Designing a Vibey Home Office & Bright Mid-Century Living Room!
Design & Conquer is a series where we makeover our friends and subscribers spaces virtually! This week we made over two of our subscribers’ spaces: Katie’s attic, and Kristen’s living room.
KATIE’S SPACE
KRISTEN’S SPACE
KATIE’S VISION
Katie has made the switch from the #commuterlife to the #workfromhome life, and needs her awkwardly shaped attic to function as a storage space, a living room, and most importantly, a home office. She loves neutral tones like gray, and leans toward mid-century modern vibes, so she wants her space to be a place she enjoys being in where she can get sh*t done!
KRISTEN’S VISION
Kristen lives in a unique railroad-style apartment in Brooklyn, New York, and already has the key pieces for her living room. However, the layout needs work, since the room is super long and skinny and she doesn’t know how to decorate the walls with a cohesive style. She loves bright colours and a boho vibe with mid-century modern touches. Let’s get designing!
KATIE’S DESIGN
With Katie’s space, I wanted to focus first on the office part, since this is what she uses the attic for mainly. I thought if I was working up there, I’d like my desk to be in front of the window so that I can look out and take a break rather than staring at a wall, so that’s where I moved her desk. I brought in some plants to add depth, featuring a DIY mid-century modern plant stand that you can find out how to make here! To finish off this area, I added a fluffy faux-fur rug underneath and topped it off with a beautiful neutral desk chair that we gifted to Katie.
Over in the living room space, I moved the TV against the back wall and placed the couch more center in the room, anchoring the entire room with a massive beige rug and her existing coffee table. I want her to paint the side wall here with a beautiful deep forest green colour as an accent wall to bring in some colour. Katie really needed a new couch cover so I was thinking she could use a nice natural linen colour, add throw pillows and swap out the legs on her existing couch for some mid-century modern ones to match the vibe of the room more.
To tackle the storage situation, I actually pulled her TV and speakers away from the wall a bit to make a space back there designed for seasonal storage that won’t need to be accessed regularly. I want her to hide it with a tension rod and some DIY curtains so that it looks nice and clean still. And on the opposite wall, I swapped her tall bookshelves for shorter floating ones that reach beside the couch and only go as high as where the sloped ceilings start. These wrap around the corner to carry over to the other wall. I also added a circle mirror beside the shelves on the wall and then mounted a small plug-in wall sconce here to act as a kind of table lamp.
On the opposite side of the room on the wall near the stairs, I hung up Katie’’s guitars to act as functional art, and kept her clothing rack since I think it looks fine and I didn’t want to use her budget there. Lastly, for lighting, I want her to tackle a faux window DIY in her wall nook made with a wooden frame, LEDs and diffusion plexiglass on top.
KRISTEN’S DESIGN
First off, I played around with the floor plan of the space since I know that Kristen wanted it to be more multi-purpose than a simple living room, and moved her couch and TV all the way to the beginning of the room. This left space closer to her bedroom for the chair she already owned to create a reading nook. It feels more like two spaces now and less random when I start adding in new furniture elements.
Kristen is not afraid of colour, which I love, so I went with a rich burgundy colour accent wall where the couch is, and then added in some amazing mood lighting like a MCM brass and globe floor lamp, and plug-in wooden bead hanging pendant lights. To enhance the reading nook a bit more, I added in some navy and teal coloured floor poofs to add some coziness and accent the burgundy. We also gifted Kristen this vibey mid-century modern blue bookcase that is really going to tie the styles of the room together!
It’s not a Sorry Girls makeover without a little DIY thrown in, so I want Kristen to do a DIY gallery wall around her TV with thrifted art. This is so easy to do by picking pieces you like and then painting over them in a single colour block, or painting your favourite quote over top.
THE REVEAL
To see how Katie and Kristen reacted to their makeover designs, make sure to watch the video below and subscribe for more room makeovers!
STEAL KATIE’S STYLE
Sofa legs (in straight, colour 5): https://bit.ly/2XixL3h
Desk chair: https://bit.ly/3e6pRAL
Wall sconce: https://bit.ly/2Xeqt0q
Ceiling light (in matte black): https://bit.ly/3gdX52S
Circle mirror: https://bit.ly/2Tt7PAW
STEAL KRISTEN’S STYLE
Mid-century modern bookshelf: https://bit.ly/2Xlt9cv
Floor poofs: https://bit.ly/2TvIZR0
Floor lamp: https://bit.ly/3dZAzsS