Designing Our Home Office

When we bought our house in March 2018, we knew that the prior owner and her late sister had lived here for the previous 40 years. Our understanding was that the house had been decently maintained but not updated in any significant way; that much was clear by sight and confirmed by the pre-offer inspection we conducted. It wasn't the most thorough inspection, since the housing market - and the relatively low price of the house - meant we needed to move fast and make an offer without contingencies, but we wanted to have an idea of what we were getting ourselves into.

We knew we'd have to put some real money into the house in the first year to make sure it was safe to live in: we did an electrical upgrade and some plumbing work before even moving in, plus painting every room to cover up the intense smell of cigarette smoke. We also took the screen enclosure off the front porch almost right away, had the porch roof replaced, rebuilt the back deck and stairs down from the back door, and had a new six-foot wooden fence erected around the backyard. The plan from the beginning, though, was to save up for a whole-house renovation down the road, putting off as much auxiliary work (structural and/or cosmetic) as possible so we could just incorporate our whole vision into one big project without earlier work needing to be redone.

We live in a Wardman-style rowhouse, one of thousands built in the first quarter of the 20th century here in Washington, DC. Many of these homes have - or had - the same original floor plan, and I love seeing what other occupants have done with what is essentially the same structure and space that we have. Over the decades, owners of these rowhouses have made internal changes that I pour over when the properties come on the market. They give me great ideas for what we can do (and, equally importantly, for what I don't want to do) with our own home.

This saved search on Redfin is the best way I've found to filter all the houses for sale to show only those that, now or once upon a time, look/ed like mine:
- property type: townhouse
- <$1.5M
- 1500-2500 sq ft
- min. 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms
- year built: before 1940
- must have basement

These filters give me properties that are - or were when they were originally built - a lot like ours, which means that I can mine them for updates that are actually actionable given our space. (I set $1.5M as the top limit because it tends to exclude Victorian rowhouses, which are completely different architecturally.) In fact, about half of the rowhouses that come up in my searches originally had very similar or even identical floor plans to our house! That makes it easier to picture how upgrades developers or owners might have done could look in our home.

There are certain things I know we want to incorporate into our renovation that are standard in renovated Wardmans, like a half bath on the first floor. Other plans are less common: for instance, the vast majority of renovated rowhouses combine either the front or back two bedrooms into one primary suite, and I know I want to retain all four bedrooms upstairs.

I knew that was important to me even in 2018, but now it’s clear that hybrid work is here to stay and I’d like a proper home office. Currently, Jon and I work from the dining room and living room or, if we need privacy, from our guest bedroom, which has a secretary disguised as a dresser. After we renovate, though, the guest room will be in the basement and we’ll be able to dedicate a whole - albeit small - bedroom upstairs to be our office. I say “our” as the thought is that we’ll share it; at the moment, we alternate WHF days. Even if that schedule changes in the future, though, I want to be sure that it has storage and surface enough for both of us.

As per the draft floorplan I’ve been refining over the last five years, the little bedroom in the front will become the home office. Nothing about it structurally will change, though we’ll remove the radiator (when we put in central air/heat) and I think we’ll take the door off the closet. Because the room is just under 86ft² at 7’11” by 10’10”, I put measurements into floorplanner.com to make sure everything I envision will fit.

We don’t have much that will transition to this space when it’s an office, unfortunately, since the current guest bedroom furniture will move down to the basement to the new guest bedroom.

That said, it would be helpful for this room to hold a daybed. Even though the real fourth bedroom will be elsewhere, I like the idea of having a chaise both for a comfortable spot from which to work and as an extra sleeping option.

I bought a round gold side table off Craigslist nearly ten years ago, so that will go into the office to be a surface next to the daybed that will fit into the far corner.

The chair was also a second-hand find - from Facebook Marketplace a few years ago - and I love it. I had a look around online to find a modern version to link to here but only came up with antiques priced way higher than the cost I paid. We’ll pair it with a desk from Ikea, which is a bit more low-brow but equally striking, and a matching sideboard for storage. I love the idea of the saturated colors of the furniture against white walls!

Plus a jute/sisal geometric with a soft teal in the geometric pattern, a classic bamboo shade, a gold standing lamp, and some gold wall shelves… the rest of the decor and artwork will come, but this feels like a good start!

lamp / shade / desk / chaise / sideboard / floating shelves / captain’s chair / rug