Written by Sophie Clemson

In this week's blog, we’re sharing with you our customers' garage to home office transformation. With our help, Emma has transformed her cold and unused garage into an inviting and cosy home office that is completely personal to her. It is now a beautiful office space, the envy of all on those work video calls! And, amazingly, the total design spend was only £2,800.

Emma wanted a few things from the space. It needed to be more than just a desk and working space. It needed to be functional and practical but also a fun design filled with personality for her family to use occasionally too. 

I’ve outlined what our customer wanted to achieve below with some crucial points from the brief: 

• A desk long enough for her children to sit next to her to do arts and crafts 

• The desk shouldn’t face the window as it would be too distracting when working 

• Storage for lots of arts and crafts supplies and life admin paperwork 

• A seating area to create a cosy corner, somewhere for her children to sit and a place to read with a cuppa 

• Space for a dog bed, as her dog Lola loves to be next to her 

• A fun space that was about her and her personality. She has a busy family home so she wanted this space to feel like her own

• A design solution to cover up the gas pipes and electric meters 

• A small wc in the room

• To make it not feel like a garage!

We may have been designing a home office but like many rooms in family homes, it needed to work for everyone.

We always begin every design project by looking at the layout options. By doing this first we can work out what is going to fit in the space and how we can get the most out of the room. It’s fun choosing the pieces that make up the design but the layout is about how the room functions and flows. It’s one of the most important stages of the design process for any room. 

We explored different layout options with our customer during the inspiration stage. As the room was formerly a garage it was of course, long and narrow, and so we needed to factor this into the design and how we positioned the furniture to avoid it keeping a garage feel. Emma had already planned to add a downstairs toilet to the left hand side when you walk in, which took away some space but was a good decision for a busy family home. 

From all the potential layouts, option 3 worked the best. It allowed for a long stretch of shelving and storage behind the desk, to create a beautiful backdrop for video calls. There was room for a couple of small armchairs or one large chair depending on the size of the desk (there will be more about this later!). Emma didn’t want the desk to be facing the window. They thought this would be distracting when trying to work, so placing the desk on the right wall near the window was the best option.

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Along with layout options, we wanted to really capture what Emma was thinking and to know what looks she was drawn to. We always send inspiration images ahead of the design, this gives us a great insight into what they like and don’t like. It is usually some colour palette ideas, style inspiration and furniture options. It helps to build up an overall picture of what our customer would like to achieve. 

From all of the inspiration, Emma loved the greens and pinks for a fun and feminine colour palette. She was excited by the idea of adding wallpaper and panelling into the room for a feature and interest. 

Now this is what we consider the fun part - designing the room, choosing the colour scheme, the soft furnishings, the furniture and finishing touches. Every design we create for our customers is truly unique and bespoke to them, from personalised artwork to storage that works for the family. 

We went for a playful look with the pink, green and teal colour palette. We added pops of the teal in just a few finishing touches, making sure even Lola’s dog bed was stylish and worked with the room! We loved the wallpaper, it had a lovely botanical pattern and helped to zone the cosy reading corner nook and bring all of the colours together to create a cohesive feel. 

One of the biggest obstacles we had to overcome in the garage was all the pipes and meters. They had to stay so we had to come up with a solution where they could be hidden in a clever way. This is where the panelling became the hero piece in the room. The tongue and groove panelling worked perfectly to cover up the pipes and to create a small cupboard so that the meters could still be accessed without being on show and ruining the overall look of the home office design. As the ceiling is quite low, we opted for a tongue and groove style as the vertical lines drew your eye up to give the illusion of more height in the room. It has a timeless feel therefore won’t date too quickly either. 

We selected the beautiful Card Room Green paint colour which is a green grey shade. With its soft appearance it has a calm feel which works well for a home office. We chose to paint all of the walls in Card Room Green including the panelling, as we didn’t want to create too much of a divide in the room. Painting all of the walls the same colour, apart from the corner with the wallpaper helps to give the space a modern feel. The built-in shelving cabinet with cupboards was from The Cabinet Shop, a great company who sell custom flat pack cabinets without the high price tag. You can customise the cabinets to create a bespoke design - from how many shelves you want to the door style. We opted for the shelving unit to be painted in the Card Room Green so it blends in and doesn’t look too obtrusive, which was really important with the room being long and narrow.  The shelving unit has worked brilliantly as a backdrop behind the desk, with closed storage for clutter and shelves for the perfect way to display accessories. 

There are layers of lighting in the room with the interesting curved ceiling light, contemporary desk lamp and the teal floor lamp adding a contrasting pop of colour. 

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In the initial inspiration stage, we were looking at the option of having two small armchairs in the corner. However when choosing the pieces, we felt this would comprise the size of the desk. As the main function of the room is a home office, the size of the desk was really important. It needed to have enough room for Emma’s children to occasionally sit next to her for art activities. Due to these factors we opted for a one large armchair which fitted perfectly in the corner and was a comfier looking chair. As the desk needed to be long, the IKEA desk was a fantastic option and provided the solution we needed. You can choose the desk top and drawers or legs separately and make it to any size you need. We zoned the armchair with a fun and playful round polka dot rug and a floor lamp. 

Here we have the visualisation from the design. It really helps to capture how the room will look and how everything will work together. You can see how the wallpaper looks fabulous next to the panelling and brings something special to the room. 

The finishing touches of any room are so important to pull the look together. During the first stage of the project in the video call we asked about Emma’s hobbies, likes and dislikes so that we could choose artwork that was personal and meant something to her. The shelves are a great place for the artwork to be displayed. We added natural textures with the baskets on the top of the shelves  - they are a great way to hide anything you don’t want on show. We completed the styling with a beautiful large vase from Dunelm, books, pretty pink filing boxes, a lamp and of course lots of plants to add greenery! 

All of the pieces we selected for the design are from affordable brands. With our expert knowledge we mixed and matched pieces to work together to create a more expensive, beautiful look. The design scheme total came to only £2,800. 

Emma fully trusted the process and as you will see when comparing the photos of the room with the moodboard and visualisation, she went ahead with every aspect of the design. It is hard to believe the space was once a cold and unused garage. Now she has a home office that is beaming with personality and is an inviting and cosy working environment. 

Emma is absolutely delighted with the end result. Here’s what she had to say:

Highly recommend. I have always decorated myself and spent hours wondering if I'm matching the right colours and looking for items to finish the room off. I decided to invest in a designer to ensure I got the look I wanted.

The Living House are amazing and the final design was perfect, warm/cosy and comfortable.

They provided everything in budget and it was so easy to order using the shopping list they provide. I highly recommend them and I will certainly use them for our future projects, it just gave me confidence in spending the money knowing the end result will look fab!

If you would like our support updating your home, get in touch. We’d love to hear from you and create a beautiful scheme personalised to your style and within your budget. 

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