3 Interior Designers Convert The Same Attic Space into a Home Office

[Announcer] These three interior designers

have been asked to transform this empty attic space

into a home office.

They have free rein to design it in any way they please.

I'm Noz, and my design style

is whimsical, bold, and narrative.

I'm Kat, and my design style

is immersive, ever evolving, and thoughtful.

I'm Hema, and my design style

is global, eclectic, and livable.

[Announcer] No clients, no restrictions, just blank space.

My first impressions of this space

are wow, what potential.

It is very sad and dark.

We've got a big pole in the way, no natural light.

It feels cold and kinda harsh.

I love how long it is,

and I also love the pitched ceilings.

I think those will be fun to work with.

I love the idea of turning a sort of mundane space

into something that's highly functional

and also beautiful in its own right.

The idea here is that this is my personal beach escape.

It's always my goal to be on vacation, at least mentally.

I think that it could be really fun

to lean into a '70s vibe and mix in some Brazilian

and space age elements to really spice it up.

My vision for this space is light.

It is neutrals, but it's fun.

I do want for you to add luminosity into the space,

so that it feels like a really rich

and rewarding place to do work.

These floors have a very unfinished look.

We've got these slats.

It almost looks like a subfloor.

Well, it looks a little dangerous for us to walk on this.

I could see a puppy foot going straight through all of that.

I could see a high heel going straight through these floors,

but I also really like them.

The floor is currently these open slats.

I'm gonna opt in for a wall-to-wall mustard yellow carpet.

I chose this really beautiful plush carpet

by Christopher Farr.

It's hand woven, made of wool and silk,

and I think it will really help cozy up the room

and make you want to spend more time in it.

I think there's something about these floors

that is inspiring me

because I can see all of that light through it,

so what I wanna do [laughs], which is kinda wild,

I wanna cover the floor in like a really thick Lucite.

You can get Lucite sheets in really, really big pieces,

and that is going to enable me to have a stable sturdy floor

that doesn't have giant holes through it,

but I'll still get all that light from underneath.

What I wanna do is place

a beautiful white lacquer wood floor.

Looks very Scandinavian, it's clean,

but at the same time, it's warm.

Unlike tile, wood floors retain heat,

and so, we've got this like reflective,

bright clean white surface that still feels kinda cozy.

Now, I'm not just gonna do a white lacquered wood floor.

I kinda had this idea to work

with this beautiful terrazzo slab material.

This is from my friends at Concrete Collaborative,

and I'm gonna have this inlaid

into the corner here where my seating area is,

so it's like my little pond in the middle of my beach.

So the walls are currently a cement brick,

and I would love to clad them in a beautiful black walnut.

I also want to carry the walnut

all the way up to the ceiling

and box out the beams in it too,

to create a super immersive vibe

that feels very rich and warm.

In this case, we have a very dramatic pitched ceiling,

and so, I think I'm gonna lean into that.

So the walls and the ceiling here,

I'm going to cover them all

in a beautiful palm print wallpaper.

I really love this one from ARTE.

It kind of emulates that palm tree shadow on sand

that you see sometimes when you're on vacation.

I love the beams, the detail is really cool,

but these beams are not cute.

So we're gonna make them cute

by painting them a really nice cream color,

and then we're gonna hand paint a motif across each beam.

This is something that I've seen in India,

and I just really love that sort of artisanal feel,

and it would make me happy to look at this every day.

So I personally don't like live for cinder block.

It's a very practical material.

They feel very cold and a little austere.

If I don't have a budget, I'm going to do a lime wash.

I think it's still really luxurious.

There's something almost elemental and mineral rich

about doing the walls in a special finish

that comes from the earth.

I really love the vaulted ceiling.

Well, I wanna show that off,

but I wanna make sure the roof stays standing.

We're gonna replace this structural post

instead with trusses.

I love the ones that spray out like a sun,

and if you have one, two, three, four, five,

it is a queen post truss.

In my personal dream beach office,

we're gonna have a skylight in as many places as we can.

We're gonna get those clouds in, and as the day goes on,

you're gonna see the light change.

Most importantly,

I think we have to bring in some skylights into this space,

so I'm gonna add in six skylights

between every other beam to the ceiling.

I wanna add skylights in this space.

I think that's a really obvious way

to add some sort of natural light introduction

into this volume.

I think the biggest challenge of this space

is the massive chimney that's running on the left side.

We have to create some kind of symmetry or purpose

for this awkward brick wall.

We can't move it.

It's a fireplace, it's gotta stay.

And with this chimney situation,

I think it would be really great

to just create a built-in bookshelf with it.

I think we could continue the walnut as the framing

and then add in a painted textured glass panel

to introduce another texture to the space.

I think we mirror the chimney shape on the other side,

do another built-in bookshelf that matches,

and then we can have a lounge space in the front

and a workspace in the back.

Artist Lukas Wegwerth, who's out of Germany,

he makes these beautiful,

like stained pink and stained natural,

almost scallop shape, like dragon scale shingles,

that this artist like puts all over his stuff.

I first saw it in Design Miami with Gallery FUMI,

and I was like, what is this thing?

So I love the idea of asking the artist

to actually create a skin to go over the fireplace flue.

If you have to live with this architectural remnant

in a big part of your office, you may as well make it fun.

So we decided to make it sort of a functional art piece.

I've plastered it and carved out some niches,

and each niche has

a very beautiful hand painted floral motif.

And if I ever wanted to store things in these shelves,

I could.

It could hold books, it could hold little tchotchkes,

photos, anything inspirational to me.

So there's actually another vertical beam like this

running in the back of the space,

so I think it'd be really cool to accentuate these poles

and round them out and cover them in a polished steel.

There's this insane villa in Berlin called Villa Kluge,

and they actually have a focal point in the room

where they've created a cantilevered desk out of chrome,

kind of like this.

So I wanted to take inspiration from that

and build something in the back of the space

that I feel like would be

a really strong and bold statement in that room.

I wanna pair the desk with these two amazing chairs

by Brazilian architect Jorge Zalszupin.

They have a chrome frame,

which I think will go nicely with the desk,

and also they're in a subtle dark olive green leather,

which I think is really nice against the wood.

So across from the desk,

I would love to do something a bit more low profile.

So I found this vintage leather bench by Bodale KR.

It's in a really beautiful cognac leather,

and it also has chrome legs.

The back of this space is gonna be my coffee break area.

Coffee is an absolute must for me,

and I like this idea of having a drink station,

where we can just take a break, make a drink,

and then sit right here at this corner banquette.

So the banquette fabric,

I've upholstered in this beautiful Schumacher material.

It's got kind of like this linear print.

It was a collaboration with Porter Teleo,

and the base of the banquette

is gonna be this lovely terracotta,

kind of like rough feeling tile again.

Maybe this beach office is inspired a little bit by Greece.

So what I would love to do in my home office in the attic

is create a ridiculous S-shaped table

that snakes itself around the fireplace and then into it,

and I'm very excited about this S table

because I've done it as a dining table once before

and it seated so many people.

It can serve as a giant shared desk.

It can serve as a collaboration table,

where like we have samples all over the table

and we're looking at them with each other

under the natural light of skylights.

And then for the office chairs,

listen, everyone can do what they want.

I like a chair that rolls.

I need casters, but I want it to be chic,

it's my home office after all.

I'm obsessed with these chairs

that I saw at Design Miami by artist Chris Wolston,

and I wanna upholster them in squishy fun things.

Both of these are really, really lush and cozy,

and I want the home office to be cozy.

So I think it's important for a home office,

especially, if you have as much space as this,

is to create two zones.

So in the front of the space,

I really want to create a lounge/reading type area,

so I want to bring in this amazing chair.

It's ring shaped.

It's by a Brazilian architect named Ricardo Fasanello.

He's one of my favorites.

And I think it really helps to bring in

a space age vibe into the space.

I love the idea of building a daybed

off of the right side bookshelf.

The bottom cushion's covered

in a beautiful fabric by Kvadrat,

and then the back cushions are reupholstered

in this beautiful fabric

inspired by an architectural print by Elitis.

We also need file cabinets, right,

like no matter how paperless your office is,

you always end up having something that needs to be there,

even if it's just for like storing crayons or something.

There is an artist, Colette Elmaiz, who I'm obsessed with,

and they have these like tall stack,

like gorgeous file cabinets,

that have this round base

with a rectangular tower of drawers over top of it.

And I think that would be really cool

to have three right in a row.

So to further create division,

without actually adding walls, I like to use rugs,

because they visually sort of delineate areas in rooms.

Here, we're gonna add a beautiful terracotta colored rug

in the middle with an island on top.

We look at lots of samples,

so we really do need a lot of that flat space.

So we're creating this island area in the middle,

and the idea is group gathering.

Another thing that's super, super important in my office,

and probably most offices, is storage.

I'm gonna add this beautiful credenza off to the right

where we're gonna store some samples

and then maybe have some coffee table design books up top.

We're gonna sort of create like a little sample area

where we can store things and put them away.

Above the credenza, again,

because we don't really have a lot of tall wall space,

I'm gonna include these ceiling mount shelves.

And they're gonna be mounted on where the angle starts,

and that's sort of gonna save our wall space

and give us that extra storage that we need.

So I wanna use this Abel chair from BDDW.

So we're gonna use a little side table

from a designer in San Francisco, Lane McNab,

and this side table feels so much

like the base of the table that I've designed for the S,

so this feels like the perfect side table.

There's also this incredible designer, Maurice Marty,

who's represented by Twenty First Gallery.

They make a bolt desk.

It's so bonko, and I like kinda need it up here.

It's ridiculous.

One of the legs of the desk is literally a giant gold bolt,

and it actually is such a thorough design feature

that it comes up through the surface of the desk,

which I just think is so joyful

and that feels super industrial, but like beautiful.

So moving up to the front, I've always wanted a gold desk.

So here we have an L-shaped desk,

and I'm imagining that there is a wall straight across here.

So we're gonna take up the wall space on the right hand side

with a beautiful big L-shaped desk,

and then on the left, that's gonna be our relaxation area,

because I don't know about you,

but most creative people and people in general

need a lotta breaks.

So I wanted to create a nice break area here

across from the desk.

The chair is a beautiful chair by Thomas Hayes Studio.

He's based here in LA,

and I've reupholstered it with this St. Frank fabric.

So it's a little bit of an eclat global ethnic print.

It just makes me happy,

but I love the shape,

and the back is like very supportive and it does swivel.

The idea behind creating this little pond terrazzo area

is so that I can then

place some furniture over here and create

an area that's kind of away from the main workspace,

where I can go maybe lay down, take a call, take a nap,

but it's meant to kind of section off the space

without adding walls.

We've got this chaise lounge from The Expert,

covered in this beautiful boucle cozy fabric,

so I can be like on my own little island

when I wanna take a nap.

If this were my office, we keep samples in the office,

we keep these like pieces of wood

and like leather and fabric, right,

like we need somewhere for that to go.

I love having things have friends in my spaces,

so I don't want this little armadillo cabinet back here

to be a lonely friend with nobody.

I think it's very, very cool

to showcase like the artist twice.

So artist Lukas Wegwerth, who's out of Germany,

this giant armadillo cabinet

that like comes down and has little legs.

Here's the other thing about a home office in the attic,

I personally feel really strongly about accessibility,

especially, when it comes to commercial spaces.

I'm gonna put an elevator in my home office,

So we're gonna do one of those little tube elevators

that you can retrofit into older houses,

and they don't go very far.

They'd only go like three stories,

which I'm presuming this home is at most.

So we're gonna tuck it just behind the fireplace flue.

Let's talk about lighting.

I do like more of an ambient glow,

which is why I'm not in a home office,

putting like big desk functional lights everywhere.

Over this giant S-shaped table,

I want to do something kind of unexpected

and a little bit animalish

because of the like armadillo scale thing

I'm really excited about.

So there are these light fixtures made out of leather

from L'Aviva Home.

They're by a Colombian artist and his team,

Edgar Beltran Jaramillo.

They look like flowers, but they look like animals,

and they feel like they would make friends

with the armadillo stuff in the room.

So they come in lots of different leathers,

so like literally, there's like eggplant, there's pebble,

this is like kind of a cognac.

There's so many different colors.

I'm not personally a big fan of recess lighting.

I think there are better options here.

So what I want is the drama.

We've got this beautiful pitched ceiling,

these dramatic skylights,

and so, I wanted to add a chandelier that I love.

This is the Lindsey Adelman chandelier,

and we have seen it here on Space Savers before,

but this is my take on it.

It's like adding jewelry to the ceiling.

It's got a few lights, and in my mind, it's on a dimmer,

so we can adjust how intense it is.

But really, it's just the drama

of Lindsey Adelman's chandelier.

In addition to the skylights,

I want to bring in a lot of ambient lighting to the space.

So on the front lounge area,

I'm gonna add in this light fixture by Mariyo Yagi.

I actually have this light in my dining room,

and I'm obsessed with it.

The frame is made out of a French silk,

and I think it brings

a really nice feminine touch to the space.

On the right side above the daybed,

I wanna bring in this oversized sconce by A-N-D Light,

which is a really cool lighting company out of Vancouver.

The finish is actually in a textured glass as well,

so I think it works

to compliment the bookshelf quite nicely.

I actually have a new lighting collection

with Corbett Lighting,

and I'm really, really excited and very proud of them,

but I'm really into using my Riviera sconce.

They're like alabaster roundies

that sit dangling off of the sconce base.

I think they're really cool, and they're casual, right.

So a personal inspiration of mine is Anna Karlin.

I love this totem lamp that she's made.

It's kind of wild.

I like barely understand how it was built,

and I just, I think it's incredible.

So it sort of suspends itself

between the vaulted ceiling and the floor.

And then, Jenna Lyons, also love her.

She has this whole lighting collection with Roll & Hill,

and so I'm just featuring one of her lamps.

The thing that's hard to see about it,

when you're sort of at eye level with it,

is the base is like a starfish, it's wild.

So as far as decorating the office,

I don't know that I need

tons of physical objects in the space.

I love what we've done with the trusses.

I don't want to put art on the wall.

Again, I want fewer distractions, but I want a vibe.

Office is not complete without a vibe,

and I think I wanna do that with lighting.

So I'm gonna do a wash of lighting up all of the walls,

the entire perimeter, with LED color light.

I'm gonna choose hot pink in this instance

because I have pink chairs.

But the cool thing about LEDs is they can be any color,

so if you're like, You know what,

I'm kind of like over the hot pink vibe,

I think today's giving me emerald green,

you could do that.

The decor I'm gonna keep to a minimum.

I'm gonna put some books on the bookshelf,

some found objects, and some vases, but in general,

I like to not over clutter spaces

for the sake of just putting things on the shelves.

I think it's really important to collect things over time,

things that you love,

and for the shelves to grow with how you grow.

I've included a very large piece by Kader Boly.

I love his work, and I love his story.

He used to be a shepherd in Africa

and then made his way over to the United States.

Kinda came from nothing,

and now has this huge booming art career.

So not only are the paintings beautiful,

but I just love the story, and I feel like every day,

looking at this piece of art

would be really inspirational to me.

And then I love plants.

They bring fresh air, and they just make a space feel good.

So this is my little aerial jungle.

We've got hanging plants, we've got floor trees,

we've got a tree over here in this built-in banquette.

So we're scattering greenery all throughout,

again, for that ethereal sort of breath of fresh air feel

that we're trying to capture here.

Overall, I love this space,

and overall, it just makes me feel

like I'm walking into vacation every day,

when really, it's work.

I'm super happy with how this turned out.

Personally, I would love to work in a space like this.

I love how the chrome accents

and the Brazilian space age furniture

really helps bring everything together.

I am obsessed with this home office.

We've got weird shapes.

We've got little guys that look like animals.

We've got texture,

we've got artists and designers

in a space that I get to celebrate,

but it's also generally kind of beige.

It allows me to use the lighting as the color,

and if we ever had a client over,

I'd be really proud to host them

for a meeting in this space.

So, I think we nailed it.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

[Noz] Everyone's is so different.

This feels like a fairytale land.

[Kat] Oh my gosh, it's cute. It's wild.

[Hema] It's Barbie's Extra Dream House, I love that.

The pink is actually like a light wash,

so she could be green, she could be yellow,

but everything else is.

Oh, thanks. I love that.

This is awesome. Okay,

and you kept the column?

Yeah, so I just cladded it in like a polished steel,

and then I tried to create,

like with the chimney, some symmetry.

That's so cute.

You have a little like breakfast nook situation, right.

Yeah, 'cause in my dreams, this is my office.

I get coffee, I take a break, I take a phone call.

[Noz] I put the record player on. Oh, look at you.

I had a whole lifestyle.

[Kat] This is amazing.

Oh my gosh, we all did skylights.

[Kat] Oh my gosh.

[All] We kinda had to. Yeah.

[Hema] It was like so ugly, so I had to make it beautiful.

[all laugh]