"Surprise Office Makeover"

Welcome back, friends! It’s been some time since I did some writing. But I’ve been so excited to finally share project “Surprise Office Makeover'“ with you! Let’s dive right in.

Over the summer a local gentleman approached me about wanting help surprising his wife by giving their family office a completely new look while she was away on business. I love a good surprise. I love the idea of a surprise. Actually, I’m not very good at pulling off surprises because keeping secrets and sneaking around and withholding information makes me weird and nervous….I’m the girl you want to wait until the last second to bring on board for a surprise, because I just get awkward and quiet around the unsuspecting target because I have to concentrate and repeat in my head “don’t screw this up, don’t screw this up, just be cool”. And I’m just never cool about it. This project sounded really fun though. Especially after learning more about this young couple’s fun, laid back style, I decided it was worth the stress of being an awkward secret keeper and to just jump on board.

Travis, the husband, is a brilliant entrepreneur and has started several successful businesses in our community that have made a big impact in the strength of Owosso. He and his wife Kristina not only tackle business ownership, but Kristina has her own career, they have three adorable girls, and they’ve beautified and renovated some of our historic homes here in town making for better, stronger neighborhoods. I like this couple and what they bring to our community. Helping make their home feel a little bit more like “them” was a joy.

Travis described their style as mid-century but not too modern. The room needed to be laid back and comfortable as this is a family office. Kristina has “glam” leanings and likes brass, emerald or navy, and peach colors. The room has a wall of built in shelves that are most likely from the 60’s or 70’s and they wanted to keep them as is, not painted or re-stained. Travis went on to say that he likes “unexpected, quirky elements” in design. That got me even more pumped for this project. I loooooove quirky, not-stuffy, unpredictable elements in a space. They’re the very best kinds of spaces in my opinion.

After our initial meeting, we spent the next 3 months planning and planning and planning some more, and running over to their house while Kristina was working so I could measure everything, and nervously preparing a fake story (lies) to tell Kristina in the event she came home while I was there…”Im the new cleaning lady!” or “Oh, I’m just the internet fixer!” (internet fixer? I can’t even tell a decent lie sitting here really trying to make stuff up.) We lined up trades people, had all the furniture and ordered pieces sent to Travis’s office, pre measured and pre-cut everything so we could swoop in and transform the space in the 3 days Kristina would be away.

The weekend finally arrived. Let me take a moment to just say…for being such a small scale and truly fun project, everything that could have went wrong - did. Even though we ordered items well in advance, things still arrived late. Items ended up on backorder. Several pieces arrived in the wrong size. They sent us two rugs? The rug was late, but when the perfect rug finally arrived…two came. This project fortified in me the mindset that you just have to relax and do the best with the situations that are out of your control. I found myself having to just take a deep breath and say “Ok, no panicking allowed. What am I going to do to fix this.” I literally had to remove a whole section out of the curtain rod that arrived much larger than what we ordered. But it worked and looks great. I’m learning that renovations, and makeovers almost always throw you unexpected issues, but you just have to breathe, come up with something new, or wait patiently for it to work itself out. It’s life!

Ok. Let’s talk about the pieces we incorporated into the office. The backdrop and launching point for the rest of the room design was the wall color. We went with Naive Peach by Sherwin Williams and used a local company, Crites Painting to deliver a beautiful starting point. I love this color because its not too orange, it’s not too pink. It’s the perfect soft peach paint color. The ultra comfy arm chairs are from West Elm and can be found here.

Because we didn’t want to paint or change the built in book-cases, we decided to add a removable wall paper to the back of it to add some non-permanent - glam. It’s a simple black wall paper with some gold floral design. I always use wallsneedlove.com for some of the best wall paper around.

The Rug is from RugsUSA and can be found here. I went with a large 8X10 that I wanted to feel less like an area rug and more like actual carpet in it’s size. It’s amazing what a well placed rug can do for a room. It’s so much more cozy and warm now. Travis wanted a smaller desk to take place of the larger one they had. I found a pretty and simple desk with brass detailing from World Market and a plush orange velvet office chair to be, in color form, our “unexpected element.” Orange is not typically a color I ever gravitate towards. But as I was finalizing the color palette, I had peach, dark greens, and brass tones lined up together and I felt like that was a little too “predictable.” Those colors make sense together. They’re really a pretty combo. But I felt like it needed something else to make it the “quirky and unexpected” space I knew Travis and Kristina would appreciate. I was honestly really surprised how happy I was after I added a burnt orange to the scheme. It took the room from feeling like just a pretty space, to a really special space.

Consider this: If you’re ever feeling bored with a room, try stepping back and counting the main colors you have working in that one room. How many accent colors do you have? 2? 3? Are they too similar? Could they be too predictable for you? Maybe you need to incorporate one more color to make the room really something special. For example, maybe you have some blue and green accents (Thats a popular combo) in your room. Those colors are different, but they’re closely related. Try adding bright red to the mix. Or a deep mustard hue. You don’t have to go overboard, just add a few throw pillows, a piece of wall art, or flowers in those shades. It doesn’t take much to liven up a boring room.

Ok, back to the office makeover. It turned out orange was our missing element! Who knew? That large piece of wall art was another special request from Travis. One of Travis and Kristina’s favorite artists is a gentleman originally from Owosso, actually. Michael Gute lives in Detroit now and paints some really incredible pieces. We found the perfect Gute piece and hung it above the desk so you could easily see it as you sit in the chairs or walk through the room. An updated light fixture, long ivory curtains, and a custom blind from selectblines.com completed the look.

Overall, this fun, comfy, quirky, elegant room makes me so happy to look at. I hope this room inspires this family and provides one more comfortable space to make memories in. I’m proud of how this room turned out, and I’m very proud to say I actually didn’t spoil the surprise…

Stay tuned for more Aviator Jayne inspiration on our next blog post!

XOXO

Mandy