industrial office reveal: quetico in a 12 x 10

yeah, i know, i had to google it too. quetico is a national park in canada, and it is, in the words of my recent client, "how i want to feel every time i walk into my office." think blue lakes, tall mountains, open air, forests, and most likely lots of bears.

so my goal, along with my friend laura peacock, was to take a 12 x 10 office and make it feel like a mountain-top man lounge. to catch up on this project, you can start here. it's part of a greater industrial office overhaul that also included a meeting and lounge area. while the lounge was requested to be modern, industrial and colorful, this space was to be rustic and woodsy. with a dog bed.

the head pastor had the most specific wish list i've ever seen, and was so adorable, i immediately knew that his office was going to be my favorite part of the project. now that everything is done, i can almost hear the crackling of a fireplace and the soft fall of snow (or lapping of lake waves) out the windows. not too easy to pull off in an industrial office complex...but what can i say, we worked really hard at it. ;-)

as is common in my life (and one of my greatest frustrations of all time), i didn't get pictures that even come close to doing the space justice. the light was too bright, the walls were too washed out...but i promised i'd show you the results so i'm going to suck it up and post them. you just have to trust me that in real life it looked sooo much better. when he came in he was totally blown away. we even had the most manly scented fireside candle going, and i am sure that even camp wandawega itself wouldn't have felt more perfectly cool and cozy (ok, it probably does...but they've been working on that since 1925. i only had 22 days).

here's where we started:

and here is how it turned out!

speaking of camp wandawega, that was immediately where i turned for design inspiration after reading through our client's wishlist. the camp is just the right blend of cozy and masculine without being at all cheesy. and it's easy to get cheesy when your to-do list includes canoe pictures and fireside candles.

another before shot:

and after:

the first pieces we found were the campaign desk from world market, and this vintage table from craigslist. their light wood tones were perfect against the dark walls, and they both felt perfectly un-finished. after that, we chose taboret chairs in the vintage metal finish to break up all the wood, and an antique english bookcase from craigslist in a darker tone to mix things up. 

the desk chair was such an exciting find. i had fallen in love with the style of this restoration hardware chair, but at $495 there was no way. laura ended up finding the exact same thing- even better in a finish that matched our bookcase- for $30 on craigslist! i might have jumped up and down a little bit about that. and it was so sweet...the woman who sold it said it was her son's and he was a pastor too. meant to be. this chair cushion from ikea fit perfectly.

our original intent had been to get a freestanding bookcase for the nook to the left of the desk, but when we found this wall-mount antique instead, we just couldn't pass it up. it was such a unique piece, in great condition, with distressing in all the right ways. so laura suggested we grab a lounge chair they already had and use it to fill in the corner. the chair might not have been exactly the style we would have picked out, but it certainly offered a ton of coziness for its zero dollar price tag. i sewed a little pillow out of leftover fabric from the dog bed.

most of what is on the bookcase were personal items that we were asked to keep in the office. i tried to use mainly red and white books when i styled it to tie in with the rest of the color scheme in the room. my favorite thing is the antler, from heritage beam & board's october barn sale. it just so happened that laura's mom was there and was nice enough to be our personal shopper between hectic texts and instagram tagging. 

i also love the fern fronds i had left over from this project that i stuck in an empty maple syrup bottle. free accessories make me so happy when they're this cute.

the little bookshelf was from homegoods and the green lamp was another craigslist find. the large scale artwork (and a deer print between the windows that i don't have a good picture of) was another heritage beam & board score.

for inexpensive bookends, we turned to the local garden center. laura found these rocks- which have great heft and a shape perfect for propping books- for about $2.

our DIY painted dog portrait was a huge hit. i felt kind of bad that remi's picture made the desk and his family was relegated to the bookcase...but we can blame the frame. it just fit better! ;-)

one request was a covered whiteboard. those are so ridiculously expensive; what would we do?! well, we spotted some old pallets behind the church, and guess what? russ franceschina, the same guy who made the metal "10" out front, is making sliding barn-style doors out of the wood for us! i can't believe how cool his drawing is. unfortunately, handmade pieces this stellar take a little longer than 22 days, so it'll be installed at the end of the month. maybe that will give me a good excuse to go back and take my girl ellen so i can get some decent pictures.

this branch wall hanging was a DIY i did that popped into my head, probably thanks to my obsessions of late with woven wall hangings. i'll post how to do it very soon! i love how it turned out- and again, free accessory. yesss.

the hello adventure print is by lindsay letters, also found- this time by the pastor's wife- at the heritage barn sale). the "wander" print was yet another free DIY i did. you can see the tutorial and get a free printable copy of it here.

i made the dog bed using men's flannel shirt fabric from joann's. i just sewed the whole thing the same as you would a pillow, stuffed it with washable, hypoallergenic stuffing, and used a ladder stitch to seal it up. i couldn't stop smiling when i got a text with this sweet picture of remi lounging on it!

my one giant regret for this room is that we didn't have it in the budget to get a great rug. but sometimes you have to live with brown carpet. at least remi doesn't seem to mind!

i'd just like to say thanks to laura and the church staff for bringing me in on this project- i had such a complete blast and loved every minute, and i'm so happy that you're using it and loving it.

i'm kinda looking around at my navy nursery now that it's ready to become a big boy room, and wondering if it might need some flannel going on .... 

{in case you missed it, see how part 1 of this project, the lounge & meeting space, turned out here!}