When we bought the house, we knew we would turn one of the three bedrooms into an office. Daniel pretty quickly decided on two things: he wanted to feel surrounded by his books and he wanted the room to feel alive, verdant. I can’t tell you the number of times he used the word “verdant” over the course of a few months. I hate that word.

 

Daniel wanted a very “alive” green, like what one may find in the rain forest. After spotting the color online, he went with Amazon Moss by Benjamin Moore in a flat finish. It was the only color he tested in the room. We painted every wall Amazon Moss, except we left an overhang in white, as well as the closet and bedroom door and all trim. I was worried that the color would be dark and feel like something you would find in a lodge, but I was happy to see that wasn’t the case. The color is very verdant, as the name of it suggests, and, even though it’s a bit dark, it’s also bright and looks really great in the sunlight.

Going with the verdant theme, we searched for fabric with a print of green flora and found a few on Spoonflower that we liked. We settled on a very rain-forest-like green pattern by Peacoquette Designs that had yellow highlights in it. We ordered that print in cotton and I made curtains out of them for the three windows in that room. The curtain rods and handles are from Target, which I spray painted in bronze.

The furniture in the room is all leftovers from our Brooklyn apartment: dark brown bookshelves, desk and couch from Ikea, a beige storage ottoman from Target, and a silver metal shelving unit from Ikea that’s hidden behind the door.

The really neat piece of equipment in there is a black and gold Singer sewing machine from 1903 that my father-in-law bought me to celebrate us buying a 1903 house. It is gorgeous!

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The couch has become a favorite spot for our dogter Molly, who recently discovered that she could sit on the couch, leaning against the arm rest, and watch life unfold on the street in front. She looks so regal sitting there!

The room still needs an area rug, a small filing cabinet that we will use as an end table and a couple of lamps. Also, we’re thinking of switching out the ceiling light for a ceiling light with fan. But all in all, the urgency of verdancy was met and goal achieved!