Modern Colorful Workspace
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Making Beautiful Spaces in Tulsa…for us too
We are constantly telling people to make their spaces meaningful, beautiful, and inspiring–because that makes life more fun and more happy…and happier people are nicer people…and those people are more polite in line at the coffee shop and at the stoplight and, well, everywhere. Though our homes are spaces that bring us joy…our backroom at the shop used to look like this (actually these are photos after we took a dozen loads of junk to donation so just imagine what it looked like before. SCARY.).
And we had no where to work really. We could sit on the shop floor, but that was distracting. We made a makeshift office that was dark and bummery. AND THEN, we took our own advice and made a plan.
This is our mood board. We wanted to use colors we didn’t use at our homes because it felt like an opportunity to explore the full range of palettes we enjoy. We also based it on some things that we already had. We picked the 80s dining table and rolling chairs because it wasn’t selling, and we liked it. Plus a table as a partner desk takes up less space than two desks. We wanted to do upholstery repair on the chairs and we already had this bright poppy/tomato red fabric that (I) Daly grabbed at an estate sale years ago. We already had filing cabinets. So that’s where we started.
We also really like the shaker peg rail look that’s been all over Instagram lately, so we hired our friend Nathan Hearn with Very Good Handy Man to make us a custom peg rail shelf. Then we picked a piece of art and decided it was our color palette. I tried to pick wall paint without painting swatches on the wall (huge mistake, duh), and we had to redo it. I knew better. Don’t be like me. Paint swatches first.
Palms and I pulled art from our homes and the shop floor to bring it all together and decorate the top of our shelf. AND we used these lights that both of us Ashleys had tried to use in our homes because we loved them so much. They were meant for our shared space.
Did I mention just how much organizing and cleaning we had to do to make space for ourselves? It’s a long story why we had that much work to do, but it was many van loads of recycling and donations, to say the least. It all came together and it was worth it. Making a spot for the things you need and want to do is respectful and encouraging. In this beautiful space, we discuss shop talk, plot our interior design client work, we strategize our growing upholstery business, and I spin in my chair. It’s dreamy.
Our little office space is nestled in our workshop where lots of furniture and upholstery repair happens.
