There are so many spaces that evolve as you live in your home. Some spaces you know are going to evolve, like a child’s room or a playroom, and some spaces unexpectedly evolve. With the home office is transitioning to a game room, it became necessary for the music room to function as both a music room and a work from home space. We wanted the piano to still be in this front room for piano lessons (plus I’m obsessed with the warm wood against the green), and it seemed like the natural room to have a first-floor desk.
As we started moving in all these furniture pieces, the room was disjointed, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that the furniture was competing. We kept moving things around and actually layering in more pieces! Side note: I just learned that I actually love a room to have a lot of furniture in it. It started feeling more lived in and a space that I could visualize our family in. I’m forever tweaking, but I wanted to share where we landed as of now and what still needs work.
Before
This is how the room looked when we first moved in. There were actually double doors leading into our bedroom that we closed off. So that’s what you’re seeing on the left below.
And After!
I’m in love, I’m in love!
Everything really clicked when I decided to off-center the piano with the wall. I was very focused on having everything centered and it wasn’t flowing at all. This asymmetrical layout feels more balanced, instead of trying to fit everything in the same axis.
Mural | Chandelier | Desk | Chair | Vase | Peonies | Credenza (similar) | Buffet Lamps | Fluted Bowl | Marble Links | Planter
I’m still not sure that this is the right desk. Maybe something lighter or maybe something with more curves could look great, but it functions really well and I’m enjoying it! It has drawers on both the front and back which is really practical for a floating desk. Right now I’m storing things like paint decks and measuring tapes on the backside for easy and quick access walking into the room, and more personal items in the drawers on the side where the chair is. We love, LOVE the chair at the desk! It’s so comfortable, but it doesn’t tuck under the desk because of where the arms are and how low the desk is with the drawers. It doesn’t really bother us because we love sitting in that comfy chair so much, but if it came down to changing either, we would probably swap the desk over the chair. But I don’t even know if we’re doing that!
I originally got two smaller leather chairs for this room, but as we started shifting the furniture around, I realized they weren’t right. The scale wasn’t right and two chairs became too much for this layout. This Ralph Lauren chair from Chairish was originally for the TV room, but now it only seems right here. (plus, I kind of love the two leather chairs in the bonus room!) I’m in love and it’s so comfortable. I found this gorgeous gorgeous floor lamp so we now have a secondary workspace. Sometimes it’s nice to work from a desk, and sometimes it’s nice to cozy up in a chair!
We tried many rugs in here, but none were the right size unfortunately. This rug, in particular, is too small for this room. I’m actually needing more of a 10×12, square shape-ed rug–which is an abnormal size, so I’m on the hunt!
On top of the piano, my idea is to layer a whole bunch of family photo frames. I’m starting to collect some from around the house, but I’m hoping to find some more! I love displaying these sentimental moments like this.
I wanted to wait for all the furniture to be in and settled before deciding to add sconces to the wall. With the lamps on the credenza, I’m not sure we need sconces! Plus I imagine I’ll continue tweaking this space and I don’t want to do something permanent on the wallpaper! (I can’t put a whole in it yet!!)
Sometimes when something’s new in your house, your eyes just need time to adjust. I feel like our eyes are adjusting and we’re settling right into this space! But I know it will continue to evolve over time. I just wanted to share with you where we are with it now because that is a large part of the process. Moving things around and letting spaces naturally evolve.
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Other Posts About the Study
Music Room Becomes the Study + a Mood Board
As others have said, thanks for sharing your process! So fun and interesting to see this room coming together. Have you considered a lucite desk? Maybe one with a traditional shape/details, positioned slightly closer to the window wall? I feel like that could be another modern element to the room that would complement the bubble light and let the more traditional elements of the room shine.
I would not change one thing!! It has a classic much used loved look and although it’s new, you’d never ER know it. Girl, the wallpaper has me entranced. It’s to die for♥️
Love everything! I’m curious what you will choose for window coverings now that the shutters are gone. Do you need to control the sunlight for fading? (Especially of that gorgeous mural) Also, any need for privacy at night?
Can you cut out the back of the credenza and make it a desk? Yes to sconces!
I love the mural so much and the modern chandelier paired with it, makes me wish I could have afforded to mural all the walls in our dining room! We could only do one, but this looks SO much better!