Catching up on our Top Design last night, we fell in love with Ondine's vintage modern office. She picked the smallest room to design but chose elements that made it function like a big home office. 4 Tips for making your own small office feel bigger after the jump.
4 Tips For Making a Small Office Feel Big
We recently watched the first episode of the two-part season finale and we loved Ondine's design choices. The vintage-y wallpaper, the classic black and white palette--it was inspiring. Here are some tips we came up with to make your own small office feel big.
- Make sure there is one big attention getter in the room. We say one because anything above one seems to make the eye wander around the room, focusing on the fact that the room is indeed, small. In this home office, Ondine's attention getter was the floral patterned wallpaper (and only on one wall). That way, as you enter the office, you're already looking at the opposite wall where the wallpaper is hung. It helped that the wallpaper had a lot going on, keeping your eyes fixed on the wall.
- Adding a mirror--the bigger the better. Ondine chose a medium to smallish mirror with a huge frame. The mirror acts as a second-tier attention getter by reflecting the opposite white wall. Again, creating an allusion that the room feels bigger than actually is.
- Adding a few large scale objects. The oversized lamp and couch actually have the opposite effect that one would think. By adding these large scale objects to the small room, the viewer focuses on the grandiosity of the lamp and couch and not the size of the space.
- Sticking to a simple color palette. Ondine decided to go with classic black and white, making the room flow effortlessly. The viewer is allowed to focus more on the grand scale of the furniture and the one attention getter rather than be aware of the color scheme.
How do you make your office space feel bigger?
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What's the story with only wallpapering a portion of a wall or a few walls in a room? That trend hit Top Design hard. I think it throws a room way off balance. I can see doing one wall, but everyone seems to do two. I don't get it.
view Julianna's profile
I think both Nathan and Ondine mae me realise how much impact great wallpaper can have on a small space. Now I just need a comprehensive list of great wallpapers to choose from. How about a "Top Ten modern wallpapers" list AT?
view reef1's profile
I enjoyed this room - but I feel that she really needed a larger area rug and the end tables are much too low for the sofa.
(Yes, I know - It's my two biggest pet peeves about so many rooms...)
view bepsf's profile
Am I sensing some pier1 foo dogs on the window? Foo dogs make things look bigger...
view whytephoenix's profile
That show is god-awful.
view Headzo's profile
You keep mentioning the simple color palette and black and white- you do know that there was a HUGE colorful print on the wall opposite of the wallpaper right?
view tallguylehigh's profile
Oh good she put up window treatments.
I like dramatic wallpaper on one wall, but she put it on two and it just doesn't have the same effect. It just doesn't make sense that way.
view msjessiemeghan's profile
I also don't get putting wallpaper on two walls instead of just one. Doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever.
view BSmeltz's profile
Outside of "Cinderella" I've never seen a mirror that creates an "allusion." ;-) It creates an ILLUSION.
view nashdp's profile
Here's the problem:
The designers completely ignored context.
They were given bland beige cookie-cutter houses to work with and rather than make the house work to their advantage, they ignored the parameters of the house and did whatever they wanted.
Who would ever create a black and white room with a beige carpet? It's miserable. and all the designers did the same thing.
terrible competition all around.
view Headzo's profile
Does anyone know the mfg. of the chrysanthemum wallpaper she used in the dining room?
http://www.bravotv.com/widgets/bin/gallery/cache/7b44ccfbe8bdd3d4445502f8d3dd1b22/watermark/td_episodic_210_22.jpg
view bryan.nyc's profile
How is that space an "office"?
view Jezebella's profile
I really like that couch. Anyone know who makes it?
view aaronSFNY's profile
It's got a desk. It's got a chair. It's an office. What is an office to you?
view charlenemcbride's profile
Nice enough, but very predictable.
view reb's profile
Well, an office might have storage for, you know, *office supplies*, like maybe a pen and some paper, perhaps files or a computer? I don't even see drawers in any furniture, or any shelves. It's like the hotel version of an "office".
view Jezebella's profile