My Formal Dining Room is Also A Home Office In Disquise

Today's post is all about a "convertible" space in my home. It is a Home Office by day and a Formal Dining Room by night. Okay, well maybe not "by day and night" every single day, but the title definitely fits during the holidays. If you've been a long time follower of my blog, you know that I do a lot of entertaining in my formal Dining Room. What you may not know, is that most of the time, my Dining Room is actually my Home Office. 

These pictures are from last Christmas. We hosted a few holiday dinners and I really appreciated having a formal dining room designated for this purpose. As much as I love having this space available for family meals and pretty holiday decorations, it's precious space in our home that we must be able to use every day. It has to have multiple functions. 

Therefore, most of the time this space is used as my Home Office where I work from home when necessary. When it comes time to entertain family and friends, I have come up with a way to transform this space from Home Office to Formal Dining Room in just a few minutes!

Here is how it looks as my office...

All I have to do is to rotate the table and the rug and remove the chairs. This allows the dining table to function as a large desk. 

When it's not Christmas time, the Christmas tree is replaced with a nice, large plant. (More on this plant to come in a post later this week).

The shelves are usually decorated with pretty dishes and serving pieces. This is great for entertaining purposes while the room is being used as a Dining Room, yet still works as pretty wall decor when it's being used as my Office. 

To provide some sneaky office supply storage space in a very pretty way, I replace the dining chairs with this upholstered storage ottoman...

I can hide both office files and not-so-pretty office essentials in this ottoman which leaves the buffet drawers available for party supplies and entertaining pieces. 

Having baskets and trays around allow me to contain my work in progress and keep my desk looking neat without lot of effort. It also makes it easy to remove the office supplies and make room on the table and buffet for pretty tablescapes and dinner buffets when it's time for a family dinner. 

Using small serving pieces is another way to hold my office supplies in a convenient way. These tiny dessert bowls are the perfect size for paper clips and tacks...

A pair of buffet lamps on my thrift store dresser are perfect for task lighting while I'm working in this space and very romantic for mood lighting while we are entertaining.

Here is another quick look at how the room looks daily compared to during the holidays.

When you have a smaller home it doesn't mean you can't have the luxury of spaces dedicated to entertaining. It just means you have to get a little creative and find ways to make your spaces adapt. Here are some tips that I often give my clients who want there spaces to have multiple purposes...

Tips:

-Place plastic sliders on the bottom of furniture feet to make furniture moving easier.

-Purchase lightweight pieces that you can move easily on your own.

-Keep your furniture on rugs and use the rug to help while sliding to prevent scratching the floors

-Use furniture that can be multifunctional (As I have done in this space. It has a buffet with drawers that doubles as a file cabinet, a large dining table that doubles as a desk, and a storage ottoman that provides seating and storage).

-Choose neutral furniture that will work in more than one space of your home,

-Utilize pretty baskets to catch clutter (like my office supplies) so it can easily be removed and returned to a space.

Thanks for stopping by my Dining Room Home Office! 

I'll be back in a few days to talk a little more about the pretty plant in this space. In the meantime, you can catch me in the design studio working on some new and exciting custom design projects that will be coming to the blog soon!

For information on my affordable online design service, please click here.