Salmon and Brass (and Chartreuse)

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You didn't know you needed these colors (with this finish) in your life. But you do, you totally do.

OK, so maybe that's a pep talk for myself as I take some design risks in my office. I tried to live with what I threw together as seen in earlier posts, but it's just not me. It's not working to get my creative juices flowing. Part of the problem is that I painted the bookcases a color that was recommended to me by a friend, and the hue is a much more earthy shade than what I'm used to working with (it's Puddle by Behr).

Want it? Buy it here from J.Crew.

I was at a loss for what to do about my current situation (I refuse to repaint), but then inspiration comes from unlikely sources. I got the 2015 J.Crew Winter/Spring catalog and boom. Check out those shoes. I want to build my whole office color scheme around them.

ERIN WILLIAMSON

I went on to search for more examples of using salmon in home design (you need to specify this otherwise you'll get dinner recipes) and found the above bedroom that has me swooning. The brass is so hot and relates to the fixtures on my bookcases. I also started having strong feelings for the faux-fur throw.

Come to mama, you fake snow leopard.

So imagine my delight when I saw this on SUPER sale at PB Teen. Yoink. I picked up that top throw really quick for less than $30. I intend to drape it over my office chair and wear it like a cape as I work at my desk.

Rugs USA Ottoman Vintage

The next step is to find a complimentary rug. I've got to be careful with the pattern play since the animal print throw is going to be so close to it. I fell in love with this one, but it's out of my price range. Still on the hunt.

Looking back at the gym shoes (that's what we call them in Chicago), I decided I'll throw in little touches of chartreuse, as well. In a funny turn of events, I wanted to reassure myself that bold colors would help me become more productive and daring so I looked up what Jenna Lyon's office looks like. See for yourself. That lady is influential.

Addendum: In the print version of the J.Crew catalog, the accent color appears to be salmon. Online it's reading as coral. I prefer the former.

Progress in the Office

Things are finally starting to fall into place. Actually, change that to move into place. "Fall" makes it seem like all this progress happened passively when really a lot of planning, sorting, cleaning, organizing, staining painting had to take place beforehand.

I did end up painting the walls after all. That dingy taupe had to go. When I went to pick up some fresh paint, Home Depot Steve wasn't there and I got H.D. Mark, instead. Oh, Mark, he humored me as I agonized over the subtle difference between Martha Stewart's Pure White and Glidden's White on White. Eventually the latter won out because I felt it had a better balance of red and blue tints. I mean, obviously, right?

I should say that I made some interesting choices when it came to picking color(s) for the office. At the end of my staining debacle with the office cabinets, I conceded to paint and couldn't even process what I was about to do. In DIY survivor mode, I asked a friend who has an affinity for painting furniture what color she used last and simply copied what she did. No weighing the pros and cons, no pondering the undertones, nada. I just did it and hoped for the best. I ended up with Behr's Puddle as I mentioned earlier. 

Since I was feeling kinda crazy gutsy, I didn't stop there with the bold choices. I took that purple/brown/grey color and paired it with red accents. RED! That color already has a reputation for making a scene, but keep in mind that right now in the design world we are hooked on greys and subtle neutrals. This red is coming out of nowhere. And I like that.

So without further ado, this is what things were looking like when I realized those walls needed to be painted:

And this is what we have going on now!

I won't advocate for painting wood, but I think this turned out OK.

Temporary desk chair, or not. We'll see. 

What you see on top of these surfaces is not permanent either. Just stylin'.

That file cabinet is the real workhorse here. 

Gratuitous library shots

Had to zoom in on our cuddles. 

Mas mejor, ¿no? I might actually get some work done these days!

Office, The Brain of the Home

Scheme for the office

The most important room in the house for the maintenance of sanity is the office. This, unfortunately, has been the last room to come into its own. By now you know about the epic cabinet debacle (at least half of my sanity perished with that alone). . . Well, those paint victims are now sitting pretty, just waiting to house books on risk management and diseases of muscle and nerves. I also acquired that beautiful spotlight desk from the C&B outlet. The red kilam rug is from West Elm (still on sale) and will go in the center of the room.

I'm really, really tired of painting, so I kept trying to convince myself that the current wall color would be just fine. The truth is, it's a dingy taupe that clashes horribly with the cabinets, which are painted Puddle by Behr (represented by that purple grey rectangle in the corner).

So now I'm moving things around in the office to prepare it for some new paint this weekend. I'm playing with sample colors in the top right corner. I think going with something lighter will make the cabinet and rug really pop. I had actually wanted to try something darker, more moody like a plum, but I just don't think it will work this time.

I grow impatient to get this all done with, but I know I should be a good girl and try paint samples. The upside to all of this will be the great likelihood of seeing Home Depot Steve. The downside will be having to report back to him on how my staining project went. . .