industrial office reveal: lounge & meeting space

just a couple weeks ago i introduced you to this office redesign project that my friend laura peacock and i were beginning to tackle for her wonderful church. well, 22 days after our initial meeting, it was done! we mainly worked on two spaces: a meeting & lounge area and the head pastor's office.

today i'll show you the results of the meeting space. here's a reminder of where we started:

above was the view as you walked in the front door of the offices. since then, the walls were completed and painted, flooring was switched out, and that giant crazy reception desk was removed. here is the view that greets you today:

isn't it a crazy difference?! we were so excited. we kept the results a surprise until the day of the installation, and the staff was really excited when they got to see it too. it was so fun to watch them come in and freak out.

as i mentioned before, the budget for this project was tiny, so we kept the existing sofa. in the new space, the light grey color fit perfectly. after that, we turned to some retail shopping secrets to get the major pieces at major discounts. the chairs, laptop tables, and rug were all from world market, where we were able to take advantage of their friends & family sale and score some floor samples. the table and pillows are from the crate & barrel outlet. in the end, we actually came in well under our budget, which i initially thought would be impossible.

we knew in order to stay in budget, we would have to get creative with accessories. clearly, that huge stretch of wall needed a collection of gallery frames. but even at inexpensive soures like etsy or minted, that many pieces would add up. that's when i started stalking their instagram, and realized the church had a huge library of personal artwork already at our disposal. every time they do a new sermon series, they have a graphic to go along with it, and those were a perfect jumping off point.

i collected our favorites and laura asked their graphic designers for these and some other prints of their favorite moments. this way, we had free artwork that also told the church's personal stories.

for frames, laura bought an assortment at good will and spray painted them all the same color white. that is such a great resource for frames- they're only usually around $2 - $6 each.

we also used some other personal elements. these rocks had been part of a special service, so we found some shadowbox frames (with a trusty hobby lobby coupon of course) and laura used tacky glue to mount them.

the number 10 represents the ten communities surrounding the church that they are specifically committed to ministering to. it was made out of galvanized sheet metal by an architect, russel franceschina, who also makes really cool custom furniture on the side. they are my favorite part of the whole wall because of the way they tie in to the metal finish of the ceiling. i also love the way they break up all the rectangular shapes on the wall with something different.

our map was a DIY that also showed "the 10" communities. we bought a map and had it blown up on a large format printer, then used mod podge to adhere it to a canvas. i wouldn't necessarily recommend that method on canvas because we had a lot of bubbling to deal with, but some sand paper helped get the bubbles out and gave it a distressed finish.

here's another look at the before:

the paint we chose was benjamin moore kendall charcoal. we thought that painting the two walls that wrap around the lounge in this dark shade would feel more enveloping than just the standard one accent wall. (and since an all-white space had been vetoed, haha). i love the effect and how it separates the lounge from the rest of the office and makes it feel cozy in spite of the huge ceilings and open floor plan.

the floor was added by the builder at laura's request, since he had to replace it anyways after construction. it ended up being about the same cost to him as the carpet would have, and it was so key...this room just wouldn't be the same with commercial brown carpeting!

it was called delaware bay driftwood from lumber liquidators. here's how it looked when it first went down (and when i got this picture from laura i freaked out because it was so pretty!):

when we arrived the night before the installation to drop off furniture and get started on prep, this is the empty shell that greeted us:

let me tell you, i was so excited to get started and just absolutely loved how the floor and paint came together, and that all the furniture finishes worked so well too. whew!

the tv hadn't been installed by the time i left so i didn't get a good picture of the media wall, but this locker-style cabinet from ikea was one of my favorite finds. we salvaged this "finished" sign from a wood pile behind the church. it was left over from their easter service and is a reference to john 19:30. to give it a weathered grey finish, i washed over it with a solution of white wall paint & water, then when that was dry went over it with a little antique glaze.

my favorite thing about all of this was this picture that the pastor sent us the next morning:

the staff had installed two tv's (surprise!) and was loving it for their morning creative meeting. i love the coffee and snacks on the table...the starbucks, the comfy chairs...it just looks like a perfect space to work. and the pastor's text said, "it's happening." hahaha...making people happy like this could keep me on a cloud for weeks! oh, and a quick note about that white board. it turns out that home depot sells white board sheets in 4 x 8 and will cut them to any size you need at the store. you can just use screws with washers to drill them straight into the wall. if you've ever looked into the cost of giant white boards, you know how expensive they can be, so this is a great trick to get them cheap! looks like they have a lot of notes...we might have to add one to the other side!

well thanks guys for being so supportive and encouraging and sharing in the fun of this project with me!! the staff is already calling laura and me "laura & laura incorporated"....hahahha....ya never know what might happen someday. 

{update // check out part 2 of this project: the pastor's woodsy man-lounge of an office here}