Over a month of planning, Pinteresting, thrift shopping, and secretly hiding things has finally paid off! Back in the spring, when the pandemic first started unfolding, many employers including Wes’s opted to let their employees work remotely full-time. For Wes this ended up being turned into a permanent arrangement, even with things eventually get back to normal! We initially set up a desk for him in our some-what spacious master closet, but after a few months he decided to move down to our “game room” to see how he felt working in there.

 

 

At the time, our Game Room was mainly being used to keep the legos contained and to store our games, craft supplies, and overflow of books and homeschool materials. I already had my drafting table set up in the room for art projects, so Wes kind of just took that over during his trial phase. After a couple weeks he felt pretty confident he was going to like this spacious room better than our closet (shocking, I know) and the idea hit me to do a one-day surprise makeover as his Christmas present!

 

 

I had previously taken advantage of the free website floorplanner.com when I drew the layout of our home, so I just returned to that plan to use its design features in this room. I knew that I wanted dark green walls and that I wanted to use as much existing furniture and decor as possible to help with the budget and timeline. The main things I needed to purchase were a bigger desk (mine didn’t accommodate his “standing desk” very well,) a huge rug, coffee table, paint and additional decor.

 

 

Wes  and I both love nautical decor, so I wanted to find different ways to incorporate some of those elements. I also wanted to be sure that the green paint I chose had strong blue undertones so that it would go well with the blues in any nautical or nature-type artwork I brought in. I ended up going with PPG’s 2019 color of the year: Night Watch. I was uncertain about the paint brand itself however, so I ended up bringing in the paint swatch to Sherwin Williams and had them “color match” it in their Cashmere line in an eggshell finish. Let me just say that I LOOOVE how it turned out!!

 

 

The artwork was sourced from a number of different places. I found some beautiful nautical anatomy free printable posters from The Navage Patch (you just have to sign up for their newsletter to gain access.) I used Walmart’s online photo center to have them printed in the 16×20 size and bought 2, 2-packs of 16×20 Distressed Frames off Amazon. The vintage ship prints and paintings were found on Etsy and a local consignment shop.

 

 

I knew I wanted a nautical-vibes custom map of our city so I used Mapbox and Photoshop to make my own! I found the anchor/wheel bookends, lantern lights, and model ship all on Amazon. I stole the vintage and vintage-looking books as well as a few other items out of our homeschool room to help complete the shelves.

 

 

I came across this amazing ship-wheel mirror on Facebook Marketplace and knew it needed to be a part of the room. I wasn’t even looking for anything like it, but it just worked out that I found it! Many of the things on this wall are from our local consignment shop and are truly special vintage pieces. I love that I was able to find so many local elements! I also added the two amazing hand drawn maps from Lord Of Maps in the 12×16 size. I bought a 4-pack of frames to use for these maps, the map I made, and our family portrait.

 

 

I also just needed to specifically point out this adorable picture of toddler-Wes with his doggy. And his love for ducks ha! The shelf above the couch was constructed with 6 inch shelf brackets and an unfinished cedar plank, all from Home Depot.

 

 

I consulted with my mom and sister on many of the design aspects, and my mom chipped in with some of the purchases as her Christmas contribution too! We found the perfect spacious, industrial-looking desk on Wayfair, as well as the beautiful coffee table (which I’m now realizing I never got a great picture of – but it’s amazing!) I also found the hanging canvas world map at Hobby Lobby.

 

 

We had previously found this beautiful vintage credenza on marketplace years ago, and I knew it needed to become part of the office. It’s still one of my favorite pieces of furniture we own with it’s rich wood-tones and real slate top. I wanted to find a huge landscape to place above it, and decided on these digital prints in the perfect shades of blue-green on Etsy. I used easycanvasprints.com (whom I had used in the past) to have them printed on 3, 24″x36″ canvases. Thank goodness they had a great sale going on!

 

 

I spent weeks pouring through options for desk chairs. I wanted something that would look like leather, be comfortable but not bulky, and of course not break the bank. After reading tons of reviews, I settled on this caramel-looking High Back Suede Desk Chair in the color “brown.” Having sat in it myself, I can confirm it is very soft and quite comfortable.

 

 

For my birthday last year Wes took me to Waco, TX and we of course visited the Magnolia empire. I purchased this beautiful metal sign that reads “And so they built a life they loved” – totally perfect for us! The dark office walls made the perfect contrast to finally get this baby hung, and I absolutely love it in this space! The Kodiak fireplace is from an awesome Instagram collaboration I did with e-Flame earlier this year and adds a subtle masculine touch.

 

As for completing the project, we were actually able to pull it off in a single day! My sister and I had pre-arranged to have Wes help them with their tiling project on Saturday, meanwhile she and our mother came over to help me! My other sister and our grandmother watched all nine grandkids while we worked which was probably the hardest job of them all ha! We knocked out the painting in a few hours, then were able to immediately start setting up. It definitely helped that I had everything so meticulously planned out, but I couldn’t have done it without everyone’s incredible help! Wes was in a bit of shock when he got to see it, but totally fell in love once he was able to process it all.

 

 

I also wanted to note that, while it would be amazing, absolutely NONE of these links are commissioned or profit me in any way if you purchase. I’m just happily sharing all of our incredible finds for anyone that finds it helpful!