sofa side of this room a dream to photograph, but this side being backlit was quite a bit trickier (working on those photography skills, but I'm definitely not there yet!).

Above the desk I hung this gold metal grid that I placed on top of the window. Sort of my answer to a corkboard- I could clip up fabric swatches, invitation options, etc.

I think this might be a fun piece to repurpose upstairs in the playroom to clip my kid’s artwork on!

These armchairs, while not the ones I had originally selected were a great size and for the price (less than $250) were actually kind of amazing. I still think a cool DIY could have transformed the legs and made them into something amazing, but they did the trick and I certainly don’t mind a touch of black.

For this symmetrical gallery wall I hung prints from a photoshoot that I did with some of my favorite wedding vendors. It made the office feel very “wedding” and showcased some really pretty shots. I had the prints ordered off of Artifact Uprising and then framed them in these 8×10 Target frames. They are large and beautiful, for the price you can’t beat them.

So while it’s sad to say goodbye to this office, I am really excited about the future and what is to come. I hope you will stick around for it! In the meantime, let me know what you are working on!

Here are all the sources for everything I used!

lamp | desk | black and white pillow | blush pillow | mauve tassel pillow | gold frames | rug (9×12) | desk chair | coffee table (no longer available) | blush arm chair | sofa (vintage)