At the start of the year, I determined that my next space to tackle was going to be my home office. I work from home about 80% of the time and while I'm so thankful to have my own space to work and shoot in, it's so easy to make it the lowest priority to renovate and decorate because no one sees it but me.
For this post I have teamed up with the wonderful home decor and gifts store in Greenville, South Carolina – Scarlet Tassel.
They so kindly gifted me with a few decor items that put the perfect polish on my cottage-inspired office space.
And, good news, if you're not local to Greenville they now have an online shop where you can find an ever-changing selection of home decor, gifts, jewelry and even children's items that come straight from their charming and curated shop.
Thank you to Scarlet Tassel for sponsoring this blog post. As always, all opinions are my own.
A Reminder of the Office 'Before'
It wasn't bad – but it sure wasn't good. I had the cottage concept in my mind for a while. Ultimately, my mood board centered around the idea of peaceful and calm and the cottagecore trend of a little burrow tucked into the woods fulfilled that vision perfectly. In this post I shared my mood board for the space and this TikTok helped document our progress.
Before, it was just a room. A messy room, certainly, but not a bad room. But it was time for a change.
So, with the help of Scarlet Tassel we went from this to . . .
. . .This!
Over the course of about 4 months, so definitely not an overnight transformation.
The Process
I went back and forth about what to do on the walls. At first it was wallpaper, then an accent wall of wallpaper, then just painting the entire room a color then finally we landed on doing a chair rail height of bead board around the whole room and painting it a soft accent color.
That was an excellent move.
Not only was it cheaper than wallpaper it was much easier to install and complete than a whole room of paper. And I think it exudes that charming cottage look without being too loud.
We bought the bead board at Home Depot in large sheets along with the top trim and I believe the total cost was $200 – a little more expensive than normal due to the cost of any home reno items at the moment.
I then painted it in my favorite, Clare Paint in the color Beiging a beautiful grey/tan color that I'm so happy with. One thing I did not expect, however, was how time consuming it was going to be to paint bead board. There are so many cracks and crevices in the material that you really have to take your time to cover the entire surface. But this paint brush was the best one for the job - and any home painting job really.
Once the trim + bead board was up and painted it was time to start the decorating process.
Adding in Decor by Scarlet Tassel
In my stories over the next day or so you'll see me doing a walk-through of the Scarlet Tassel shop admiring – well, everything! They have a great selection of items, no matter your style. The pieces I picked out for my office were everything I could have hoped for.
Links below to the Scarlet Tassel online store and their selections:
- Set of 3 Framed Floral Prints – hang them like me in a line across the wall, or separate the trio for unique prints around the walls. You could even just start with one and add more if it fits your space.
- 3 Beautiful Ginger Jars – this one and this one add the perfect touch of pattern and color to a space. Use them for vases, decor pieces, or anything!
- Large Woven Basket – an absolutely beautiful, versatile basket that can store everything from magazines to quilts
- Sea Salt Bread Bowl Candle – a subtle and calming scent that makes me think my little cottage office could be around the bend from the sea.
And now that these items have been successfully styled in my cottage inspired home office I can 100% vouch for their quality and beauty.
A Few Other Special Pieces That Brought the Room Together
THE ARMCHAIR – I have been loving the Threshold X Studio McGee collection at Target recently and along with a few pieces elsewhere in the house, this chair in my office added the perfect additional furniture piece.
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THE CURTAINS – these were my splurge for the office. I searched high and low for pre-made English cottage curtains and couldn't find anything. So I reached out to an British fabric maker and had a few yards custom made and shipped to me. Then my mom designed and sewed the curtains for a truly custom made piece. They are absolutely beautiful and bring the room together in such a great way.
A Space Is Never Quite Finished
Over the last three years of renovations and home ownership I've realized that often spaces are never quite finished. My office is a classic example of that. I am still on the hunt for a few special pieces like a maple or oak vintage dresser for the corner of the room, a weathered side table for my chair, some new hardware for the closet doors, etc.
But, my current office state is wonderful and a space I could not have completed without the beautiful finishing touches that the pieces from Scarlet Tassel provided.
If you are looking for gifts, home decor, entertaining pieces, or accessories the Scarlet Tassel online shop or brick and mortar store is your new go-place.
Visit their website or their social media accounts (Instagram & Facebook) to see what's new and beautiful!
