Home Office Decor Refresh

Every once in a while, I get the urge to embark on a home decor project that costs relatively little in time (1-2 weekends), effort (no messes or massive renovations), and money (a couple hundred bucks max). This season, the home decor project was my beauty blogging home office, where the former status quo was beginning to get on my nerves.

When we first moved in and I was setting up and refining my workspace, I modeled the decor schema after the uber-feminine blogger desks I was seeing on Pinterest. That meant white furniture, lots of pink in light and bright shades, girly touches, and #allgoldeverything. There are a lot of elements I still adore: the functional layout and furniture, ample labeled storage for beauty samples, the prints on the walls. However, the preponderance of pink and gold was disjointed and overly feminine compared to the rest of the condo, and it just didn't feel like me anymore.

While I wasn't ready to give up on pink, I did want the space to be feminine in a sophisticated, serene way. Think more Pantone Rose Quartz and Serenity, less Barbie pink. As an aspiring minimalist, I also wanted to hang onto and re-use as many pieces as I could instead of buying new things, while bringing in more natural elements and textures and minimizing desk clutter.

The tweaks were so subtle I was the only one who noticed them (my husband didn't even realize I was redecorating!), but to my mind they altered the mood of the space completely. I was able to use many items I already had, it only took an hour, and the only net new things I bought were $30 worth of IKEA storage:

• To bring more blue into the space, I swapped a Dana Mooney framed print in for an old black-and-white sketch.
• The clutter that used to be at the foot of the framed print was cleared away, letting the artwork breathe and be the centre of focus.
• A watercolour sketch of me (a birthday gift from my friend Anya) found a new home, perched on a mini brass easel from an old desktop calendar.
• The little sketch wasn't enough to hide the messiness of the modem and wires in the corner, so I also added a glass vase of dried pussy willow branches and cotton puffs (formerly on the dining table) and a tree trunk bowl (a wedding gift from Anya). You can't tell from these photos, but our den is too dark for plants and I didn't want the expense and hassle of fresh-cut flowers; these elements allowed me to incorporate natural elements in the decor in a more sustainable, budget-friendly way.
• The labeled drawer caddies have been there for years now, but pre-office makeover, the storage boxes atop them were baby pink with gold polka dots and there was a random hodgepodge of stuff on top of those. I swapped the pink and gold polka dot boxes for these blue ones from IKEA, and bought matching baskets to set on top of them. The box swap instantly toned down the amount of pink in the space and complemented the blue in the new artwork. The baskets added more natural texture and, on a practical note, served as "beauty sample inboxes" that kept products accessible but corralled together any clutter that might spill across my desk.