Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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Finishing The Office Makeover

Our office continues to creep towards the finish line (tortoise style) with the addition of an overhead light…

Chairs Light Detail

… and new desk chairs.

Chairs President Business

You might recognize the light because it’s none other than the one we used to have hanging in our kitchen (loosely meeting both the “old” and “borrowed” criteria from this post’s title). We loved the light itself, but mentioned a few times in the comments that after living with it for a little while, we weren’t sure we loved it as much as we initially thought we would in the kitchen. So we figured we’d try it in the office.

Chairs Light Horizontal

The second it was up, we were sold. It feels polished and traditional to us, so it’s a nice mix with the clean-lined furnishings and colorful art (the more modern counterparts of the room) and the paned bay window and thick crown molding (the other more traditional elements that are already present). Functionally speaking, it’s nice and bright (it’s a two-bulb fixture) and we’re both soaking up the luxury of finally having a ceiling fixture to flick on when we enter the room. We’ve even talked about going to a glass place (or a lighting place) and having them cut a quatrefoil-shaped diffuser to fit it, so we’ll keep you posted if we get around to that.

Of course now that we stole that light from the kitchen we just have a bare bulb dangling in there, but we’re glad to have found our big quatrefoil shade a more permanent home.

Chairs Light In Kitchen

Now for the chairs. Don’t you remember them from our kitchen too?

Just kidding, they’re new. And blue.

Chairs John Detail

It all started when a reader named Sabrina tipped me off to a big sale going on at PB Teen and mentioned they had some pretty nice stuff. Lately I’ve noticed a bunch of designers using stuff from PB Teen in adult spaces. In other words, don’t let the name scare you. Oh and check out PB Kids too (they have some gorgeous lights right now). In fact, Real Simple had an awesome living room a few months back and the thing I loved most and swore was probably super expensive ended up being like $150 at PB Teen.

But I digress. These chairs caught my eye the second I headed over to the site – especially because of the awesome button tufting and curved arms (traditional) and those sleek legs with wheels (the more modern counterpart). Although the light gray and teal one were completely charming, the navy one screamed my name the loudest (less worry about stains, and a nice dark/rich color to ground our light and airy office) so I showed John and held my breath. John is somewhat of a chair diva. He wanted our new office chairs to be adjustable (check), have arms (check), be on wheels (check), and not have a ton of cumbersome levers and handles under them (we looked at a lot of prior chair options looked like an oversized eight-armed spider lived under them). These actually checked all of his chair diva boxes. BIIIIIG SIGH. He was in.

Office Chairs

Actually, I loved them enough to pull the trigger, but it wasn’t until I called a local Pottery Barn store to check if we could return them there (instead of having to pay to ship them back if we didn’t like them) that Practical John was completely with me on the whole “add to cart” step. They still weren’t cheap, but we certainly appreciated that they were marked down by $50 each and their friends & family sale got us 20% off on top of that (we ended up saving $118 per chair).

We did that obligatory worrying thing until they arrived on our doorstep. Would they be comfy? Would they tilt at a weird angle? Would they feel scratchy? Would they come with a nicely labeled empty box in the packaging? Turns out they did.

Chairs 2 Empty Box

The good news is that they’re also comfy, they adjust so we both can have them at the height we like, the wheels glide like butter, and the sloped arms are really nice. You’re probably wondering “how does it feel to breastfeed in this desk chair?” Well, I can tell you in all sincerity that it’s quite cozy indeed.

The fabric feels almost identical to what’s on the armchair in Teddy’s room, which has lived through both food-related abuse (remember it was in the corner of our last house’s kitchen by the fireplace for a few years?) and baby-related projectiles, so we have high hopes for their durability.

Chairs Sherrys Chair

Our only slight surprise was that they looked a little less blue in real life to us (they’re definitely navy, but the website photo looked almost cobalt, so we expected a little more intensity I think). But the art, the plant, and the items on the bookshelf in the office are pretty colorful, so we figure some handsome tufted navy chairs are nice classic “foundation” pieces to ground the room and balance out all the light/modern/happy stuff. Since they’re not these super bright focal points we figure that frees us up to have fun with curtains or a rug in a bolder color or pattern if we want. So although they look a little whoa-those-are-dark-chairs-in-a-light-room now, I think they’ll make more sense when we bring in those other items.

Chairs Main After Shot

Maybe something like this? Depends on what we find. But this is a good example of how something that might look out of place in an unfinished room (the cream color of the light or the deep tone of the chairs) can sort of “gel” more as the room fills in (the tone of the light is also in the West Elm rug, and the dark curtain rod and bold curtains seem to balance out the deep color of the chairs).

Future Office Idea

So our few remaining items on the office list are those aforementioned window treatments and a rug along with getting a frame for Clara’s monster and possibly adding that diffuser to the light along with a desk lamp or two and then we should be finished in here.

It’s pretty exciting to be creeping towards a mostly-completed space since the only other rooms that are worthy of that description might be Teddy’s room and Clara’s room along with our sunroom-turned-veranda. The funny thing is that I’d bet the laundry room will be a pretty finished-looking space in a few more weeks, which is hilarious since it came out of nowhere while some other rooms we’ve been slowly upgrading for over a year still feel SO FAR from being done. Houses like to keep you on your toes like that I think.

Comments

  2. Anele @ Success Along the Weigh says

    That light looks perfect in there! LOVE the chairs!! I actually like the darker look. Kind of anchors everything with a bit of contrast but I’m no design person so take my opinion with a grain of salt. ;-)

    So happy to see Burger! Virtual ear scratches ensue.

    Reply

    • Heather says

      I agree! I didn’t realize how anchoring they were to the lightness of the room until the wide shot showing them both. They’re great!

  4. Jenna says

    Is that rug photoshopped in? Where did you find that? Looking for something similiar in my living room:) I am a work from home teacher and your office makes me so motivated to redo mine:)

    Reply

    • CMB says

      Do you always buy a rug pad when you order a rug? We need a large living room rug for our first home! :) and I’ve never purchased one before so I’m not sure if it’s really needed….thanks!

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We like rug pads for flat weave rugs to keep them from shifting a lot. We usually grab one at Target once the rug arrives and we’re sure we like it.

      xo
      s

  6. Kate C says

    Love the new chairs, and the light is sooooo much better in this room! I was never fully on board with it in your kitchen, so I’m glad such a fun piece finally found the right home.

    Reply

    • haverwench says

      I completely agree–it’s a much better fit in the office. No worries, you can easily find something to replace it in the kitchen (maybe just another simple glass pendant like the one you have over the sink?).

  7. Heather says

    That’s a beautiful chair, and I love that you guys seem to be more and more willing to spend good money on nice products as your design style evolves. Sometimes you just need to have a nice statement piece. I could use my own advice sometimes, but we also aren’t in a stage where I’m comfortable buying anything because I have no idea how the rest of the house will turn out yet and what direction to go in.

    Need I say more than I have no art hung anywhere in my house yet? I did order some though from my sister who just went to Africa, and I’m having it professionally framed. So that’s a start. She has this print of an elephant that I just about keeled over when I saw. I would have bought it whether it was my sister or not! (http://www.lagringaphotos.com/kenya/h1fe4463a#h1fe4463a)

    Reply

  8. Kelly says

    I’m curious if you would consider using the rug that’s in Clara’s room for the office. I don’t know if the size would be right, but I seem to remember it being a really large rug. This would tie in the chair color with the wall color, since the rug has different shades of blue and still give you the option of going curtainless in the office if you wanted to (since you wouldn’t have to use curtains to keep the “weights” of all the colors balanced). Just a thought!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Those colors would be nice in here, but that rug is too big and too plush unfortunately (it’s super thick wool, so John’s poor rolly chair would fall an inch off of it – we need a flat weave I think).

      xo
      s

  10. Olivia says

    That light definitely looks better in your office than it did in your kitchen. It’s perfect here.
    And i love the picture of Burger in the chair. I have chihuahuas so Burger cameos are my favorite.
    I recentely started following PB teens on instagram and i’ve been surprised about the many things i would actually buy from them even though i’m no longer a teen. Great deal on the chairs, they are beautiful.

    Reply

  11. Katy Simms says

    The light hitting the rug there looks suspiciously life-like!
    Either amazing job photoshopping or that rug is already there!! Which would be awesome cause the rug is amazing.

    Love your office space. I may have to do a fancy chair like that instead of the typical desk chair when we do our office in the next house!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Aw thanks Katy! I just took the opacity down on the rug so the light came through from behind. See around the desk legs I did a bad job cutting out? Haha! But this rendering did help me convince John to roll the dice and order it thanks to a sale they were running (I think yesterday was the last day) so I hope it’s as good as we think it’ll be when it comes!

      xo
      s

  12. Melanie says

    Love the chairs! They look pretty dark purple on my monitor. Is it my monitor, or maybe the lighting? Or do they actually have purple undertones?

    Reply

  13. Geertrude says

    I love that light there and those chairs look really comfy. And stylish. We have comfy chairs in our office, but they look like you’d imagine comfy office chairs would look. Not very stylish ;-)
    Oh, talking about your office (and ours): I’ve been wondering for a while now: do you do all blog and book writing and photo editing on your laptop screens (not to mention code tweaking)?
    We have big screens (and keyboards and mouses) in our office, ready to connect to our laptops. We don’t always use them, but it’s great to have them around if we need to broaden our view when working on something difficult.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yes, we do all of our blog stuff on these computers. As for the book, we write the outline/manuscript on these, but once the publisher lays it out with photos we actually edit by hand (with pencils right on the printed layouts that we send back and forth). It feels sort of old school at first but it’s really fun too. Most of the time. Proofreading isn’t. Haha!

      xo
      s

  15. mary says

    LOVE Burger in the chair – made me spit my coffee out all over my desk here at work!

    LOVE the light in the room too!

    Reply

  16. Isabel says

    That Burger pic is precious, it may be bedroom gallery wall worthy! My crafts room was “done” a year ago and I’ve changed things around 3 times since. I’m now seriously considering re-painting. I guess, some rooms just take time and living with them to see what really works. Where is the rug you’re using on your Photoshop rendering from? Thanks!

    Reply

  18. Sarah A says

    Looks nice! I’m curious about the potential curtain rod – won’t it be weird to have it hanging in space in front of the bay window like that? I’d think it would chop up the room (and beg for future-bigger-Clara and Teddy to use it for gymnastics, which is what I know I would have done in my youth!).

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I think it’s pretty standard to hang a curtain rod there on that flat area of wall above the window (there are also flat side walls where the curtains would hang in front of, so they wouldn’t float oddly in front of the window or anything – they would flank the side molding). Hard to explain, but I think it would work!

      xo
      s

    • Courtney H says

      I think those curtains definitely make the room feel finished and polished, and also couple nicely with the dark chairs like you mentioned… I vote in favor of the curtains!!

    • Lisa says

      I also think curtains will really make the room, and agree with hanging them as you’ve pictured. But… I’m not a fan of the green. It’s too jarring for my tastes in introducing another color. However, I love what you guys do as far as bringing in more colors to a room than i would usually be comfortable with. So if anyone could do it, and have it look fab, it would be you. I would picture though a grey or real light blue with maybe a subtle botanical print. Now I’m tempted to goof off at work and go look at fabrics online. Uh-oh!

  19. rachel laree says

    Oh you know what else would look good. You could chalk board paint the front of your desk, and then do lighter-airy modern gold curtains. Gold would look dee-vine with those navy chairs. Not a gaudy gold mind you, more of an effervescent gold if you will!! It would tie in the light fixture and you could still do a light blue and tan rug, like you have. I think that would really glam it up for ya!! I do have chalk board paint in my house and I wipe it with a baby wipe and there’s no dust at ALL, and my kids love it! :)

    Reply

  21. Dana says

    What kind of fabric is that? It looks velvety. We have found that microfiber works best with our cats and hope these would work!

    Reply

  22. Heather says

    1. That photo of Burger literally made me laugh out loud, hope my boss didn’t notice.

    2. Whats the deal with the empty box? Am I missing some PB inside joke?

    Reply

    • Jenn says

      The empty box is to keep things from shifting. They label it empty box so people don’t freak and think parts are missing.

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Totally makes sense. Someone called them and said “there’s an empty box and I’m convinced something is missing!” and they were all “we need to label that box STAT.” I love it.

      xo,
      s

    • Suzy H. says

      I’ll bet PB Teen customer service got tired of all the calls and emails saying “I’m missing something; there’s an empty box in my chair shipment” and solved it by clearly (VERY CLEARLY!) indicating that box was meant to be empty. I agree with Sherry, it was probably meant to keep things from shifting inside the outer box.

  24. joelle says

    What about using the curtains you had hanging in your old dining room? the ikat ones? i feel like it needs a pattern to tie it all together? that being said, I’m decorating our new house and thought i’d be much better at it. So i really have no idea what i’m talking about :)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I thought about those too, but wondered if we’d like a deep shot of emerald like the curtains I had fun adding in the rendering. Who knows where we’ll end up though!

      xo
      s

  25. sam says

    I do like the chairs. They seem to ground the space some what. I just wished you could’ve ‘creeped’ towards a more warmer,elegant style. I feel the bright white with pops of color have been done to death. Just my 2 cents!

    Reply

    • Kristine says

      I agree. I think they should’ve used a darker color for the walls too. It always seemed like the trim has a warm tone and the cool tone of the ell color is clashing. They’re still doing a better job than I would in my own house though!

    • Megan says

      Agreed! Chairs are great… but something is off with the overall color scheme. The linen shade is giving the back window trim a cream cast and even the rug isn’t pulling it together for me. It’s a struggle between bright/bold and more refined/natural. I second the comment about a darker wall color…a modern brown (w/out the gold tones) would look amazing and still work within their palette.

      Regardless, I love the individual aspects of the room!

  27. Nikki H says

    The light is perfect, and the blue chairs are a great color. I love the look of the floors–they are so gorgeous. I could spend a lot of time working here, if I really worked.

    Reply

  28. Sage says

    Are you worried about the casters on the chairs doing any damage to the hardwoods? We’re getting ready to move into our first home, and realize that my husband’s desk chair has done some damage to our apartment floors from rolling over the same place repeatedly for 4 years. Don’t want it to happen in our new home, but we don’t want to put down any ugly mats or anything. Would love to know if you thought this might be an issue!

    Reply

    • Melissa says

      Sage, they actually make special casters for rolling chairs that will be used on hardwood floors. My husband had started wearing a circle onto our hardwood floors, too, so I ordered hardwood casters from Amazon. They were cheap and easy to install.

      We ended up putting some mats down near our computer areas anyway but I had more peace of mind with the hardwood casters.

    • Alison says

      We have the same issue with our office chairs on hardwoods. It has totally worn the finish off the wood and I’m dreading moving out of our apartment and not getting a security deposit back because of this! Good tip on the hardwood casters! Thank you!

  29. Megan says

    Good morning Mr. President Burger.

    It’s funny how a house will evolve design wise. I’ve been in my home for just over three years and the most completed room in the house is the guest bathroom. Which my husband and I rarely even use! Laundry room may be next on the list since I just got a new washer/dryer set. Have to make the room worthy of my glorious new machines.

    Reply

  30. Annie says

    Have you considered pulling the curtains from Clara’s room for the bay window and using some woven blinds on the front windows sans curtains (or just leaving the front windows bare)? Might be nice to tie into the navy of the chairs, but still have the lighter panels.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I thought about those too, but wondered if we’d like a deep shot of emerald like the curtains I had fun adding in the rendering. Who knows where we’ll end up though!

      xo
      s

    • Sara says

      I’m obsessed with the room with the emerald curtains – any ideas where a person might find some in that deep hue? I’m on the hunt :)

  32. Rachel says

    I love the chairs. The darkness of the Navy adds a perfect contrast to the brightness of the office without dominating them.

    And that portrait of Burger is perfect. It should be framed.

    Reply

  33. Ellen says

    Nice chairs! On wheels are perfect for the office! One question though, what did you do with your old chairs? They break my heart. I’ve been looking for those same chairs on CL for over a year now, and no dice.

    Reply

  34. Emma says

    Nice! You know – you may just be able to put in your own light diffuser made of some gauze-like white fabric or maybe even rice paper. That way it will be light and your quatrefoil lampshade won’t have to bear too much extra load.

    Reply

  35. Makenzie @ Life with Liv says

    Same experience with PB Teen a couple years back. We live in a smallish townhouse and the only place in the living room for the TV is a smallish corner. I kept searching for a TV stand that would fit there but still be beautiful. We finally stumbled on a nice wood one from PB Teen that is perfect (and was way less $$ than it would have been from the “adult” part of PB). Btw, I’ve been meaning to comment over here and say thanks for the sandbox posts from way back. We just made a similar rock box for our daughter (full post on my blog :)) and used your posts for some guidance. (Only, we painted ours turquoise!) It turned out great!

    Makenzie

    Reply

  36. Lauren says

    In the “empty box” photo, did I notice paint swatches in the dining room? Or do my eyes decieve me? Are you CONCURRENTLY working on three different rooms? You crazy kids…

    Reply

    • Juliet says

      The photo is taken directly from YHL. You can tell if you search the image on google. The ad says you can ‘move in to a house much like this.’ It’s probably a fake posting. Pretty common on CL.

    • Emily says

      If that is your actual old living room, that post should be reported. There are tons of Craigslist scams with “houses for rent”, then people send in application fees and the scam artist keeps them and there isn’t actually a house for rent.

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yup, we reported it. Sadly it’s not the first time it has happened, but it’s great that so many readers recognize our place and can alert us so we can flag them :)

      xo
      s

  38. mribaro says

    The chairs look DELICIOUS! :)

    Warning about the legs with wheels: after a couple of years of rolling always in the same spot, they might ruin the lacquer on hardwood floors, so you might consider some PVC chair mats for hard floors to put under your chairs.

    Also, seeing that you have a big rug in plan, and from the photo it looks like it’s in a way of John’s chair to go smoothly away from his desk, I thought you would buy him a hanging chair and hang it from the ceiling :) Either that, or you can buy somewhat bigger rug that would go under John’s desk, at least so that front half of the desk sits on it, so the chair stays on the rug all the time (and there’s still a strip of hardwood floors visible around the perimeter of the room).

    Reply

  39. Sarah W. says

    I’ve never made a suggestion before, but I remember that you were toying with the idea of going curtainless in the office, and I think I agree!
    I love how bright and airy the room looks without curtains. The photoshop with the green curtains (though I love that colour element in the room) made it seem heavier. What if you used that green in the area rug instead and left the windows naked (gasp!)?

    Reply

    • Annie says

      Agreed! You guys give off the impression taht a “naked window” is a no-no but really I think that any window treatment other than a hidden shade is going to detract from something awesome you already have. Sometimes less is defintely more and I think you should think long and hard before putting up a window treatment.

  40. Rose says

    Oh don’t put those curtains up, it completely spoils the room with that color, maybe navy but not that green! I love the rug idea and just bare windows, especially with the bay windows!

    Reply

  41. Amanda says

    The chairs are beautiful! I also love how the light fixture looks in here; that was a good move. I’m looking forward to being able to call a room “done (for now)” in my home, so I’m happy that you’re making such good process.

    Reply

  42. heather says

    I’m officially the last person to realize that rug was photoshopped in. I thought you bought it when you bought the chairs.

    *slow down and read comprehensively Heather*

    Reply

  43. SherryB says

    Ooooohhhhh….can’t wait to see that rug in there for real! And if you go with those bold curtains too? I can’t stand it! You guys are just so skilled at this design stuff, I just want to punch you in the arm! [with love, of course]

    Reply

  46. Kendall says

    I love love love the chairs! I feel like this office is going to be by far, my favorite of all of y’alls home offices. It’s just such a good space for the whole family with that little area for Clara and later Teddy too.

    Reply

  48. Emily @ Table + Hearth says

    I always get stuff for our house from PB Teen! Our whole queen guest bedroom set is from there and we also got a sweet old-fashioned looking wooden office chair there too. I love that it’s so much cheaper AND I still get to use my PB coupons and earn my PB rewards points ;) Good find guys, and I’m on board with the dark color ‘fo ‘sho!

    Reply

  49. Samantha says

    I love those chairs and the light looks great in there! I’ve been pleasantly surprised by PB Teen, too! We bought a duvet from there and made curtains out of it!

    Side note: the previous owners of our home had a rolling chair on the bare wood and it left all these little grooves in the floor. Will both the chairs be able to be on the rug? I’d hate for your brand new, beautiful wood floors to get marked up! :)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Thanks Samantha! These are original hardwoods from 30+ years ago so they’re super solid (I think new hardwoods feel a little more flexible to me for some reason) so we haven’t seen any scratches or marks yet, but will keep an eye on them for sure! Someone said there are casters they make for hardwood floors and sell on amazon.com to keep them from scratching if the regular ones do, so I thought that was interesting too!

      xo
      s

  50. Theresa says

    If you end up needing a mat to protect your floor, you might want to look at a glass floor mat. I’ve had mine for 8 years and it looks like new and the chair glide is amazing. People always ask about it when they see it.
    http://www.glassmat.net

    Reply

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