Working for the Weekend

My goal for the final Dream Design post for this week was to create an office space for a student. There were a couple of things I wanted to keep in mind. First, when I was in school, it was often hard to find the time to sit down and do work. There was always something more exciting going on (especially when you have roommates). As such, I wanted to make sure that the office held a lot of interest and was an aesthetically-pleasing space, so that students would be motivated to be in the room and (hopefully) hit the books more often than the bars... Second, most students are pretty low on the income scale, so I tried to find items that fit within a student budget. That meant trolling the Ikea website for a few essentials and then finding a way to spruce them up and make them unique. Although they may not be the BEST quality, they should see you through your studies. Having minimal funds shouldn't prevent you from having a pleasant place to study.

I selected three main pieces from Ikea during my browsing - the Expedit bookcase, the Hemnes desk, and the Härnösand armchair. The Expedit is pretty dang popular - pretty much everyone I know has one, BUT Ikea has released a few new finishes that really update the look. The one pictured here is high-gloss grey but high-gloss red and white are also available. I think the high-gloss finish makes the bookcase look a *little* more upscale.

The Hemnes desk is a pretty classic shape and provides some storage underneath. To make it look a little less big-box-store, I would switch out the current door pulls for the Dirillo knobs from Anthropologie. A relatively inexpensive update ($54) and I think the orange geode-like pulls are gorgeous.

Finally, I always like having a comfortable chair for reading (chapter after chapter after chapter) in an office space and the Härnösand armchair has classic lines and is compact enough to fit into most spaces. There are two options here: I quite like the dark taupey-grey colour of the current slipcover, so you could leave it like that. BUT, for added visual interest, the route that I would choose is to recover the chair in that pretty Mohave fabric and pipe it with the Premier Prints Ikat Dots. Then, for the two back cushions, I would reupholster both in the Orange Corinthian stripe fabric. A lot of patterns in one space, but the patterns are of different scales and they share similar colours, so they work. On such a large scale, the Mohave pattern would look fairly subtle and the polka dots will only play a minor role in the whole chair.

As for the other textiles in the room, an orange dot fabric would make a bold statement as drapes, and an inexpensive patterned rug in neutral colours warms up the floor. For the desk chair, I chose a dining chair from World Market in an Ikat pattern. More comfortable than a wooden chair and more interesting than a regular desk chair. Lighting, a few accessories, and art are the final touches. The gingham pattern in the lower right corner is actually a piece of fabric. Like yesterday's post, I would wrap this fabric around a piece of cork and stick it in a frame to make a bulletin board for tacking up assignment sheets, reminders, photos, etc.