Turning my Husband's Office into My Own - Feminine, Colorful & Vintage

May 27, 2025

Turning my Husband’s Office into My Own – Feminine, Colorful & Vintage

Our home feels like musical chairs sometimes! With our growing family, we’ve had to rethink & rearrange rooms in our home each year the past 4 years. Sometimes that involves creating a nursery (or two), a playroom or even simply implementing a baby proofing strategy..

This time, it has to do with work life. My husband Zack will be in an office more this year, while my full-time job will be moving from in office to full-time at home. With that change, Zack graciously offered his office to take over as my own (he’s the best!). I’ve had a working desk in our dining room but it has not been an ideal location since it’s rarely quiet there with my kids around (a door is needed!).

So, this office makeover commenced a couple months ago. I knew I didn’t want to invest a lot $ into the project — thankfully by now I know that just paint & new accessories go SUCH a long way. Let me show you.

The Inspiration

I started looking for inspiration on Pinterest as I usually do and then found products & color ways that corresponded to the look and feel I was going for. I jotted down these words to describe the vibe:

calming, vibrant, patterns, terracota, antique, floral, collected

This was the mood board I put together using Milanote!:

The Process

I knew I’d be taking this room from dark navy blue to a vibrant color. I felt since this was such a small room, going bold with the color would be better. Here’s a look at the room before. Since we have a cape cod house, our second floor rooms all have sloped ceilings like this!

I started by thinking of what I could repurpose or keep and to me it was the beautiful antique desk that my mother in law gifted us, but perhaps it would look better in a different position. The desk chair was also a keeper in the camel leather, and I also really liked the vintage style ceiling light. Keeping those few details would save a lot of $ vs. sourcing new items, especially the desk.

After pulling the inspiration pics, I knew I wanted to go with a terracotta – like color. I tried so many! But ultimately I went with Tuscan Tile by Benjamin Moore. Below are a few others I liked: Red Earth (F&B), Coral Bells (BM), Canyon Rock (BM).

This is what it looked like after painting, such a huge difference! And shifting the desk to face the window was a game changer. I started to source some items that sparked joy such as a floral pinboard, colorful rug and vintage-look filing cabinet.

The room has an awkward cove in it, and I like to embrace all the ‘quirks’ of our home wherever I can. Since the room is so small I knew I had to make use of that space well and so the filing cabinet worked perfectly here! And our printers could nicely sit on top of it. Turning lemons into lemonade and making this space function well.

Some more details I found & loved: an ornate curtain rod and an antique magazine holder (no link, but found on Etsy!). I thought this magazine holder would look perfect next to the desk!

I also knew I wanted to make a little gallery wall moment along the far wall. I used my tried & true gallery wall method of a) finding beautiful frames to fit the space, b) cutting paper to match their sizes and arrange them on the wall using painters tape to see what arrangement looks best (see below pic!) and c) laying out the art that would go inside each frame to ensure the flow looks good.

Once I nailed down the layout, I used heavy duty command strips to hang my wall (in case I want to easily change it, ha!)

The art I found was all sourced from Etsy, with feminine & vintage vibes. All art & frame links are below. And how cute is this pleated sconce in the corner?!

After I was finished hanging all the things, it was time to get the room cleaned up and back in order.

Btw, I did sneak a walking pad in behind the desk so that I could use it to get my daily steps in in-between work meetings (can you spot it?)

The Finished Room

The finished room was better than I could have imagined. It just felt so vibrant, yet calming and ME. I am so happy I went with the bold terracotta color with floral patterns. It makes me happy to work in here now.