Personalizing Built-ins & other Office Furniture for the Home

So you’ve moved into your beautiful new house and you still have a few boxes to unpack, but the office is set and life has begun again.  As we look around the room, we come across a built-in bookcase that’s an old drab brown color, with an unattractive yellow background. What can you do to turn this eye-sore into a gorgeous focal point for the room? Let’s start with paint! A coat of paint will hide a mountain of sins and spring a tired piece of furniture back to life. The trick is to make your selected color blend to the trim without letting the overall piece disappear into the woodwork either. 

So how do you make it pop? Look to add drama to the back with a bit of decorative wallpaper. Modern wallpaper styles have come a long way from the little ducks and floral patterns of old. The newest designs are big and bold, and filled with dramatic color. These are the patterns that will stop you in your tracks and shouldn’t be reserved for walls alone. Smart-N-Up Wall Coverings is a great place to start looking for fresh ideas and unique patterns.  Did you know that Candice Olson has her own line of wall coverings that aren’t even featured on HGTV? Go check it out!

For this particular project, we opted for a grass cloth look.  This added texture to the back wall of the unit with soft cream, tan and green colors to match the existing paint on the walls. Despite what you may have heard, hanging wallpaper isn’t hard – just a bit messy. Start by lining up your pattern and keep it straight. When you work with wallpaper, you have to calculate how much of the material you will need. This means you should measure the Height x Width x Number of walls. Then subtract the measurements of the windows and doors.

One important thing to remember is not to forget about the pattern repeat. Pattern repeat is the amount of space the pattern takes up on the roll. This needs to be considered not only for lining up your pattern on the wall, but also how much paper to order. Without factoring the pattern repeat into your planning, you will run short. I can guarantee the pattern numbers will be gone and the die lot, or the group that the paper was printed with, will not match. That’s when our best friend Murphy’s Law will come a calling. But don’t worry. With a little practice you will be papering a ceiling in no time! 

So now the built-in bookcase is painted and the wallpaper is hung. Now it’s time  to accessorize! Get out your books, pottery, family photos and any other knick-knacks that represent your personality and what’s important to you.  And if you thought bookshelves were just for storage, think again! Three things bring life to a room: plants, flowers and candles. So make sure each room has at least one. Jess and Peter have already started to unpack their favorite pieces of pottery and paintings. Now the drab old bookcase has become the focal point to the room.

 Jess and Peter are in a special situation because their bookcase is located next to the home office, and in time a conference table will be added for collective creative brainstorming. Now the bookcase will be the perfect place to incorporate professional materials and intriguing art pieces to stimulate the right kind of environment. So take a look around your own home. These principals and ideas can be applied to furniture of any type. Have you seen how great painting the inside of drawers looks on a buffet!  This was a wonderful surprise I saw at the High Point Furniture Market this year.  Hooker Furniture has a great line with beautiful patterns and faux finishes on the inside of drawers.  Looking for ways to add impact to your furniture and built-ins is a great way to let your personal style come shining through.

 

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