Our Home Studio Makeover with @home. Before & After

I am so excited to be sharing this project with you, our Home Studio Makeover with @home. I have been working on it for what feels like a really long time, but you know how it goes… the shoemakers children never have shoes! As an interior designer I don’t think there is any room in my home that I can call complete, I am forever changing things up but I have been working from home for a year now , with a better understanding of my work flow, I felt like my home studio space needed to be more of a focused work space. I needed a dedicated space, an inspiring space where I could be creative and focus on my daily tasks. When @home contacted me with the brief to transform a small space, our home studio immediately came to mind.

Our home studio is the second bedroom in our home and like most spare rooms it became a haven for misplaced homeware items. As a result it was a cluttered space while my ‘work’ stuff overflowed into every other room. It was so important for me to be able to confine all these work related things into one space, where I could close the door at the end of the day.

Take a quick tour of the space before the transformation over on our instagram stories, we saved the project progress for you there, click here.

*desktop and mobile compatible. 

Now that you have had a walk through the space, you can see why it was in desperate need of attention. My husband, James and I both use this space so it was important to create a space that suited us both. Creating a his and her space in such a small square meterage was one of the biggest challenges, he really loves dark colours with personality and wanted something dramatic, whereas for Studio Melissa Louise it was important that I created a space that reflected the brand. Light, bright and classic. This was also a challenge we faced in the space but overall I think we have achieved a cohesive beautiful space, I couldn’t be more thrilled with the way it came together, a perfect balance of old and new, his, hers, function and aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

Lets break the space up with photos. This is a long one, grab a cup of tea…

Her side, before and after:

The layout of the room is predetermined by the location of the built in cupboards and our decided function of space. We required two desks and a credenza, when planning your layout think about location of the items in use, generally this give you a good idea on where to place things. For example, it was important that James and I both have easy access to the printer therefore placing it in between the desks made the most sense.

 

Shop all things home office online with @home. 

 

Storage tip #1: installing a cable tray to mimic the skirting board will help eliminate all the unsightly cables that come with an office environment. Can you spot the cable tray?

Storage tip #2: when buying storage pieces for your space, buy items with an element of transparency. These will be easier on the eye and will create less visual clutter. For example, the perspex desk filing storage, the brass wire picture ledges and the clear storage containers that I found in the @home kitchen section and repurposed for this space. 

The overall layout of the room, before and after:

Like I mentioned before, James wanted to add some personality to his side of the studio space, he wanted something dramatic but also something that would disguise the tire tracks from his bike stored up on the wall. This posed a great design challenge because for Studio Melissa Louise it was important that I created a space that reflected the brand. Light, bright and classic. The wall paneling was a solution to this challenge, it creates continuity through the space and ties both the his and hers sides together making it feel like the same space while the dark focal wall met James’ brief and because we are renting it needed to be a non invasive solution, something easily removable for if/when we move.

Design tip #1: when deciding on a paint colour for your focal wall, buy samples and paint swatches onto the wall you are wanting to paint. Light effects the way a colour looks, and light is different in every room. This will be a huge help in the decision making process.

His side, before and after:

As you can see we have maximised the space but even with the @home leaning shelf and credenza we were lacking the storage a small business needs to function. There is so much space in the built in cupboards that wasn’t being used effectively… I removed the rod and installed a shelving system. This system allows me to move the shelves around to suit what I need to store, finished off with more transparent storage – wire baskets and the clear storage containers that I found in the @home kitchen section and repurposed. This little cupboard may even be my favorite part of the entire transformation.

 

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be breaking this grand reveal up into smaller posts with more detail on how you can achieve this look, find the best storage solutions for your small space and overall design a space that you really enjoy living in.

If you are looking to transform your space but dont know where to start, try our online design service. This virtual design service allows you to design your space from anywhere in the world! With our guidance we will design your dream space, we provide you with a design proposal and a shopping list for you to easily execute your vision.

Love this look? Shop the elements here. 

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Written, compiled by Melissa Lawrence. Photographed by Fiona Joy Photography. 

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