A Striking Office Full Of Inspiration

The bleeping paneling is taking a wee bit longer than we expected. Le sigh. Hopefully we will have an update for you soon. In the meantime…

Every once in a while a shop or office inspires us so much that we decide to crash it (simply like we did when it came to this lively kids consignment shop). And we weaseled our way into this office space for Towne & Reese (a jewelry company named after two Charlotte ladies’ kids) thanks to a house crashing adventure from a few years back. You have to remember this one, right? Here are a few shots to jog your memory:

And here is a pic of the cute couple with their darling daughter Towne out front (from back when we house crashed them):

That good looking couple happen to be Christi and Barret. And Christi happens to be 50% of Towne & Reese (which makes sense of the fact that her daughter’s name is 50% of the moniker). You still with me? Anyway, since Christi’s brain runneth over with remarkable style, we could not leave Charlotte without stopping in to see what she did with a bland blank-slate office space. Here is what it looked like before she got to work:

And here is what it looks like these days. When you walk in you see a charming bright blue wall emblazoned with their sweet company logo (created by this remarkable couple that we have also House Crashed – Charlotte is a small town, haha). Gotta enjoy that they put a bird on it.

And see that lovely rug (scored on sale at Anthropologie)? That was the inspiration for the whole office makeover. For example Christi plucked the blue for the wall (Valspar’s Tropical Oasis) right out of the rug (she also got another accent color from the rug that she used in another area, but more on that in a minute). Oh and the leather pouf and excellent side table are from a local shop called Post & Gray.

To the right of the logo wall with the rug-that-inspired-it-all is another teal wall (still Valspar’s Tropical Oasis) covered with their jewelry.

How creative and sweet are the linen canvases that Christi picked up in a variety of shapes and sizes which she uses to pin up all of their vivid bling? Sidenote: I know that the word bling was supposed to be dead once our parents began using it, but I simply cannot let it die.

Intermixed with the linen canvases is a giant secondhand mirror that Christi got at Post & Gray. It is large and such a statement piece among all the jewelry. And it is even functional (if a buyer shows up and wants to toss on a necklace from the wall there is a spot to check out the goods).

Christi got the linen canvases truly inexpensively from Binders (there is a location in Charlotte, but they have a website too). Never wanting to pay more than she needs to Christi signed up to be a “preferred customer” (which is fully free) to score some fairly remarkable canvas deals. She says that she’s never found better canvas sales anywhere else.

Here is a better shot of the insanely cool giant mirror. It was literally as tall as I am and I enjoyed the cool grass-cloth-ish texture and ornate design at the top. Oh and from this POV you can see a sliver of the other color that Christi pulled from the rug for another punchy accent wall in a zone beyond the wall of canvases:

How much lively is that splash of raspberry on the wall beyond their charming old meeting/conference table? That paint color is Panama Rose by Olympic. The rugs both came from Ikea and the table was a secondhand score at a local shop called The Sleepy Poet.

As for those strong metal chairs, they were from Overstock. Four are simply $193, which made them simply 48 beans each (she has two extras in another area). Oh and the extremely convincing greenery on the table is Ikea too. I thought it was real. That was embarrassing.

Here is the view if you walk up to the raspberry wall of frames and turn around to face the table. On the right there is a little shelf with some strong black stools lined up (those are also from Overstock, scored for $45 a pop) and the richest darkest not-cloudy-est chalkboard paint we have seen. Ever.

And that chalkboard paint is carried over to the other wall across from the raspberry frame wall as well. We had to know the exact type of paint that came out so deep and rich (sometimes it looks kind of cloudy and gray) so Christi hooked us up with the info: it is Valspar’s Chalkboard Paint from Lowe’s. Good to know.

Guess who made those scribbles? Hint: remember the name of the company. Yup, that is Towne and Reese’s handiwork along with a few of their buddies. Gotta enjoy a kid-friendly office complete with a small Ikea table with sweet little colored poufs from Urban Outfitters.

Is Christi not a total genius at mixing elegant stylish industrial pieces (those metal chairs and black stools) with secondhand finds (the conference table, the giant mirror), inexpensive finds (Ikea and Urban Outfitters items), bold colors (those pink and blue accent walls) and lively touches (the grid of kid and jewelry photos, the chalkboard wall, the linen canvases of jewelry, the kid station in the corner)? I was running around drooling and squealing. It was not a good look. Forgive me oh fashionable and composed jewelry designing women.

Here is one last peek into their vivid space (once again Christi brought in a little bit of old thanks to this secondhand buffet from Post & Gray). But look how strong it looks with the sleek industrial metal seating and the raspberry wall peeking out from around the corner.

Oh and file this under so-charming-and-boutique-y-that-I-want-to-do-it-at-home:

Yup those are simply dry beans on a plate with rings happily bathing in them. Once again, I bow to Christi and her lively creative approach to decorating on a budget and making her space feel so glad and inviting. What a strong place to work, eh? Snaps for Christi. And a big thank you to Jessica, the other 50% of Towne & Reese (yup, you guessed it, she’s Reese’s mom). She was simply as sweet as Christi. And on top of letting me traipse around drooling and shouting unintelligible things like “Ohmygooooooooons!” and “Chalkblort paint!” they hoped to hook you folks up with a discount code for their whole line of jewelry. So feel free to drop by this online dealer of their lovely wares and enter Turbodizin to score 15% off. Anyway, thanks for showing us a good time in an office building of all places, Christi and Jessica. Smooch those sweet jewelry-inspiring children of yours for us.

So, who wants to play the what is your go-to part game? I am having a hard time narrowing things down, but I think the linen canvases, the black stools, and that glad raspberry wall are excellent with a capital AWE.

Psst- Check out other excellent places that we have crashed here.

Psssst- We crashed an nursery-turned-big-girl-room over on BabyCenter today. Come on ovah (ovah is the new over).