FINAL REVEAL & 3 Tips For Productive Home Office Design

What an incredible experience this has been! I hope that you have enjoyed following along this room transformation journey as much as I have enjoyed sharing it with you!

In case you are joining me for the first time, my name is Lara Morrill, principal interior designer and CEO of Acquire & Design, located in the Atlanta area. This is my first time as a participant of the semi-annual design event of the year… The One Room Challenge!

Check out week 1 | week 2 | week 3 | week 4 | week 6 | week 7

And now for what we have all been waiting for… the executive home office One Room Challenge FINAL REVEAL!

Take a look back at what the office used to look like just weeks ago. This room is quite small (only 117 square feet) and felt dark and cluttered. Before:   

 The plan was to transform this executive office into a bright space full of inspiration and influenced by his love for all things outdoors and traveling adventures. You can find him on Instagram @BackpackingBill. When Bill is not spending time outside with myself or our kids, he is usually working hard as the Chief Underwriting Officer of Hanover Insurance Company. When COVID-19 hit he was forced to work from home and now it is questionable if he will ever want to return to his commercial office. Since completing this space, he enjoys working more. I have found Bill in his new office before the sun comes up and sneaks back in after the kids are in bed. He has mentioned several times how comfortable his new office chair is and how much he loves the desk set up. I have overheard a few of his zoom meetings where he has received complements on the new set up and even how the webcam angle is so much better than it was before looking up from his laptop.

Check out the AFTER!!!

During this pandemic of 2020, our home office makeover had many challenges, mostly due to extended lead time and out of stock items. However, with my handy project management ninja skills we were able to make the necessary adjustments and kept on track; hardly skipping a beat.

This home office is truly functional and purposeful in every detail. From the desk, the bookshelves, the lighting, paint colors and even down to the earbuds (Link HERE) that were chosen… they were specified to boost productivity in his workflow; we even contacted our internet provider and upgraded to the fastest speed possible. Here are a few other suggestions for how to make your own home office more productive:

1. A Comfortable Chair

o   You are sitting for 90% of your work day (please make an effort to get up as much as possible to walk around or perhaps choose a sit/stand desk like this one HERE,) your office chair can literally make or break you. Choose a chair with ergonomics that match your body type. My husband’s medium build is perfect for this Herman Miller Setu chair knock-off that is equally as comfortable at a third of the price. Check it out HERE.

2. Dimmable Lamps and Chandeliers

o   No one likes working late (well now that my husband has his new office he actually does) but sometimes we have to put in overtime and to avoid straining your eyes in bad lighting or a bright laptop screen use a dimmable lamp like THIS or THAT.

3. Essential Oils or Candles

o   Certain scents, like lavender or lemon,  help you feel relaxed when up against a stressful deadline and others like peppermint or my personal favorite citrus blend BRAIN AID in a diffuser help you stay laser focused (it works great for your kids while doing homework too).

I hope you enjoyed following along on this One Room Challenge and are inspired to transform your own home office. If I can help in any way, please reach out to me either in the comments below or schedule a call with me HERE.

I offer virtual DIY design consultations all over the country or for my local Atlanta clients my all-inclusive concierge interior design services along with high-quality vendor partnerships will provide you with invaluable guidance and detailed design to deliver a balance of beauty, function and personal taste … without stress and additional expense, allowing you more time with the people who matter most.

Lastly, I want to give a huge thank you to Linda Weinstein, founder of The One Room Challenge, and our sponsor Better Homes & Gardens for hosting such an inspirational event for our design community and beyond. My son has already requested that his room be my next ORC 😊 Hoping this pandemic will be more under control and the fall event will take place as planned!

Please go check out all of the other participants final reveals on the ORC blog HERE! Every room I am seeing is better than the next! Talk about some Ah-mazing Transformations! I will post some of them in my IG stories @acquireanddesign

XoXo, Lara

P.S. This post contains affiliate links from Amazon and other retailers. If you make a purchase through these links, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Please check privacy policy and T&C for more information.

One Room Challenge Week 7

Eeek!! It’s getting SO close to the final reveal of my husband’s home office makeover!

In case you are joining me for the first time, I am an interior designer located in the Atlanta area and this is my first time as a participant of the semi-annual design event of the year… The One Room Challenge!

Check out week 1 |  week 2 | week 3 | week 4 | week 6

 My husband’s office used to feel really small and dark and I plan to transform it into a bright space full of inspiration and influence from his love for all things outdoors and traveling the globe. You can find him on Instagram @BackpackingBill. When Bill is not spending time outside with myself or our kids, he’s usually working pretty hard as the Chief Underwriting Officer of Hanover Insurance Company. Transitioning to working from home during COVID-19 was fairly easy for him as he was already working from home a few days a week.

 This week was all about unpacking boxes (it felt like Christmas with all the amazon boxes that were being delivered on our front porch) with the second bookcase, the office chair, and lots of technology accessories. As I started to style the office Bill was ooh-ing and ahh-ing over all the technology gadgets that I had ordered for him to make his workspace more comfortable and productive. I told him they were his early Father’s Day gifts! Haha! You can check out some of the links below to see what his favorites were:

Click these links: Earbuds, Webcam with microphone, Bluetooth Wireless Mouse, and Charging Station

My husband loved these Golfer iron bookends! Also click the links for these books here: Chicken Soup For The Entrepreneur’s Soul , How To Be An Inclusive Leader, and Play The Man

modern succulent plants and terrazzo stone coasters

 We also hung up the curtains and artwork. This set of 12 gallery photo frames were only $99 and come with black and white photos in them but they also have replacement photos that are in color if you would prefer those instead you can swap them out. And hanging a gallery wall usually take a lot of precise measurements and lots of time, however these came with this awesome map for the wall which saves you SO much time and frustration!

I cannot wait to show you the final reveal on June 25th! In the meantime, hop on over to the One Room Challenge blog to check out the other participants progress as we head into the home stretch!

XoXo, Lara

P.S. This post contains affiliate links from Amazon and other retailers. If you make a purchase through these links, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Please check privacy policy and T&C for more information.

One Room Challenge Week 6

One Room Challenge Week 6…

If you are just joining in you can catch up on my previous ORC posts here for week 1 | week 2| week 3 | week 4

You might be looking around wondering where week 5 went or if this was a typo, don’t worry it’s not. Week 5 of the one room challenge was canceled as many ORC participants and business owners in the design community took a pause from content creation and shifted our attention to listen, learn, reflect, and unclutter our social media feeds so that the voices of #BLM, about the race and social injustice that is happening in our country would be heard and not over shadowed. I personally, took time to connect and be inspired by that amazing talent of black interior designers and artists such as Veronica Soloman, The Fara Fix, Ray Hart Art, GeeGee Leigh Marie, Cheryl Luckett and so many others. Please go check them out.

I’m excited to be back for week 6 and to share my progress on my husbands home office!

A feature wall was always the plan but my husband vetoed the wallpaper I had been eyeing (he’s just not that into wallpaper, that’s ok, not everyone is.)  So then I contemplated doing one of those modern accent walls inspired by @urbanwalldesign (insert photo) But decided to go with a 6” shiplap for a cohesive look. Here in Georgia I don’t know if we’ll ever get tired of shiplap. As styles change and the farmhouse trend has fizzled out this style of wall is still so versatile and looks beautifully paired with so many other modern styles such as midcentury modern, boho, organic modern, contemporary cottage, and industrial chic, and modern coastal.

We painted it Waterloo by Sherwin Williams in an eggshell finish which is slightly more glossy that your typical flat paint you would use on a shiplap wall. I did this to add a little glow and draw attention into the office as well as it makes keeping your walls clean super easy. The other walls in the room are Alabaster by Sherwin Williams in eggshell and the ceiling is Alabaster in a flat paint. The trim is Frost White by Sherwin Williams in semi-gloss.

New sputnik chandelier light fixture went in as well!

We also have been busy assembling one of the desks which took quite a bit longer than I would have expected 2 of us working together on it. Total time was 3.5 hours!?  We make a great team and had a good system going. All of the parts were well labeled which helped a lot. As my husband did a lot of the assembling I would set up the pieces needed for the next step so he didn’t have to waste time and it all moved rather pretty smoothly. It’s helpful to keep all of the zip lock bags with screws and dowels in one area together numbered in their order to making it easier to find them when the instructions call for “4 number 27 screws” you just grab the bag that says 27 and take 4 screws out and then zip it back up and keep the bag with the others for the next time it tells you to get a number 27 screw. The final step when we were putting the drawers into the desk we realized the keyboard tray had one part screwed on backwards so we had to take it apart and reassemble it

I will have a lot more to reveal in 2 weeks at our final reveal on June 25th with one more sneak peak next week. Until then please check out the other participants at the One Room Challenge Blog for more inspiration.

 If you have any questions about either this one room challenge space or your own home office please leave a comment and I’d be happy to answer them! Or schedule a discovery call Here!

One Room Challenge Week 3

Week 3 of the One Room Challenge

(and pretty much all of 2020) was all about PIVOTing.  

Before I began this One Room Challenge I had decided I wanted to make this a space that was easily accessible and shoppable. I will share links with you so if you love a piece, I’m discussing you can purchase it directly online but to be honest, this is not how I usually work as a designer. I prefer to work with my trade vendors who are truly an extension of my team, we discuss what I’m looking for and work together to find the perfect and unique pieces curated for each space. This saves a lot of time for me and money for my clients. All pieces are selected and signed-off for approval before purchasing so we are sure to have a cohesive look and feel that is exactly what is desired.

But because of COVID I am pivoting a few design methods for this One Room Challenge… And So here I am browsing the internet for shoppable pieces for hours and hours and by the time I am happy with all of the chosen pieces (which you can see on the roomboard in last week’s post) then presented them to my “client”/husband and get his approval for his office space half of the items were either out of stock or the lead time (the amount of time before it gets delivered) got pushed out till mid-July!? That won’t work for my June 25th final reveal deadline for this One Room Challenge. Shopping online for an entire room does not make you feel very confident about what the finishes will look like together because the colors on your computer screen may have been edited and shades may be altered.

Can anyone else relate!?

It was time to pivot and make a few revisions to the design to make this work!

You can only stare at pillows on the computer for so much time before you need to TAKE A BREAK throw the kids in the car and make a run to your local Target to get your hands on some actual textiles! Loving the Hearth & Hand throw pillow line, I also found some fun accessory pieces, and art which inspired me again of the direction I needed to go in for the office and get some orders placed ASAP before I missed another deadline or “out of stock” message. I returned home to find these 108” Sami Curtains from Anthropologie were delivered. They are more ivory than white but I will wait to see how they look with the chair and rug before I rule them out. I DO love them so hoping they are the right fit for the color pallet.

Making sure you have the right textures in your home office is a surefire way to add warmth, comfort and personality to your space rather than a cold, clinical feeling. Your office should inspire you to do your best work and keep you motivated.

Check out the other One Room Challenge participant blogs and see their progress here.