A Scandinavian Palm Springs Home Office

A year changes everything.

Around this time last year, we were dreaming of a new space to call ours. It wasn’t to be.

I love re-reading that post because I remember the heartbreak of it all and feeling like everything I was looking for was an impossibility. That we’d have to give up one thing (being close to family) to have another (a dreamy + bright modern house). I don’t know how to emphasize how much of my energy went into the wanting of just the right house, but I can say this: I have only two loves in my life, weddings and home design, and one is already checked off the list and it’s the one that you don’t really do-over.

The universe is a funny place friends. One month after writing that blog post, we found our own little modern house (albeit more 80s modern than mid century modern, but I’ll take what I can get), with everything we were looking for (so. much. natural. light), right in our own backyard. Literally, our backyard. We can spy on our sweet little condo from our new bedroom window.

It took three months of breath-holding before we finally made everything official, but we moved right at the end of October. In the middle of the busiest time of the year. It was insane. I’m still recovering by sleeping ten hours a night, to make up for all of it that I missed at the end of last year.

And now, we are finally, finally, starting to make it ours. No one tells you that moving takes a year, not a day.

One of the top boxes on our house checklist was space for not one, but two, offices. After spending three years living and working together in 800 square feet, Ben and I were desperate to have separate offices. You know, so I wouldn’t have to sit in on every one of his work video chats and conference calls (I am now almost fluent in programmer), and so he could have the quiet work time he so desperately craved between calls and my near-constant stream of conversation.

But it has also been a dream of mine to have a space to spread out projects + do photo shoots, to meet with new people, and invite friends over to co-work. I love Starbucks and hotel lobby meetings, but sometimes you just need a place where you know you can always pull up a cozy chair, have reliable wifi, and spin Taylor Swift albums softly on a record player in the background.

So here’s a little sneak peek of all of the fun plans we have for my self-described Scandinavian Palm Springs home office – a little bit minimalist, a lot of color, and definitely bright + modern. Although I love home design and can spend hours scouring pinterest for drool-worthy spaces, I know when I’m in over my head and when to call the professionals. My wonderful friend Caitlin Timson, who works with Homepolish, created these beautiful designs and she absolutely designed a space that meets right in the middle of form and function.

There are three “spaces” within this giant room – a cozy meeting/working nook on the far left, a working table in the middle, and empty space for shooting in natural light on the far right.

I have a bit of a DIY streak in my DNA, so in addition to painting the walls, there are a few other projects up my sleeves for this space! While I’m not one for coming up with great project ideas, I’m pretty crafty when it comes to customizing someone else’s DIY tutorial, and I can gladly point you in the direction of their amazing instructions.

This is the office as it was shortly after we moved in, full of boxes and office supplies and I have no idea how we fit all of that in our tiny little apartment…

Future home of the meeting/office nook, full of nice pink light reflecting off the red siding of our next door neighbor’s house. In the photo above, you may notice that there isn’t a closable door to this room, and as much as I love our furry children and their desire to be in all photos, I will need a way to keep them out occasionally. I found an awesome tutorial for a DIY sliding door that I can’t wait to try here.

The right wall in the photo below has been a point of serious discussion and debate over when I will be allowed to install a window to add more light into the one room that is slightly lacking on the natural variety (and obviously the room that needs it most). Spoiler alert: adding a window into a poured concrete wall is definitely outside of the realm of DIY and in the realm of I should probably get a professional and an excavator for that, neither of which I currently have, so it’s going to have to wait.

Future home of the working table, where the fireplace is quaint, but currently the most simple/boring fireplace on the planet (don’t worry, I have plans for that too, and it will put my new-found tiling skills to good use!)

Future home of the photo shoot area, where the natural light is lovely. There are currently no planned architectural changes to this space other than wall color and junk removal.

So there’s your first peek into our house, and I can’t wait to show you what it looks like when it’s all done! We’ve also simultaneously been  s  l  o  w  l  y  working on our master bathroom, which was a nice little surprise renovation that we didn’t exactly plan on, and I’ve been sharing some sporadic behind the scenes snaps of that over on Snapchat if you want to follow along (I’m @annareynal on pretty much everything).

Please feel free to ask anything about plans or designs or sources and I’ll try to either answer in the comments or touch on it when it’s time to share the big reveal!