Office Design | Merging Styles with your SO

I moved in with my lovely boyfriend, Marshall, last year and ever since we’ve been merging and shifting decor to try and suit my Mid Century/Eclectic style with his modern and industrial tendencies. Most things have gone smoothly except one: The “office.”

Because we live in an open floor plan loft, our “office” is actually a corner in our living room where Marshall has set up a “holy shit gaming computer” complete with the neon lights, speakers and different headphones for different activities. Needless to say, it’s not the most natural or homey-feeling corner of the house. On top of it all, he’s added Lego Star Wars figures and Funko Pops - and who am I to take away from his desk decor?

It set me up for a decor challenge: Merge my style with his to create an office corner that’s cohesive with the rest of the living room. Here are a few tips that made it a bit easier…

Start From Zero

This is the number one tip from any home decor channel on YouTube: Take everything off of the desk/from around the area and start from scratch. I love this tip because once I fully clean off an area, it gives me the chance to look at it in a new way and sometimes with a completely new perspective.

Pinterest is Your Friend

Again, this is a basic one but it helped so much.

Go to Pinterest and search for office spaces or living rooms or whatever you’re working with in BOTH of your styles. Pin them all onto the same board and just pin EVERYTHING you like. More than anything, this will help get you comfortable enough with their style to pull a couple elements to incorporate into your overall aesthetic. For ours, I pulled the black and white colors, sharp edges (which I added in the form of planters, and the letter board), touches of metal (added in the shelves I used) and of course, the small figures that can be sprinkled throughout. Then, style the space to your liking and sprinkle through those elements.

Here’s mine if you want to see my inspo.

Start Simple

There’s a time and a place to let your creativity explode in a space, but this is not that time. Combining two styles is hard enough without trying to combine the extremes of both. Instead, I combined metals and woods to merge our two styles, plants and legos, and blacks, whites and terracotta shades. Everything seems simple and easy enough right? Exactly - it’s not supposed to look like two styles being merged when you’re done.

Own It

You might not be crazy about the neon backlit computer or the lego figurines - but this is BOTH OF YOUR HOMES and you should BOTH SHINE. Moreso, you should love having a home that symbolizes you both because it’s the most unique style and that makes it so much cooler.
So own your style, he loves video games? YOU love that too and you love that your home gets to show it. You love plants? He should love your plants too and welcome them to his desk. What should be call this new look? Modern Eclectic? Mid Century Electro? Whatever it may be, OWN IT!