Working at home isn’t that easy. It sounds like a wonderful idea, when you are considering getting off campus, out of the corporate setting, and home to your family, your slippers, that welcoming corner of your sofa, but, once there, of the distractions. Making an office that is both conducive to work, and feels like a pleasure to be in, is critical to ensuring the activities within this space are productive .
When I considered the fact that not only would this serve as the Father’s office, but be a space, with desks that the three kids could come and do their homework, away from the distractions of TV, and video games, the stakes were raised.
If you wanted those stakes to be even higher, add the pressure, consider the fact that this is really a public space, a pass-through on the way to the Powder Room. You know, the one all guests will use when they are welcomed to dinner. It needs to feel polished, and stately, without being off-putting to the inhabitants – you know the ones, the kids who will be troubling over their homework assignments, and the Dad, philosophizing about the important issues of faith and trust, of commitment, and family, legacy, and stewardship. How can one be expected to grapple with these life grounding – changing – aspirational issues, in a holey distracting environment? I know I couldn’t.
Ballard Designs – Sisal Rug with a black or moss border would be the perfect compliment to this space.
While the Powder Room will have pow, that door can be closed, the office, I propose will look like this.