How to Design a Chic Blue and White Home Office That Inspires Productivity

Blue evokes calm and clarity, while white adds brightness and space — the perfect pairing for a productive office

Looking for a creative and stylish option for your office? Here’s my design plan featuring tons of storage and blue and white decor.

Drumroll, please.

Let the office makeover commence.

It’s been a weekend of basketball and painting. We are about 1/3 of the way through the makeover and my heart is pounding with excitement.

This is the time during a room makeover when you can see everything coming together. And in amazing news? It’s going even better than I even imagined.

Just between us?

I was a little worried about the curtains, but they got here and they were the right length and the right navy and the right (kind of a bold choice) pattern. I went a little bolder with the pillows to balance it all out and now…

…I think it’s going to be a little slice of office heaven.

Here’s where we started last week. I want to share a 360-degree tour of the room and the entire design plan. I thought it might be fun to take you along with me from this before to all the afters.

Want to see where we are going?

Oh, good.

Me, too.

Because the design plan looks like this.

Office Design Plan: Blue and White Decor

Are your eyes blinking?

(Hopefully you are not rolling them).

We are going from neutral to office storage and functionality and blue and white decor and color and pattern and WAIT UNTIL YOU SEE THE FIREPLACE.

First, let me start by linking everything in the picture above in case you want to reference it in the post.

this blue and white rug
this spindle chair
this spindle side table
these blue and white curtains
these gold curtain rings
these gold curtain rods
these flowers
this blue and white pillow
this beaded mirror
this blue pom pom pillow
this white cabinet with glass front doors
this larger white cabinet with glass front doors

(total aside: let me know if you have any questions about anything I’ve listed here).

And now?

Let me show you how I’m going to use all this in the room.

Here’s a 360-degree tour of the space.

(total aside: and in amazing news, I’m going to show you each of these angles with the new design so you can get an idea of the entire room makeover because each wall of the room has its own design idea.)

Let’s start with the overview of the space.

it measures 17′ x 19′–a slight rectangle
there’s a working fireplace and antique stove in the corner of the room
there’s a door on one wall
there are three windows in the space (one of them is a mini-bay window)
there are two hidden full-sized closets on the wall with the bay window
the ceilings are 9 1/2 feet tall
there’s a light fixture in the center of the room (I think I’m going to change this, too, in the future)
we are keeping the rug and the desk–the rest of the furniture is going to other rooms in the house or I gave it to my brothers
there is a LOT of natural light in this space because of the large windows

1. Paint

We are painting the walls SW Pure White.

You can see the color here.

It’s a pretty, creamy white that works perfectly in this room because it gets so much natural light from the windows.

We had a leak in the ceiling last year from one of the upstairs bathrooms so there was some slight staining on the ceiling that needed to be painted. We already primed the area and then painted the ceiling a flat white ceiling paint from Sherwin-Williams.

The molding in the room is painted SW Extra White (which gives such a nice contrast to the SW Pure White). It’s the prettiest combination.

But the real change is going to be in the fireplace (see it posing in the corner)?

It’s going BOLD.

Yes. Yes, it IS.

LET’S GO.

We are going to paint it with SW Naval and then hang this round beaded mirror in the center. The mirror is wood, but I’m going to paint it gold to make it stand out from the fireplace.

I’m doing an entire tutorial on it and the paint we are using that works for brick.

2. Furniture

So now the room is white with a navy fireplace.

What’s next?

Some new furniture.

I’m starting with these cabinets from IKEA.

They are going to line the walls on either side of the fireplace.

One side will have two and the other side will have three.

You can see the smaller one here.

You can see the larger one here.

There’s going to be a little bit of a challenge with the angle of the fireplace, so we may build something on the side that faces the fireplace to make them fit (like corner shelves) or maybe not.

We have to get them installed to see what they look like first.

I’m also switching out the chairs in the room.

I got these chairs last year and they are currently in the family room. They are a great size and the covers detach to easily wash and keep clean. It actually comes in several different colors (including the prettiest blue that would be perfect in this room). But I already ordered these so I’m going to keep them in the white for now (I may get them upholstered later).

You can see the chair here.

Remember this table that we all loved so much?

I’m going to move one of them in here.

It’s perfect for coffee in the morning in those chairs and I can move it around if I need extra space or photography.

You can see the table here.

3. Rug

Okay, remember when we talked about the rugs and which one went in the living room?

I ended up keeping both. LOL. Of course, I did.

This blue and white rug has ended up in the study (for now—I’m going to move them around because I actually love them both so much). It’s the perfect foundation for this blue and white decor plan.

You can see the rug here.

4. Curtains

The drop cloth curtains are coming down. When my husband took them down he asked me what I wanted to do with them.

I told him we could always use them for dropcloths.

Now?

I’m replacing them with these curtains.

These were the ones that I was worried about.

I thought they might be a little bold.

Which they are—but it’s actually the perfect amount of bold blue and white decor. They are 108″ long and fully lined with a blackout lining for when we have guests sleep in this room. The pattern and material look so much higher end than what I paid for them.

Absolute bold perfection.

You can see the curtains here.

I’m going to hang them on these gold curtain rods from these gold curtain clips.