My Dream Home Office: Inspiration

Apartment Therapy had a great post today about being a compulsive re-decorator. Finally, I have a name for my affliction. Or, as I prefer to call it, a "hobby". I am constantly talking about rearranging the living room or re-decorating the second bedroom. It's as if I can't leave this apartment alone the way it is - something always needs to be tweaked just so! Luckily, D is one hundred percent OK with me moving furniture around, and he half jokes about the fact that I will most likely be rearranging our home for the rest of our lives. I don't disagree with that statement...

We have lived in our apartment for almost two years, and I am still not satisfied with the state of our second bedroom. I will post photos one day, but suffice to say, it is a difficult space. Despite being a simple box of a room, it has its challenges. One wall has a door to the hallway. Another wall has a closet door. A third wall has a window in one corner and wall air conditioning unit in another corner. (Oh, how I hate that ugly contraption! The original A/C unit was broken when we moved in, but the replacement unit our landlord installed is smaller than the hole in the wall where it goes. Having a hole in the wall was just lovely during the Boston winters, as you might imagine. I finally plugged it up with some foam, which reduced the draft but did nothing to conceal the ugliness.) The last wall has a door that goes to the outside (our fire escape, I suppose) and a soffit-like structure that probably houses some plumbing or electrical wiring.

To add to the complexity, this room has to wear many hats. It functions as:

• my home office
• our TV room
• a guest bedroom
• bicycle storage
• yoga room
• occasional craft room

Yeah, this room works hard. And it is not a very big space (I don't remember the exact measurements, but I think it's something like 10' by 12'). So, naturally, it looks like a total mess. Adding to the pigsty, we also have wedding-related crap lying around all over the apartment, including a lot of stuff in this room. Since budgeting for the wedding doesn't leave us with much spare cash, I haven't been buying any new furniture for the room, but moving the existing stuff around instead. This is only marginally helping my sanity. Meanwhile, I like to daydream of a pretty and functional multipurpose room.

As long as we are dreaming, let's start with my home office. I've been collecting inspirational images on Pinterest for about a year now, and after organizing the home office photos onto a separate pin board, I discovered a pattern. Behold:

West Elm Parsons desk in white, IKEA Expedit shelves. From here.

West Elm Parsons desk in white, IKEA Expedit shelves. From here.

West Elm Parsons desk in white. From here.

Do you see it yet? I am completely obsessed with the West Elm Parsons desk, particularly in white! And, apparently, it goes well with the IKEA Expedit shelving units (great for organizing), also in white. In fact, I have been on a white furniture kick for a while now, which is odd because we don't own any white furniture. So yes, in my dream home office, I must have the Parsons desk, and it must be white. And I am now on a hunt for it on Craigslist (because the wedding is making me poor, and I am too cheap to pay full price).

Of course, every office desk needs an office chair. My problem is that I find most traditional office chairs unappealing. What I have in mind is something like this:

Love the lines on this white chair. Nicely paired with a Parsons desk. From here.

The bamboo detail on this (white) chair is gorgeous. From here.

See? Even my dream office chair must be white. And it must have interesting lines, and a colorful seat/cushion. I haven't seen anything affordable in stores that resembles these chairs, so that may be another piece of furniture to look for on Craigslist or in thrift stores in the future. But I'll take it one office item at a time. Next step - create a moodboard!