With Operation Bathroom Remodel nearly completed, of course, I have the Guest Bedroom / Office design on the brain.  If you are in the UK and you aren’t already aware, Joss & Main – a sale site not unlike Achica or the million other ones cropping up these days – have come to our shores from the States. What I like about Joss & Main is that they seem to have quite a lot of items that you just don’t normally see in the UK (ie., ‘American’ style homewares) at really fantastic prices.  Obviously the sales only last a few days so I made some impulse purchases recently that have set the ball rolling in terms of the design of the room.

You may have seen on my Facebook page (if you aren’t following me, you can here) that recently they were holding a sale on Cozamia prints.  I’ve been a huge fan of Nancy Ramirez for quite a long time (I actually blogged about her work here) but shipping fees and custom duty prevented me from clicking that little ‘buy’ button for ages. So when I received an email saying she was having a sale via Joss & Main UK, I jumped at the chance to finally own some of her prints.

These are two of the prints that I’ve purchased and I’ve ordered the frames and mats already…

I decided that these two prints would be the jumping off point for the colours I’m going to be using in the room.  I find this is the easiest way to decide on a colour scheme – find art, fabric, wallpaper etc with multiple colours and then pull the colours from there into your scheme to create a cohesive look.

A couple of days later, Joss & Main had another sale on rugs. With my colour scheme in mind, I decided to take advantage of the sales to purchase a rather good size, good quality rug for nearly half the price.  Here’s the one I chose.

I then built the design off of these three pieces, scouring the interwebs for various items that would fit the look and feel I was trying to create.  I am going to be doing mostly white walls and as I revealed in this post, we are going to be finishing the floors in a rich dark walnut colour (like we have in the living room). So being a lover of colour, I wanted to create a really bright happy space using accessories to tie together the colour scheme.

The next item that I am entirely sure of is this fabulous lamp from Rockett St George. I was thrilled to win a photo competition on their Facebook page recently and have a £100 voucher burning a hole in my pocket because I’m waiting for this little lamp to come back into stock (I was told it would arrive by end of June so fingers crossed I get in there on time before they sell out again).  The lamp is £120 but obviously with my voucher, it will cost me just £20! Bargain!

There are also a couple of items that I’ve loved for sometime so I’m hoping they will work with the room!

I’ve been in love with Lyndsey Aldeman’s make-it-yourself light kits for some time and I really think it would work fantastically in this room. I tentatively showed it to Wayne to see if we might be able to use the kit to wire it for UK light standards and he assured me it would be no problem! Win! (We have a friend who is an electrician who checks all Wayne’s electrical work so we’re okay in terms of not doing anything stupid.)  

Check out Camille Style’s office if you aren’t yet convinced how good this looks in an office space.

Also, this South Seas wallpaper from Thiabut is just gorgeous with it’s modern take on Chinoiserie. I’m waiting for a sample of the paper in the post now to make sure it goes with the colour scheme but my fingers are firmly crossed that I can use it as a feature wall against all the white so at the moment, there’s still a question mark above it…

Anyway, let’s get to the moodboard shall we?  Here’s where I am so far – bear in mind, this plan is literally changing DAILY so there are quite a few things that are as of yet, undecided.

Home Office Design v3

The sideboard and the chair are just placeholders for now as I know I want a comfy chair and I know I want something wood and vintage for the sideboard but what those will be exactly, I’m not sure yet.  I’m also not sure if I’ll be getting another fiddle leaf fig for the room, I just know I want some plant life in there because the room gets an impressive amount of sunlight all day.  The prints – aside from the Cozamia prints – are all undecided as well, I just know I will be looking for more cute art for the room!

In terms of budget, I’m going to just see if I can buy a few items a month as we get on with the refurbishment of the room so that I’m not faced with a finished space that’s entirely empty and then have to panic buy to fill it up!

A friend recently asked me why I bother to do a moodboard for my own home – it’s understandable why you would for a client but seemed strange to do it for myself – well, when you use as many colours and patterns as I do in a scheme, I think it’s important to see how everything is going to work together.  I actually find it really helpful to visualise and it gives me a plan of action so I don’t end up purchasing things only to realise it doesn’t quite work along with everything else ;)

So what do you think of the plan so far?  And what methods do you use to decorate a room when faced with a completely blank slate?

Don’t miss a thing!

Moodboard sources:  Lindsey Adelman Make-it-Yourself Light / Gold Pineapple Lamps / XO print / Merci print / Seagrass basket / Floral & Spotty Cushions / Banana Leaf lumbar cushion / Non & Oui print / Wingback Chair / Desk / Tissue Box Cover / Storage Boxes 


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