While I’m itching to jump right in and get my hands dirty with the keeping room project, I’m making myself slow down and come up with a solid plan. While I would rather make the perfect art piece or refinish the light fixtures, I know that if I head into a project with a solid plan, it will turn out better. This is always true. Today, I’m sharing the design plan and color scheme for the keeping room.
Making a mood board is hands down the smartest thing I do before going into a project. It’s a no-cost way to try out some ideas, see what I like, learn what I don’t like, and give me a general guide for how I want a space to look. It saves me from future analysis paralysis and helps narrow down options to make easier decisions.
One last note to preface the mood boards. While I may feature a light from Restoration Hardware or pillows from Anthropologie, I cannot afford those things. Instead, I’m searching for the look for less when thrifting, on marketplace, or by making it. But the design plan guides this search and the building projects. It’s my inspiration behind what we do.
Since the keeping room is a multi-purpose space, I broke it down into two mood boards, one for the office side and the other for the guest room/reading room/music room side (which I’m simplifying and just referring to as the “living room” part of the space from here on out). Without further ado.
Home Office Design Plan
Sources: Paint Color (Cabin Fever by Benjamin Moore), Velvet Curtains (Anthropologie), Rug (La Messina from Studio McGee), Desk (Pottery Barn), Desk Chair (Wayfair), Cabinet (Etsy), Drafting Table (Etsy), Drafting Stool (Etsy), Art (Juniper Print Shop), Wall Mount Fan (Wayfair), Desk Lamp (Target), Pencil Cup (Pottery Barn), Monitor Stand (West Elm), Laptop Stand (West Elm), Clip Light (Restoration Hardware)
The nonnegotiables for this space included the rug, wall color, desk, rolling office chair, drafting table, and overhead light fixtures since we already have them and love them. Most of the major pieces are in place and now it’s time for accessories and COLOR. Here’s the room now, devoid of accent colors.
Finding the ranunculus art print kicked off the entire design plan. From there, I pulled colors for the curtains, pillows, and other accessories. That’s often how I start designing a space or creating a mood board for a room. I find one statement item that I LOVE and pull colors from there. For example, when we renovated our primary bathroom and used a shower curtain as the base of the design plan.
I also need to talk about the cabinet for a moment. I wanted to include a vintage cabinet in this space which will be used to house all the office supplies and hide the printer. For the keeping room to function as an office, it needs more storage space. I came across that mustard yellow cabinet with wallpaper backing and instantly fell in love. I have a strong vision of finding a vintage cabinet that I can back with wallpaper and chalk paint. Fingers crossed I can find just the right size to fit our space.
Can we talk about the wall-mount fan for a second? While scouring Pinterest, I saw a few images of offices with these vintage wall-mount fans. I cannot, for the life of me, find these images because I didn’t pin them. Oh, the shame of such a major Pinteresting faux pas! But inspiration struck and I started searching around for wallmount fans. One thing that often clutters Colby’s desk is a fan. Since desk space is tight along with floor space for a large fan, I loved the idea of this style. I’m hoping we could position it to hit both the desk and the couch.
I didn’t include them in the design plan, but I also want to include vintage office supplies or at least vintage-looking office supplies. Can you imagine that cabinet filled with vintage office treasures?! I’ve already sourced a tape dispenser and a hole punch for a total of $2.25 while thrifting. And I recently secured an old-school paper cutter from eBay. You know, the ones we had in our schools growing up that could chop an arm off?! Yeah, those. And it will remain well out of reach of our children.
Now, onto the design plan for the multi-purpose, living room side of the room.
Living Room Design Plan
Sources: Paint Color (Cabin Fever by Benjamin Moore), Velvet Curtains (Anthropologie), Rug (La Messina from Studio McGee), Art (Juniper Print Shop), Sleeper Sofa (IKEA), Pillow – Mustard Yellow (Anthropologie), Pillow – Turkish Rug (Anthropologie) Flushmount Light (Rejuvenation), Coffee Table (West Elm), Plant Pot (Anthropologie), Book Holder (Anthropologie), Basket (Pottery Barn), Blanket (Bearaby), Guitar (Rickenbacker), Guitar Hook (Levy), Amp (Marshall), Record Cabinet (Pottery Barn Teen), Record Player (Crosley)
While serving as Colby’s office is the primary use of the keeping room, we also want it to be a guest room, music room, and reading room. So think sleeper sofa, record storage, guitar collection, coziness, etc.
Because of the multi-purpose use of the space, it guided many of my decisions, one of which is the velvet curtains. This room is cold. It’s exposed to the outside on three walls, has a very drafty rock wall foundation under it, and has no heat source. Although we did add an electric heater inside the fireplace. I want to make heavy, velvet drapes to help keep the cold from coming through the ancient windows and add blackout lining.
Let’s talk coffee tables for a second. In all our years of cohabitation, 15-ish years now, we have never had an intentional coffee table. We’ve picked up side-of-the-road freebies that didn’t quite work or used an old wooden toolbox as a temporary coffee table. To say we’re both excited to build a custom coffee table at just the right size for our space is an understatement.
The zone in this room Colby is most excited for is the music nook. Which will go here in this space beside the fireplace.
The plan is to build a record storage cabinet that will fit the wall opposite the fireplace. Inside will hold all our records plus a drawer or shelf to hold guitar accessories. Colby’s latest obsession is finding just the right vintage record player and the components he needs to work with his vintage Bose speakers which will also go in this room if we can rehab them. The record player will sit on top of the cabinet with the guitars hanging above it on the wall. We have a few guitar hanging hooks but I think it’s time for an upgrade to the brass/leather beauties in the design plan.
Colby is a guitar guy. He’s a great guitar player, don’t let him tell you otherwise, and it’s one of his hobbies he wants to make more time for now that our children are at a slightly less demanding age. I want to give him an inspiring space for his love of music. Rowan has even picked it up and plays with him on occasion (the red guitar is hers).
I’m hoping all the guitars can hang on the wall above the record player. It’s a tight, slim chance. BUT if that happens, I’ll have the full length of the wall between the hanging guitars and the fireplace for some art. I’m thinking Johnny Cash, The Eels, or Pearl Jam related musical art or framed posters.
Keeping Room Color Scheme
And finally, the color scheme for the entirety of the keeping room design plan, both the home office design and living room design plans combined.
Sources: Cabin Fever (Benjamin Moore), Antique Bronze (Benjamin Moore), Dark Walnut (Minwax), Sapphireberry (Benjamin Moore), Titanic Rose (Benjamin Moore), Hale Navy (Benjamin Moore)
The walls and ceiling of the keeping room are already painted the deep, dark army green, Cabin Fever by Benjamin Moore. The room could probably stand a fresh coat of paint someday but that day is not today. Repainting is currently off the table. Combined with the other color non-negotiable, the dark floor stain, it gave a base to add some accent colors. In general, the space is currently pretty neutral. The perfect palette to start adding color.
The color scheme came from playing around with art and accessories for the project’s mood board. I started noticing a few themes emerging including ice blues, pinks, and mustard yellows. Which makes sense, they’re some of my favorite colors to pair with dark green.
I like giving myself a general color palette to work with during a full-room project like this. While I don’t use it strictly, like trying to match fabric colors to my paint color choices, it does serve as a guidepost. For example, when shopping for pillows I may not pick a solid, mustard yellow pillow but maybe one that has some mustard yellow in the pattern which ties into the art with a bit of mustard yellow. As you layer items with threads of your color palette, you’re more likely to have a cohesive design at the end.
Next Steps For The Keeping Room
Armed with a design plan and a color scheme for the keeping room, my next major step is creating a space plan. I don’t always do this for rooms, but usually don’t skip it for smaller areas where I’m trying to maximize the space. I sit down with graph paper and draw everything to scale, moving around furniture until it all fits and flows. The space plan will give me dimensions for the vintage cabinet I’m looking for and also for the record storage we’ll be building.
Then, in a few weeks during the girls’ winter break from school, we’re planning a big thrift adventure. I’ll be hitting all my favorite thrift stores that are just outside my daily reach to look for some of the big items, like the storage cabinet and drafting stool. Maybe even some art and fabrics.
In the meantime, I have an idea for a large-scale art piece I’m itching to start. I may have to work on that next week and refinish the existing light fixtures for less of a I bought these from Amazon for $7 and more of an antique vibe. Stay tuned.
