*Update–the office now has wood floors!*
Dining rooms are so overrated right? :) Since I had been wanting to redo the dining room for quite some time now, the hubby and I decided to turn it into an office. Because in all honesty, the formal dining room was used as an actual dining room maybe twice since we’ve lived here? We always eat in the breakfast area, at the bar, and when we are entertaining, everyone congregates in the kitchen that’s open to the living room anyway. Yes dining rooms are beautiful and all, but that’s mostly it…to look pretty. We needed functionality.
So let’s take a look back at the old dining room in it’s final stage…
Wow, that is such a strange feeling seeing all that rusty red again.
And here is the new office.
Yowsa! What a change right? And I have to apologize because most of my pictures will have a part of the staircase rail in them. No getting around that!
So since I was nice and showed you an after picture at the beginning of my post, now I can chat a bit. :)
The vision I had for this room was gray walls with yellow/gold/mustardy accents. Apparently that’s a new trend I didn’t know about? But glad I’m on the ball. :) There is a lot of the goldy/camel color in our home, so I needed to bring a little of that into this room as well. And since this room is the first room you see when you walk in the door, I wanted it to be formal, but not too stuffy, pretty but not girly and cute, masculine, and traditional with a little modern mixed in. So basically, the office would be considered eclectic since different styles have been mixed together. And I have to say that this is my favorite room now. :)
We bought the desk brand new, delivered and all, with the cash we made from selling the dining room chairs. I told you I made a nice profit from that! And I even kept one just because they are such great chairs. The desk is huge and it’s so nice to have everything in one spot (like bill paying things), and a comfy place for me and my husband to work. There is even a big cabinet that fits our printer inside so it’s hidden, and I don’t have to pull it out anymore to print. Yes!! And the desk falls under the traditional/transitional category and I love it!
The wall color in the office is Sherwin Williams “Mindful Gray.”
Okay, so on to the room…One of my favorite changes in here was doing the fake wainscoting. It brings such elegance and class to any room. And it’s SO easy to do, I really hope y’all will try it! Here is how it connects to the entryway/living room wall with the other wainscoting…
I’m slowly adding that all around the house. Another favorite thing we did was replace the chandelier with the track lighting. You can read about that here.
I did have all white frames in my hutch before, so I just swapped them out for some darker frames that I already had, and put a few different accessories in.
I dressed the top of the hutch with the old window that has been dying to get used since I found it at a resale shop months ago. The other vases are from Homegoods, and the trunk was on clearance at Garden Ridge.
See, I even threw in a little purple accent! It worked out perfectly since that little piece of stained glass in the window is a plum color. :)
My new chair that I found at Homegoods for $69.
The color was perfect and I needed a little bit of a pattern in here too.
The curtains are from Ikea and they are a dark charcoal gray. Only $20 for the pair!
The tiebacks came with the curtains, but I took some leftover fabric from my framed fabric project and just covered them. I used fabric glue. Fancy.
Our new desk lamp that we got from the Pottery Barn Outlet. Love it!
I was a little worried about mixing the metals since a lot of other things are bronze in here, but it’s really grown on me now and I love it! I think I’m slowly coming out of my bubble. :)
And here is a wall dedicated to all things New York.
I’m still working on the grouping placement don’t worry. I will be adding pictures of our trip to NY in that collage too. And I will talk more about that canvas print you see from Red Letter Words soon! :) All of the mirrored collages you see around the room are from Garden Ridge. They were in the 75% off section so they were all $3 and $4!! That picture of the Empire State Building was $6. Sweeeeet!
Everything else in the room I already had somewhere in the house. Just did some switcheroos.
Here are some more pics of the room. :)
And these were taken at night…
Here is the view while in the living room…
My worries I had about the gray and camel color walls not working together are gone! Hooray! I’m pretty much in love with the combo now. :)
I do have dreams of putting big french doors in the office doorway one day, but that will be quite costly. So, it’s a dream that’s far away. :)
So what do you think of our new office? Would you consider getting rid of your formal dining room (assuming you don’t use it much) to create a space that would bring more functionality to your home? It’s one of the best decisions we’ve made that’s for sure! I’d love to hear your thoughts.
*Update–the office now has wood floors!*
xxoo,
Decorchick!
I absolutely LOVE this!! It looks so chic yet comfortable. I think it’s in a great location for an office as well!
I am thinking about ditching my dining room too – but in favor of making a kitchen! We have an OLD (158 years young) house that has two living rooms, a dining room and a tiny kitchen. We’ve talked about turning one of the living rooms into a dining room, and then the dining room into a large kitchen. And then… the old kitchen into a laundry room. Not sure if we’ll ever actually do it?
Oh wow, now that would be some major renovations! That would be great if you get to do all of that!
Girl!!! I looooooooove it!! It looks so nice. The gray paint is perfect and you’re right, you don’t need a rug in there. Your desk and accessories look so good. The mirrored frames are great too. Dining rooms really are overrated- I’m sure you’re getting so much more use out of this room now.
Thank you Megan! Yea, guess I cried over the rug unnecessarily. :)
What is the name of the camel-colored paint?
I love it! I love the idea of turning a room into a more useful functional room. Formal dining rooms are over rated just like formal living rooms. I love what you did, the gray walls, the wainscoting, it all looks so beautiful.
Thank you so much Stephanie! Yea, what’s up with formal living rooms?
WOW!!!!!
It looks Fantastic!
Way to rock that re-do, girlfriend!
Layla :-)
Thanks so much Layla! You’re a sweetie!
We ditched the dining room when Deacon came along. Now its our playroom for him. We can see him while I am cooking or we are hanging out in the living room. I love it!
Perfect!
Wow!!! I love everything about the new room. The colors, the furniture, the accessories– all perfect! Awesome job!
Thanks so much Kara!!
I love the room ! Sometimes it is hard to visualize a room but in the end when it all comes together it looks great! The gray and camel colors look great together and of course I love the faux wainscoting.
Thank you Joy! I’m glad it all came together. I was worried there for a little bit. :)
You did such a lovely job Emily! I think the colors work well together, and I love the gray you ended up with. :) The wainscoting really adds to the space. What a lovely place to get work done!
Thank you so much Kristen! It’s been nice to work in there. :)
Emily it is looking fantastic! What an incredible and beautiful transformation. Use your home for your needs. Good job girl! :)
Thank you so much Melissa! Function is nice. :)
I love it! Can I come see it in person? :)
The layout of your home is very similar to mine…the kitchen connects the same way and my living room is also off to the right (if you’re looking at it from the entry way). I have toyed w/ the idea of turning our dining room into our office, but my favorite piece of furniture in our home is our dining table. It is a rustic black w/ a bench seat and a large square table that seats 8. We could really use an office space which is in our bedroom right now, but I can’t bear to part w/ that table just yet.
Great job on the whole room…I love the entire look!
Sure come on! Your table sounds lovely so I understand your pain. :) Maybe you could sell it and make a pretty penny like I did, then you won’t miss as much? ;)
I thought about that too, but we actually use our dining room for entertaining guests quite frequently. Thanks for the inspiration though. I am bookmarking this just in case we decide to do it. :)
Your hutch looks great in there!! The wainscoting makes it look very put together.At our old house we did the exact same thing.I work from home and my husband works from home sometimes so we needed a large space for all the computers etc. I loved how big it was, but I too wanted french doors. Now at the new house, I have my own room, which I am still trying to figure out.
Thank you Angie! Hope you figure out your room soon. :)
WHOA! Emily that looks amazing! Seriously! It’s fantastic! I love it!! The dining room was beautiful but this is just amazing! Randy must LOVE IT! :)
Thank you so much Ami!! We both love it and glad we changed it up!
Oh! Oh! Oh! I LOVE it!!!
I am so fearful to turn our dining room into something else and you just gave me the inspiration to do so!
FABULOUS job!! It’s perfect!!
Aww Tiffany thank you so much! Don’t be scared. Do it!! :)
You did a fabulous job! I love the color and the wainscoting. Your hutch revamp looks so pretty. Glad you stuck it out with the color. I think it really brightened up the room!
Thank you Anita! I’m glad I kept the color too. It really has grown on me after living with it for a while.
I would so do the same thing. I would never use a formal dining room. The office can still be great looking and used much more. I love your room so rich looking. Love the desk and your accessories.
Great job.
Brooke
Thanks so much Brooke. I’m so glad we ditched the dining room. :)
You did an amazing job. Our formal dining room IS an office…but yours looks SO much better. I want to get my hands on his office and organize and clean, especially since you can’t get away from seeing it as you come in. I’m hoping that his business will be so busy this winter that I can get in here a little while each day and organize and clean. I honestly hate the office and the fact that you have to walk by/thru it to get to the family room and kitchen.
My dream is that when I can get a kid to move out, then that bedroom will become the office (I get a corner for sewing area) and turn the office back into a dining room or a sewing room/craft room. Once one of the kids moves out, it will be a short time before another one moves out also so that will give us a spare room/sewing room and I can revamp the other rooms. For now, I make do. Of course, once two kids move out, we’ll downsize to a smaller home, but I’ll have such definite ideas about our wants and needs. Besides, too many spare rooms and I’ll have kids coming back home!
Thank you Susan! Hopefully you can get in there and clean your office all up and enjoy the space. :) Haha, can’t have the kids coming back home! ;)
WOW! That is stunning! I know what you mean about the dining room…our living room too for that matter. Doesn’t get used except at Thanksgiving and Christmas. The other 363 days…not so much. This is just gorgeous. Looks like a magazine!
Aww thank you so much! You’re too kind!
Love your office. You have decorated it so beautifully. It is so nice to have a room that you can transform. Since my DR is just at one end of the living room, this isn’t a viable option, however if it were a seperate room, I might consider it. Your home is stunning. Love it. Hugs, Marty
Thank you so much Marty! Too sweet.
Your office and home are beautiful!
Thank you Tanya!
Whoa…I’m blown away. That is the most stunning office I think I’ve ever seen. That desk is gorgeous and I love the wall color! I love that you left the buffet in there, because it just makes the room! Fabulous job!
Aww thank you so much Deborah!! I was worried about the white hutch and buffet with the dark wood desk, but I love that it somehow works together! Thanks for your sweet comment. :)
I actually said…”WOW” out loud haha! That looks amazingly gorgeous!!! Good job and thanks for finally letting us see the whole room : )
Aww thank you Paula!! And thank you for putting up with just my sneak peeks for so long! :)
Your new office is amazing! I have a formal dining room to the left of my front door just like you! We haven’t used the room for over 2 years! I’ve been thinking of turning it into an office for my hubby. He works from home and is currently in the finished basement. I’m nervous about the office mess that you will see first thing when walking in my front door. Thanks for the inspiration – we just might have to do this!!
Lori
Thrifty Decor Mom
Ah that would be great if you could do that too. Maybe it would force you to always keep the office tidy if it’s the first room you see when you walk in the house! :)
WOW! You rocked this room out! It looks great girl!
Love the light gray walls with the charcoal curtains! And your desk really warms up the space!
Aww thank you so much Lakeitha!!
Wow!! This looks so fantastic! I thought your dining room was pretty, but you out-did yourself on the transformation. I love the gray and camel color together!!!
Thank you so much Betsy! You’re so sweet!
It looks fantastic! And, the colors look really good together. You did a great job of pulling accessories in both hues into the room. Question though, I have always wondered how people who float a desk such as your in the room hide the cords???
Thanks so much Lauren! Actually this desk came with a big surge protector thing mounted inside one of the cabinets, so everything plugs into there. SO handy. We do have an extension cord though plugged up into the wall behind the hutch, so the cord comes around the hutch on the bottom and goes underneath the desk. Does that make sense? So there is a small area behind the chair to the hutch where a cord shows, and all I need to do is get a small throw rug to lay on top of it then you won’t see it. Hope that makes sense! Basically all of the other cords are hidden inside the desk (you run them through from end to end to plug into surge protector) so no wires are visible. Yea!
Yowsa indeed! Just discovered you when the lovely Mrs L Duncan tweeted about your amazing transformation. It looks fantastic! Good job. :) Erica
Aw thank you Erica! So nice of Lakeitha to tweet it and thank you for visiting!
Your office looks GREAT!!
Thank you Tasha!
Looks very cozy in there!
Thanks Sara!
It’s so great that you have a room that you love right off of your entryway. How fun! Love the colors, the wainscoting, everything. I love the contrast of the dark desk and curtains with the lighter colors in the room. We need a picture of you sitting there, blogging, talking to us about your gorgeous house…..a day in the life. :) Lisa!
Aww thank you so much Lisa!! Maybe one day? :)
Wowie, Girl! A-W-E-S-O-M-E! I’m absolutely head over heels in love with that office! It looks like it will offer a VERY inspiring space for you to do your blogging in. :) The grey with the crown molding is the perfect combination. I’ve been so excited to see this room — and you surely didn’t disappoint! Great job, Emily!
Thank you so much Amanda!! I am really enjoying it so far. So glad I didn’t disappoint you. haha. And why did my spam filter mark you as spam?? You haven’t ever been spammed. Weird.
You did a wonderful job! It looks fantastic :)
Thank you Kendall! :)
LOVE. IT. Seriously, girl, you did an amazing job!!! I especially love the color of the walls. So, so pretty. You should pat yourself on the back!! :)
Thank you Michelle!! hehe. :)
I am SO JEALOUS right now!!! Your space is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! Seriously…I am sure you don’t miss that unused dining room at ALL!! Enjoy that space!!!!!! :)
Thank you Christina!! Nope, not at all. :)
INCREDIBLE! So so smart to turn it into such an amazing, useful spot. And I love the woodwork against the gray. So beautiful.
Thank you so much Courtney!!
Love, love, love it! It’s amazing to me what a difference just new paint colors on the wall will do. But that along with all the other lovely changes you incorporated, it is just so lovely!
Thank you so much Katie! Paint is pretty amazing huh? That red paint still gives me weird feelings. Haha
This is absolutely beautiful! Such a great job in repurposing a room that you weren’t using. And, I must agree with you … dining rooms *are* a tad overrated, aren’t they?! (Even though, I just redid mine … lol). Thanks for sharing such a gorgeous space … *Becca*
haha, thank you Becca! I’ve been redoing this room ever since we’ve lived here. lol. But luckily, now it.is.done!
Looks fantastic! Love it.
Thank you Beth!
Whoa! What a beautiful redo! It truly all pulled together and I forgot all about the rug! The chair is a perfect accent that’s feminine, but not frou-frou! I would be SO comfortable working in there! Can’t do away with my dining room since I don’t have an eat-in kitchen, but would love to do similar when a child moves out and I get a free bedroom! Go girl, this is very professional! Congratulations!
Aw thank you so much Guerrina! Kick those kids out already! ;)
That’s wonderful! I want to go sit and blog there! I think you did a great job of making it fem yet it’s still masculine at the same time… which I feel is very important!
I would ditch a formal living room in a heartbeat… had ours converted to an office with french doors. But the dining room, I just don’t know. We’ve never had one until now, and I try to always be sure to use it once a week even for just a normal ole boring dinner ;)
Anyway, love the new office! Kudos!
Thank you so much Tys! That’s good you use your dining room. We used it all the time at our old house, but that’s because the breakfast area was so small.
Thank you so much Tys! That’s good you use your dining room. We used it all the time at our old house, but that’s because the breakfast area was so small. Thanks again!
I heart your office!!!! This is going in my inspiration file.
Aww thank you Robyn!!
The lighting really caught my eye. I love the combo of gray and gold. I am trying to get mentally ready to paint our new home, and am considering similar colors. Thanks for the inspiration.
Yay! Thanks Chris!
Love, Love, Love what you did with that space. I don’t have a formal dinning room however since all our family is moving out of our home, we are turning one of the bedrooms into MY office. I’m soooo super excited!!! I can’t wait to get started. But, I have to be honest, every since I started looking at furniture I’ve been a little overwhelmed. However, your idea to get a new desk and then get inexpensive pieces to tie the room together is AWESOME! Well, keep up the amazing work. You are really doing well with this. And be praying for me as I start planning to get my office decorated.
Stephanie Porrata
Thank you Stephanie! It’s been a lot of fun. :) It is ok to splurge and by something new (with cash of course!). I hope you find the perfect desk, and good luck with your office! How fun!
Hi! I have been following your story for a couple of months now…such a nice way to spend a few minutes in my day! thanks!! Your new office is really beautiful. We also have a formal dining room that we turned into our homeschool room…wish my desk looked as nice as yours, but I am inspired now! thank you!
Ah thank you so much Tanya I really appreciate it!!
oh, its just gorgeous!!!! pat yourself on the back!
Thanks Stefanie!!
looks great and i love how you used the hutch! love it!
Thank you Rhiannon!
Really lovely, sis. I too, would have been nervous about the camel/gray thing, but it looks great!
Spectacular! You did an awesome job and the room looks way wonderful!
Thank you so much!
Amazing. That gray color on the walls is fabulous. The entire room looks so put together. My favorite art on the wall is the subway art. I am so glad I stoppted by.
Thank you so much Tracy, I really appreciate it!!
I got here from some party- not even sure which one anymore- but I am in LOVe with what you have done! We use our formal dinning room for a play room- though it is not pretty at all- I am inspired now to really commit to it and make it look nice. And I have plans to turn our formal living room that is open to it, into a library
Ah thank you so much for visiting here! A library would be fantastic! Good luck. :)
I have to say, I think it is an improvement. I love the wall color and style. Looks amazing. Smart move!
Thanks Michelle!
I love it! My dining room is an office, too, but it doesn’t look nearly that good. :) Right now my two desks are shoved up against walls, and I’d LOVE to be able to find a nice desk to replace them both and put it in the middle of the room, but I can’t figure out how do deal with the electrical cords since the outlets are on the walls. Do you have outlets in the center of your room?
No outlets in center of room. We have one cord that’s a surge protector running from the back wall under bottom of hutch. So there is a short space between the chair and hutch where you can see a cord, but if I had a small throw rug you wouldn’t know. All of our other cords for the lamps and computers are hidden throughout the desk. My favorite feature of this desk!
such a spacious office! great make over!
Thank you so much! :)
Wow that looks fantasic! I also believe that you don’t necessarily need a dining room if you only use it a couple times a year. You did a wonderful job with your and I love the colors and accessories and that chair too! homegoods is the best!
Thank you so much Emily! Glad I’m not alone. :)
LOVE! It turned out fabulous. Wish I had a homegoods closer because I need a fix! What color is the camel color in the kitchen?
Thanks Brook! The kitchen is Tobacco Road. Here is my formula that I used.. http://decorchick.com/paint/tobacco-road-formula/
Kawa-bunga! That looks like a model home. I LOVE it!
Aww you’re too sweet Melinda! Thank you!
This is baeutiful! So inspiring!
You should come link this up at my Making It With Allie Party!
AllieMakes.Blogspot.com
Thanks so much Allie!
I think this room is great. What a fabulous way to use a room in a way that works for you. People should use their houses in ways that work for them not what’s considered “traditional”. Great job.
Amen! Thank you!
I love the New York wall. Now I am contemplating ditching the dining room, but the hubs would throw a fit. I need more functionality. The new color on the walls is great! Thanks for linking up with me. :)
Thank you Amanda! Maybe he will go for it if you say it’s his room…:)
ooooh my gosh! I love it, what a clever idea—turn it into an office, now you’ll get so much use out of it! I love how the light grey really lightened up the space so much. Such an improvement—congrats on the finished product!
Thank you so much Mary!!
A few years ago, my family considered doing something different with our dining room. After all, we have used it a total of maybe 5 or 6 times since we’ve lived here. However, when it was time to buy new furniture, we opted to keep it a dining room. Only reason is because our home is a very open floor plan and this room is the first thing you see wherever you go. It really needed to stay nice since that’s what visitors see when they come.
However both our living and dining rooms are wasted and we’ve love to convert them to something else like you did.
Ours is open floor plan too. It should be pretty easy to keep clean…I hope!
What a great use for your dining room space. We’ve only used our dining room table twice in 4 years that we’ve been in this house, and sometimes I do feel like the space could and should be used in a different way. I love how you decorated the space to be mindful of the open floorplan and that you didn’t close off the room with french doors (which seems to be typical of downstairs office spaces). The room is gorgeous, and I’m loving that paint color!
Oh, well I would have put in french doors if it didn’t cost a fortune! That’s a dream I have still. :) Thank you for the sweet comment!
This is AMAZING!!!!!!
I love love love it
Jenny
http://www.simcoestreet.blogspot.com
Thank you Jenny!!
Love that room!
Thanks Tracie!
Beautiful! We’ve used our formal dining room as an office since we moved into our home. So much more practical and useful as an office. Plus, we didn’t have a dining room set when we moved here anyway. I also love that it’s right off the kitchen so I can be working on stuff in here while dinner is cooking. Wonderful redo!
Thank you so much Sabrina! I bet you love your office too. :)
We’re planning to do the same thing with our formal dining room. Our formal room is a whole five steps away from our “breakfast nook” and seeing two dining tables that close together seems silly to me. Your transformation looks great! Can I ask how you concealed the cords running to your computer since it isn’t against a wall?
Thanks! We have one cord that’s a surge protector running from the back wall under bottom of hutch. So there is a short space between the chair and hutch where you can see a cord, but if I had a small throw rug you wouldn’t know. All of our other cords for the lamps and computers are hidden throughout the desk. They run inside the desk from one side to the other, and the desk came with a mounted surge protector thing on the inside of the cabinet so everything plugs in there.
OK, seriously. There is obviously no work going on in this sparkling clean room. It is just beautiful.
Ha, thank you so much Rosie!!
It looks great!
Thank you Lorie!
I thought I had commented on your beautiful office. It really looks nice. I especially like your paint choice.
I did exactly the same thing when we redid our house 6 years ago and never looked back! Never finished either so I’ll have a curtain project coming up. You might also enjoy seeing my post on repurposing dining rooms. Yours looks great and especially polished!
http://bit.ly/c3i7JG
Oh I love that article! Thank you for sharing Jane. :)
*post* not article.
I could work there. It is beautiful!
Thanks Paige. :)
Your transformation is truly a beautiful project completed. I would love to have a formal dining room but I can certainly see that what you have done for your home and lifestyle is purposeful. Your colors and accents work so well together, I absolutely love this room. Congratulations on vision.
Well thank you so much!!
We turned our dining room into our home office….it’s one of the most used rooms in our home! I’m sitting in it now….great idea.
Ah good for you Debra!!
Wow, what a beautiful transformation. I would love to work in a space like that. Your colors and decor are absolutely perfect. Kudos to you :-)
By the way I’m a new follower!!
Manymomentsofme.blogspot.com
So gorgeous! I am OBSESSED with NYC so that is oddly my favorite part of the room. Love the subway art and the Empire State Building pic! I love your chair too! It looks so nice and I agree about ditching the dining room!
XO, Mallory @ Classy Clutter
Aw thanks so much Mallory! I love NY too. That and the chair are also part of my favorite things in the room!
love the color and all the accessories, great job!
Thank you Anna!
I love the DR turned office….i also love the ledge in the hallway…Is that from P.B.??? I have had my eye on that and wondered what it would look like in a home?
Yes! I found it at the PB Outlet in San Marcos for $150. I wrote a post about it too. You can see more of it and how I decorated it on this post…
http://decorchick.com/decorating/my-fake-mantel/
Emily – what a fabulous transformation and wonderful use of space. Simply gorgeous! I bet you are thrilled! I featured this on the Sunday Showcase post. Stop by and grab a button if you like. Thanks so much for linking up. Hope you are enjoying your week! ~ Stephanie Lynn
Wow! it looks great! I looked great as a dining room too but I think I like the office better!
Love the gray in the office! Mindful Gray is one of my finalists for my kitchen so I liked seeing it in your photos. What did you use on the ceiling?
It looks beautiful as well
Thank you! The ceiling color is Nomadic Desert by Sherwin Williams. All of our walls were painted that color when we moved in including the ceilings, so I left it when I painted the office. :)
I am hosting a “Trash to Treasure” party over at Sassy Sites! You should come by and join in! :) xoxo!- Marni
http://www.sassysites.blogspot.com
Holy crow….that ROCKS! I love all the little details, you’ve created an amazing space.
It looks fantastic. I am amazed at how many people are getting rid of dining rooms, opting ofr offices or bedrooms, while here we are taring down walls so we can have a dining room. LOL!
just found you thru TDC and LOVE your office makeover. Awesome job and I am so inspired by all your gray paint posts….so helpful for a bathroom project I’m working on. Thank you!
I love this room!!! We actually have a “dining room” that we never planned to be a dining room and right now it just has a couple of bookshelves in it. We have thought about a study or office and I think I am sold! It looks very elegant and functional yet not girly. May I ask where you bought your desk? It is just perfect!
Hey Emily, we got the desk at a furniture store in Houston (Gallery Furniture) but I don’t you can buy online? Not sure though…But thank you so much! :)
We are interested in doing something just like this. Our one fear is whether an executive desk is too big or not. Do you know how wide this desk is? And/or the width of the room to allow for walking space. Everything looks great.
LOVE LOVE LOVE IT… THank you for inspiring me to do the same with my dining room!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have been wanting to paint my walls gray. Thank you for posting the color. It is so hard to find the perfect color. Your room is exactly what I want to do with my formal living room. Plus the french doors! This has been a vision for two years now…..I would love to email you some more inspiration designs I think you would like. shaundao@hotmail.com
I swear, I could look at this transformation over and over again. Definitely one of my favorite re-dos of 2010! We had a dining room turned office at our old house, and I never missed the dining room!
Brittany
http://www.prettyhandygirl.com
This is such a great makover — from the colors to the repurposed space. We converted a formal living room into an office this year and I’m loving it — use your home, right? I’ll be interested to see what you decide with your paneling v. wainscoting. Good luck!
Deb
First time visiting your blog – I had a wonderful visit! Thank you for sharing your office transformation. I’ll be back to visit soon.
I know this is an older post, BUT I LOVE THE TRANSFORMATION!!!!!!! It is so funny b/c my plan for the near future is to do almost exactly the same thing, and I’m so excited to see your photos! Our current dining room is brick red with a white chair rail and white crown molding almost exact to your before picture…..what I ENVISION is a gray wall with white wainscoating on the bottom, and TURNING THE DINING ROOM into an office/piano room!!!!!!! LOOOOOOOOOOVE IT!!!!!!! Thank you for your pictures that I could show your husband something that my mind was thinking! :-)
Ha, that’s so funny! Let me know if you go for it!
I love love love your new office!! I am actually thinking about redoing our dining room (still keeping it a dining room, but putting new color and adding the frame boxes). I have a question though, as I have been doing some research, I can’t really find out what a good formula is for spacing the boxes. I did find one, but the boxes are going to be slightly different widths on each different wall. Did you find this dilema also? If not, do you have any tips???
I had a question; why did you have to give up the beautiful dinning rm for an office? Was your home needing an office? I was wondering if your lv rm or family rm was large enough you could of taken a corner and made it into an office. I have a very tiny house and I would of loved to “cut and paste” your dinning rm into my home. You have done some great work so far! Thanks for the ideas
Hi Linda, yes, we needed an office and we never used the formal dining room so it was wasted space for us. It was the best decision we’ve ever made.
Ok, now that I have seen the full effect of that new light, I think it’s awesome. The old chandy will just be totally out of place if you retained it. And the table lamp is a perfect match as well.
Love the dining room! I have had an empty dining room for 8 years now. I know I want it to become an office, but seems so daunting. Thanks for the inspiration!
I absolutely love what you have done, in keeping with fabulous decorating you created a space that is perfect for your family and lifestyle. I think changing your dining room out was an inspiration. What we don’t need, we change. Simple. I love my dining room, it is part of who I am, but I refused to have a living room! For the same reason you changed out your dining room. I wanted a library and couldn’t have both, but I wanted every room to be a living room. So there is space in my dining room for sitting, room in my library for sitting, and a whole lot of sitting in my den. We have to make choices. I love what you have done, and feel inspired. Which is my acid test….thank you darlin!!! You rock!
If you don’t mind can you tell me where did you get that table? I am looking for the exact same one. Just checking if you have got any good deal on it.
Wonderful jobing tying everything together!!! And that is exactly the dilemma i am running into… transforming a room right off the entry into a functional space without it looking odd. We have almost the exact setup in our home… soon as you walk into our home is about a foot of wall to the left and right with a living room (left) and dining room (right)… then we have a study towards the back of the house off the family room… my husband needs an office and he obviously wants the study with the french doors but i feel that would make a better in law suite since its right next to the bathroom or a playroom since our basement isnt finished and my son’s toys are taking over…so I’m trying to talk him into changing the living room into an office but he thinks it will be weird walking into the house and seeing an office off the bat… but I think after he sees these pics and will help him change his mind!!! We actually do use our dining room for Sunday dinner every week so thats not an option… but the living room is def an unused space… thanks so much for posting this!!!! Oh and our whole house is also that camel color… “camelback” by S.Williams also! Time for a change… so excited now!!
Hey DecorChic..great job! I found your page browsing around for home office ideas. I have been working out of my dining room for over a year..hunched over my dining room table with stuff everywhere since I have no desk or filing systems. My husband and I shared and office in our basement for 10 years but i couldn’t stand the lack of light! So I moved upstairs :) I have a huge square pottery barn table and sideboard that id ont know what to do with. It never dawned on me to sell them until I read your page..and I have 10 of the pottery barn formal chairs..kind of similar to your chair only no pattern. I sit here 8-12 hours a day UUGH..so I need a comfy chair.. Love your colors and homey feel..definitely inspiration…I will definitely put up french doors so I can close out work at the end of the day :) I will try to post pictures…I would LOVE any ideas from you or readers! Thanks for the inspiration! Jen PS…I am using your track lighting idea…love it!
You did a great job here. We just put wood floor on our main level and everything looks wonderful. But after putting my Dining Room back together we have yet to eat in it! We have an office in the bonus room upstairs and it’s combined with kids stuff. So my husband and I have made up our mind to repurpose to an office/study. I love my dining furniture so I love how you repurposed your hutch and made it into a credenza. You made a great point to make the room more formal. We have the same layout and I was worried that an office wouldn’t look right. But yours fits so well! I also love the beige and gray. Our walls are also beige and we painted our dining room gray (Lowe’s Pelican) and it looks awesome. I took a darker color from the color family and painted our kitchen island Sharkfin and it made a huge difference. After seeing the mustard chair, I’m definitely going to bring more of that into my room. Thanks for sharing. I think I’m brave enough to do this now!
You have a beautiful home. I love the fake wainscoting. I would love that in my house, plus I love crown molding.
Hi, your redo inspired me!!! May I ask where you get the desk, I need one just like that!!!! Thanks a lot!!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this!! I am trying to convince my husband to let me do this as well. I am in Direct SAles with 2 companies and my lil desk that we both use is…well…just..not..working! His stuff mixed in with my stuff…yeah..MESS!!! Can you be more specific on how yo did the wainscotting?Would love to do that as well…
BTW….you have a gorgeous home!
Fake wainscoating? Where? I must have missed something..which room? We have a formal Dining room that I’ve always wanted to make an archway into it. It is next to the wide open kitchen and i hate for company to have ro sit and stare into the kitchen while they are eating. The dining room also empties into the sun room, which to me is just an addition over a patio floor. Might as well say the sun room is an all purpose room, tv room, we take our meals in there, but save the formal dining room when we have guest. Needless to say, it probably gets used maybe 3 or 4 times a year. When these homes were built in 1997, the builder put a half wall with spindles on it to make it feel more like a separate room and I think just about everybody has removed that half wall and spindles to make more of an open space.
I have been flirting with the idea of converting our tiny formal dining room into an office, and this put me over the edge! Thank you for the inspiration!!
My first time here snooping around….love your home tour!!!! I know I will find lots of inspiration here to learn from. Signed up to follow you. Christine from Little BRags
I love this idea but where did you hide the cords for the computer and table lamp?
Thanks!
I love this idea but where did you put the cords from the computer and table lamp?
Thanks!
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