This post is brought to you by BEHR. Color that’s True to Hue. If you feel it you can find it. Visit truetohue.behr.com

As you well know, I’m in the middle of a home renovation, handled by the professionals at McDonald Remodeling. As I’m watching the transformation unfold, I’ve been inspired to transform our home office (yes, another room) with a little paint, extra molding, and some new furniture.

One of the perks of running your own business, is that you have the flexibility to work from home. The biggest challenge I face is the lines between work/play are blurred. When you work at an office, you are able to leave your problems there. Where do you leave them when you work from home? With my current consulting role, I’m constantly working and I need a space where I can tune out the outside world and focus on work, and when I’m done for the day, I can close the door.

When Joe and I purchased the house, one of the “must haves” was a home office as Joe’s position also allows him to work remotely. Here’s what the room looked like when we purchased it:

The space was fine, but we never used it for workspace! We didn’t want to put a TV in our living room, mostly because we didn’t want to drill into the plaster fireplace. So this meant our office became the “family room,” jam-packed with a couch, leather chair, and entertaining unit. The space was so cramped it almost ruined our weekend dedicated to binge-watched House of Cards. Not cool.

So, more often than not, we turned our dining room table into our joint office space. I’m particularly bad at cleaning up after myself, so the kitchen table was always cluttered with receipts, print-outs, and contracts. Thankfully we’re turning our basement into a family room, and our office is free to be the room we intended it to be! Knowing that I had a small window between gigs, I gave myself the weekend to transform the space from meh to a bona fide office.

Starting from the very beginning, I stripped the room bare, took stock of the space and started sketching.

I set out to do two things:

1. Make a space that felt traditional, cozy, and very different from the rest of the house. The small W&D team offices out of a warehouse space, so we already get that urban feeling every day. I wanted our home office to be a retreat, a place we want to go and work for a while, maybe with a nice cup of coffee early on a Saturday morning.

2. Design a workspace that felt gender neutral. Joe will use this space as much as I will. He’s always been a big fan of blue, so we started there.

The majority of my house is light and airy. My home is older and full of small rooms, so light colors tend to make it feel larger and brighter. I knew in order to differentiate the office from the rest of the home, mentally and physically, I needed to use a color that was “heavier” and a bit more “grounded”. I’ve always loved the stately look of dark colors on walls, which led me to consider BEHR Marquee Compass Blue as my final choice. For me, the darker color grounded the room and added a well-needed dose of difference. Darker colors tend to feel heavier/cozier/more serious which in turn, made the space feel real.

Compass Blue is much bolder than where I typically gravitate, so I was a bit nervous about moving forward. As a regular Wit & Delight reader, I’ve already shared the challenges of painting my kitchen, so I was a bit gunshy of repainting an entire room (including the doors!) with such a bold shade. One of the perks of painting light airy colors, was you didn’t need to prime or use multiple coats of paint. I was concerned the rich Compass Blue would require a dark primer, and multiple coats, remember I had a small window of time to transform the space, Joe also threw out his back and wouldn’t be able to help on this project. The Behr Marquee paint applied easily and didn’t require any primer or multiple coats to achieve the final results.

Painting was complete. Hard part over. Now comes the fun part: DECORATING!

You may recognize many pieces of furniture here! I brought our living room rug into the office because I love how it plays with the deep blue on the walls. What’s new? A real, grown-up filing cabinet, chair, and table from Smart Furniture.

While the architectural details are traditional, I think it’s pretty timeless to mix things up with contemporary pieces. This makes the space align with the rest of the house, while still making a statement.

All in all, we’re really happy with this transformation. It’s amazing what a coat of paint can do to transform a space. Now, we just have to wait for the remodel to wrap up….we’re getting really excited to officially move back into our place!

Sources: BEHR Marquee Compass Blue – Paint //  Smart Furniture – Filing Cabinet, Chair, Table // McDonald Remodeling – Woodwork // LAX Series – 3x Shelf // CB2 – Globe // Schoolhouse Electric – Tanker Clock // Chair – Vintage // Artwork  – Debbie Carlos

Kate Arends

Kate is the founder of Wit & Delight. She is currently learning how to play tennis and is forever testing the boundaries of her creative muscle. Follow her on Instagram at @witanddelight_.