By Krista Nye Nicholas
None of us would have wished for the mandatory global shutdown of our lives as we formerly knew them, and yet so much good has already come from it. A slower pace. Renewed focus on what really matters after all of the BS and busywork is stripped away. Creativity bubbling up in surprising ways. Connecting with old friends (#virtualcocktailhour, anyone?) But perhaps most importantly, a redefined sense of the significance of home, and an ever-growing, fierce love for the people we’re now spending more time with than ever before within these walls. One thing has never been truer - our homes are our havens.
The first week of sheltering in place I spent working on a laptop from my bed, buried underneath the covers in yoga pants and a rotation of beat up old t-shirts. I was in denial - hibernating and hoping I’d wake up only to realize this had all just been a nightmare. But very quickly it became all too obvious that working from home was going to be the norm for the foreseeable future, so the interior designer in me got down to work creating a home office that I’d be inspired by. I’ve always had a deep need to be surrounded by beautiful and meaningful things and my new desk was no exception.
The only trouble - space is at a major premium in this house which is occupied by my husband Mike and our motley crew blended family of 5 kids + 1 high energy Australian Shepherd! So I staked my claim on a teeny nook underneath our stairwell. All of the family photos that occupied the antique rosewood and ebony table were moved to consoles flanking the fireplace and I brought my big desktop home from the office - a laptop was most definitely not going to suffice for stewarding a small business through a global pandemic, nor for all of the virtual happy hours.
But beyond the functional workspace and technology, the rest of creating this home office has been entirely about the meaning, the beauty, and the joy. I snagged one of my favorite pieces of art - a vintage oil painting by an unknown artist - from our upstairs hallway and propped it up against the wall. A funky u-shaped vintage vase that Tami and I found on a treasure hunt bears flora and fauna cut from our yard. A small ceramic vessel that I discovered at a local pottery sale holds pens, pencils and a beautiful bookmark with a silk tassel that I picked up when wandering through the souk in Marrakesh. Mad et Len’s chic AF potpourri smells amazing and energizes me, and is gorgeous next to a trinket box made from a shard of antique china I found in a market in Shanghai one super humid day while meandering with my husband. Even my iMac Pro desktop dons a much-loved Paper Mills wallpaper pattern called Nani which makes me smile every time I see it! And, of course, a photo of my man makes the entire space come together perfectly for me - even though our kids teased that he’s working in the office not 6 feet away from my desk so why do I need a photo of him.
Tami and I have long shared the belief that spaces brimming with an intensely personal sense of history and heart, story and substance are what ultimately make a house a home. Or, in this case, a lovely little home office.