As usual, every time I went swimming this weekend, I was thinking about decorating This time, it's the home office I'm planning to create in the basement.

I want the office to be fun and inspiring -- not really a typical office, in that I want it to be bright colours and have funky elements. I was actually contemplating using that silver & green circle wallpaper from Brocade that sweetie posted on another thread:

   

It would only go on two walls, and only about halfway up the walls. I'll have to post pics when I get home so you can see how the room is designed right now.

And then I thought I could use this letter mural idea from Rate My Space on the one large wall:

       

Seeing as I'm a writer, letters make sense, yes??

I found some inexpensive pieces of office furniture in the Ikea catalogue, but it'll take me too long to copy & paste the pics from the Ikea web site I'll do that from home tomorrow.

Thoughts?? Or do you need to see pics of the room and furniture first??

I will say that I LOVE the idea of using the funky wallpaper in your office!
And I LOVE the idea of doing the letters/words on a wall...
But I'm not sure if I can see the two working together.
And I'm not sure about only using the wallpaper 1/2 way up the wall. Were you thinking like wainscotting with a chair rail?
Pictures are always nice!

I'm gonna need photos...........

OK, here are the photos....

See the wood ledge along the two walls -- I'd put the wallpaper on those two walls, from the ledge to the floor:

       

This is the long wall that would have the letters:

   

BUT...... I just went to HomeSense to return a cushion, and I found this carpet that I LOVE!!!!! It's only 5' x 8', but the room is small so I think it'll be OK. If I keep it, it'll be the basis for the room's colour scheme:

   

It's hard to tell in the pic, but the white stripes have a metallic thread through them. I LOVE the colours!!! And I saw some black & white zebra print boxes that I could buy to put files and papers and stuff in, and there was also a nice black & white damask armless chair that might work... but first, I need to decide whether or not to keep the carpet. I say YES!!!!

What colour furniture would work best with it -- black, white, or dark brown?? I think I'm going to get a glass-top desk from Ikea.

If I go with this colour scheme (black, blue, white), I'll skip the funky wallpaper and do the lettering on the two walls where the wallpaper would have gone.

Am I crazy, or does this all sound OK?!

Yes, you're crazy But that's a topic for another thread!

I think the rug is terrific - as are the colours - and if you LOVE it, then you have to keep it!!

I also like the colour scheme the rug would dictate... but you could bring in a fourth accent colour with this pallet - perhaps a pop of green, red or maybe even pink!

As for furniture... while I quite like the idea of fresh white, I'm thinking that black would be the way to go... with the letters/words-wall (an idea I love, by the way), grounding the space with darker furniture - furniture that would not visually dominate the space and take away from the wall words - would be perfect... particualrly if you're getting a glass-topped desk (lighter/airy-er feeling).

The letters/words-wall... as I've said, I love this idea! I think it would look awesome if you put letters on both the lower and upper portions of these walls... imagine how cool it would look if a large letter was split with one portion on the lower wall and the other on the upper wall? You could also carry your letters and wall colour onto the moulding at the ledge so that it disappears (but not on the ledge itself because then the continuation of the letter above would be off). It would also look cool to carry letters around the corner (but I'm sure you've already thought of that).
Just some ideas

I like the carpet. If it inspires you, then keep it. I vote for black furniture. Since the desk will be glass, it won't look too heavy. I would go for damask over the zebra; straight stripes and bendy ones might get a bit busy. Its not a big space and you don't want to get dizzy from your surroundings.
I'll leave the walls to you and TT.............. Are you keeping the wood trim as is?

Oh yeah, the carpet REALLY inspires me!! I just love it!! I couldn't even risk putting it on hold at HS -- I bought it right away

I'm going to go back to HS tomorrow and take a look around at potential accessories and the chair. I kind of felt compelled to run off to the cash after the guy took the carpet down, seeing as he had to bring the carpet and the tag to the cash for me.

Good point about stripes going in every direction, sweetie.

I think I found wall colours -- there's a Sico paint chip with blues that I adore, and they seem to match the blues in the carpet I'll have to take a better look tomorrow in daylight. And I'm planning to paint the trim white, and have the flooring guy sand the floor in there when he comes back to do the main floor. The floor is parquet stained and orangey colour (like the trim) -- I want to stain it dark brown.

I was thinking of maybe using bright green as an accent colour. Sort of the colour scheme I originally envisioned for the living room, actually

Most of the Ikea office pieces that I like come in the black-brown colour. Close enough to black??

V, you need to come here and paint the letters for me!! Do you really think they should go all the way up the walls??

Do you think you could come up with a layout for me??

Oh, and yep, I'm CA-RAY-ZEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow Smoodgie, you are really moving on this one aren't you!!! I think you need to come here and inspire me now with my home office. Eh girl????

Sure, I'd love to help you out!!

I'm going to Ikea and HomeSense on Friday to see if I can find some pieces for the room. I'll let you know if I find anything

Which colour chip looks better with the carpet -- left or right