Name: Rosa Beltran, Interior Designer
Location: Silver Lake — Los Angeles, CA
Size: 1 room office/ converted from a garage
Years lived in: 3 years
Once in a while I'll shoot a space and become so enamored of it that I want to just hang out. Like, forever. This happened when I recently shot Rosa Beltran's office. She's a super talented Interior Designer/Decorator so she's got a one up on most of us. Not only is she naturally skilled in piecing together a space to make it functional and savvy but she's pretty crafty and gives great DIY charm to any project she tackles.
This office is in a converted garage located in Rosa's backyard; perfect for anyone who wants to work at home, but be able to still separate personal life from business. She created charming touches throughout, such as reclaimed French double doors, simple track and recessed lighting and some amazing pops of color. Plus she's not afraid to spray paint. Every time I'd point something out I liked, she'd simply say "oh thanks, yeah I found that for like $20 and then I just spray painted it gold."
As an interior designer who believes in simple DIY projects and clean functional design, she has transformed this space into a truly noteworthy and organized work place. I love her use of all the wall space and that she truly utilizes every corner. Inspiration is abundant here, and it is a great working example of her style.
Apartment Therapy Survey:
My Style: My home itself has a very neutral color palette because it's small and I find that keeping the colors quiet in there works better and is more soothing for me. But I do love color so I wanted to play it up in my detached design studio.
The inspiration for my home office: I'm an interior designer now and I've ALWAYS been a highly visual person. I spent the bulk of my 20s traveling the world (in a Lonely Planet, shoestring budget kind of way) and drew so much inspiration from the visual richness and aesthetic variety I encountered along the way.
Favorite Element: My giant and colorful mood/inspiration boards that feature a constantly rotating assortment of what's exciting me in design at the moment.
Biggest Challenge: It's small. It was originally the garage, which, since we live in Southern California, functioned as a storage space for us instead. I knew I had to retain SOME storage, so I walled off 1/3 of the garage and installed floor to ceiling shelving. The rest remained open and became my office. I solved the dark and dank problem by installing not one but two sets of French doors found on Craigslist.
What Friends Say: They love it. You're just surrounded by color and imagery and textures and fabrics...it seems to get everyone's creative juices flowing, myself included! It's a great space for meeting with my clients.
Area WhereThere Is Room For Improvement / Future Projects: It's pretty packed to the gills in here, so it's ultra-important to maintain order...everything in it's place....so that I don't drown in fabric samples! (Although for me, that wouldn't be such a bad way to go.)
Proudest DIY: Look around...nearly everything in here has my DIY stamp on it. I treat my own home and office like my design laboratory, and I am constantly trying out new DIY projects to see how well they work. I appreciate couture high-end design as much as anyone, but I think a mix of high and low design is what's realistic for most of my clients, and there's a special satisfaction that comes from pulling that off really well.
For instance I really love this decorative metal sheet from Home Depot that I sprayed gold and turned into a magnetic bulletin board. I love the delicate gold metalwork combined with the graphic geometric pattern...it's like jewelry for the wall! My design blog is largely dedicated to sharing all my DIY projects and design inspiration like this.
Biggest Indulgence: The garden views and natural light I enjoy all day long through my Craigslisted French doors.
Best Advice About Organizing Or Incorporating Tech Into The Home: Hide the wires!! Nothing worse than a tangled jumble of cords from your electronics. I'm sorry, but if you have to drill a hole in the back of your vintage credenza-turned-media-cabinet...just do it!
Dream Sources: Rose Bowl flea market. You can't create one-of-a-kind rooms that truly sing with all retail décor...you must mix in antique and vintage for a look with any depth or soul to it.
Resources of Note:
OFFICE TECH AND APPLIANCES
- Printer/copier/scanner
Macbook Pro laptop
FURNITURE
- CB2 filing cabinets.
IKEA metal storage boxes (discontinued) and wire basket shelving.
Overstock metal stools
My custom design conference table
Rosa's custom design built-in desks
Vintage re-upholstered desk chairs
ACCESSORIES
IKEA clock (DIY painted brass)
Homegoods fan (DIY painted brass)
DIY floral pillows in Kaffe Fasset fabric
DIY moodboards
DIY gold metal magnetic bulletin board
LIGHTING
Gold cage pendant lamp from CB2
Shiny chrome task lamps from Ikea
ORGANIZING TOOLS/ ACCESSORIES
IKEA magazine boxes (painted white w/ DIY labels)
IKEA pen cups
Containter Store lucite desk storage boxes and tape dispenser, lacquer boxes
ADDITIONAL ELEMENTS
- Original concrete floor, painted
French doors found on Craigslist
DIY molding and navy gloss paint on a standard hollow-core door
Thanks, Rosa!
Images: Bethany Nauert
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Awesome! Bummed though that the link to Rosa's blog doesn't seem to work.
It seems to be transposed. It should be www.rosabeltrandesign.com
It's a great site!
link is corrected - thanks!
nice work environment. must be nice to open those French doors in nice weather.
the sagging shelves in the middle of the wall unit would make me crazy, but the rest is amazing and i'm horribly jealous of all that dedicated workspace.
@hessiebell they weren't really sagging, i think it's just the view from where I shot them. And a bit of distortion from the lens.
Love it, organised and nice.
This is so inspiring! Your organization is killing it! :)
Awesome! I want a room like this even though I'm not a designer. I just want to sit at that desk and work! Beautiful, fun, bright, inspiring!
Very pretty! Wondering where can I find the geometric squares pencil holder?
Love it with all my heart! What an inspirational space.
Can we have more creative space tours please. I have so much research material and struggling with storage ideas.
Oops I've just found what I need in the Rooms/Home Office section.
is there a better photo of the print/painting in photo 28 of the tour? I am thinking maybe its of the golden gate bridge?
Yep, I'd pretty much die to have this space...so inspirational, orderly & creative. If you ever get tired of your studio let me know...I live in LA & would love to work in there...LOL! ;)
Hi everyone! Yes, the shelves may in fact be a tiny bit wonky, because it was the garage and the floors aren't totally level nor were the walls totally squared. Sometimes you gotta embrace the imperfections :) The geometric pencil holder came from Target a couple of years ago...it was white and I painted it gold (guilty as charged!) The small painting is indeed of the Golden Gate Bridge and I painted it myself. Happy to commission a painting for you if you're interested. Glad you all liked the tour!
Fantastic space! Every client who crosses the threshold must realize it says, "I love my job and I do it well." I agree that I'd like to see more work places here.
I'm happy to see another vote for more brass in the world of interiors, even if it's spray paint. IKEA was nuts to stop making those metal boxes. Is it too much to hope for gold ones?
I also love the black door. To me, it's an important factor in this room working so well.
Just FYI, under "sources" it should say that the gold cage pendant is from CB2 and the shiny chrome task lamps are from Ikea. :))
Colored and welcoming environment to work in. Very creative use of each area. Great work!!!
Hi There!
The office looks so fantastic and well organized, I also wanted to have a garden as my view, it will keep anyone feel more relax as she works.
Can you provide some guidance on how to DIY the metal and fabric bulletin boards? I looked on your blog, but I didn't see how to make them. They're great!
Yes, absolutely, I will be posting tutorials for all of my office DIY projects in the coming days on my blog. Keep an eye out!
I love the chartreuse color that backs the shelves! Is that paint or a paper back you used? If it's paint, would you mind sharing the color/brand? Thanks!
The accent color painted on the back wall of the bookshelves is called "Lemongrass" by Behr.
I want to know where you got your skirt! :-)
My skirt is a vintage light wool pencil skirt by I. Magnin...isn't that magenta/berry color fabulous? A pencil skirt is one of my wardrobe staples...in fact it's probably the only skirt cut I wear, and what's fun is that I can always find beautifully tailored vintage ones from bygone days of Jackie-O classic style.
looks like an awesome space for work and inspiration, and even a little relaxing :)
How did you make the desk(s)? Is that a glass top ... any hints on doing this myself?
Great use of space! Love it! Lucky that you can work in your backyard. I'm wondering about the great penny farthing bike canvas- did you paint it yourself?
This office is amazing! I think the black door is my favorite thing in the room. It just adds so much drama to the space.
what a great inspiration!
First of all, I describe MY color as magenta raspberry :)
I love your space- the white walls, the painted backs of your shelving, and the metallic touches are glamour and industrial at the same time. The larger than life inspirations boards are to die for. I totally agree about the mix and match of high and low.
Hi! What can you tell me about the bike print in pic #30 in the tour? I love it!