A Charming Home Office by Tessa Foley

Like so many of you, I am a fan of Tessa Foley of Nine and Sixteen Home. I have been ever since I discovered her blog and Instagram. She portrays life in a picturesque village just outside of Cincinnati and her images and blog posts are both aspirational and practical, filled with tips and ideas to help make our own homes more beautiful. As you can imagine, I’m thrilled that Tessa agreed to tell us a little bit more about a recently completed project – her home office makeover, which looks stunning by the way. Tessa also has a few national magazine pats on her back… Her beautiful home was published in Midwest Living in December 2014 and, later this year, we’ll see it featured in Nora Murphy’s book – Country House Style. Welcome, Tessa! 

Hello Café Design readers! Thank you so much, Eva, for inviting me to guest post on your absolutely gorgeous blog! I get so much inspiration from you! I’m excited to share a little peek of our home with all of your readers. For those of you that don’t know me, I’m a blogger at Nine & Sixteen Home, turned self-taught designer, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, with a love of cozy, classic interiors, heavily inspired by coastal New England style and traditional English country interiors. Today I’m sharing one of my favorite places in our home, my office…

My office is situated in a sitting room right off our master bedroom. It is part of an early addition to our home (by the original homeowners), that for many years sat untouched by me and was occasionally used by my husband as his home office. Once I started my interior design business I took over the room because I needed a space that was more removed from the main living areas of our home, allowing me to work with less interruptions.

Above is a picture of our master bedroom, which you walk through to get to my office.

Since my office is connected to our master bedroom, I wanted the spaces to flow seamlessly from one to the next. Our master bedroom is wallpapered in a green and cream Thibaut paper, with lots of natural linen and blue accents in the fabrics, art and accessories. I kept the same color palette for the office, starting with painting everything (doors, walls, ceiling, windows and trim) in Farrow and Ball’s French Gray, which reads as a pretty soft green in our light. For design inspiration, I tried to evoke the feeling of a Nantucket summer cottage. We vacation there every year and it’s the place where I’m most inspired. There is something about a summer cottage with a collected-over-time, effortlessly charming feeling that really speaks to my soul. To capture that look, I mixed and matched furniture from estate sales, consignment stores and even Craigslist. I kept a traditional floral (my all time favorite, Althea from Lee Jofa) on the windows and faux bamboo footstool and hung a variety of art, from sketches to paintings, on the walls. This room looks out over our stone patio in the back of the house which is surrounded by trees, adding to the green tones in the room. Pretty light filters through the branches and, in the spring and summer I’m serenaded all day by birds.

For my desk, I used a scrubbed pine table found unexpectedly at a local consignment store. I love having it positioned right in front of a window. I also love the Les Indiennes block print lamp shade. I’ve been using so many patterned lamp shades lately in my design plans. They add a pretty layer to any room. Also, my desk is rarely this neat.

I recently added a new business partner to Nine and Sixteen Home, he’s happy to test out fabric durability for me.

I am always moving around artwork in our home. I used to have a very stately antique gentleman portrait, that I found at an estate sale in New England, on the wall next to my desk. He has since moved to my husband’s “new” office downstairs.

This is the only room in our home without hardwood or tile floors. I had wall-to-wall seagrass installed and I’ve been so happy with it! I just love the texture and relaxed feel it brings to a room. The antique chest was an estate sale find and houses furniture catalogues and samples. I also have a closet to store fabric memos, which have a tendency to take over the room.

This is a favorite spot to sit and put my feet up while I brainstorm, or for my kids (human or four-legged) to hang out when they “pop in” for a visit.

I’m so a grateful to have this little space of my own to escape to when I’m working. I only work part time, so this provides just the right amount of function and pretty, yet still work as part of our master suite. Thank you so much for letting me share it with you today!

xo,

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