An Attic to Office Transformation – Charlotte Magazine

Designer Melinda Chesson began with her client’s “builder-grade bachelor pad” in Villa Heights. “It just had a really sterile feeling,” she says. “The homes in this neighborhood are on narrow lots and tend to be straight up, so this attic space on the third floor had high, pitched ceilings.” Chesson painted the room a moody blue and created a statement wall around the vertical window. “He had a serious girlfriend when I started, and by the time I finished, she’d moved in, and they got engaged,” she says. “He wanted the main areas of the house to not feel totally ‘bachelor’ because he wanted it to be for his future fiancée, so this was the one area where he wanted a man-cave vibe.”

SHADES OF BLUE

Chesson worked with Artisan Cabinetry to design the custom built-ins, and painted the walls, trim, and cabinets in Sherwin-Williams’ Bracing Blue. She left the oatmeal-colored carpeting but layered it with a houndstooth rug to add visual interest. She wallpapered the ceiling in a navy pattern from Thibaut to keep the room from feeling too monochromatic. “That was a fun way to add more pattern and texture,” she says. “He wasn’t sure how wallpaper on the ceiling was going to go, so I had to push for that a little bit.”

MIXED, NOT MATCHED

Chesson installed a wagon-wheel chandelier to complement the black tones in the homeowner’s desk, which she upgraded with an upholstered chair from Universal Furniture. She dressed up the window with a blue plaid Roman shade and added a leather accent chair from Four Hands in the corner. The wooden floating shelves above the cabinets have brass brackets to accent the sconces on either side of the window. “I wanted some modern light fixtures to tie in with the more traditional leathers, wood tones, and houndstooth rug,” she says. “He needed the lights from a functionality standpoint, and the wall needed a little something extra. This brings your eye up along that angle and highlights everything we put on those shelves.” 

PERSONAL TOUCHES

The floating shelves are dotted with vintage treasures that Chesson found at Chinoiserie Squirrel and Sleepy Poet. Her client loves to play golf, so she found a glass vase to hold his golf balls and framed a score card from his favorite course. The stack of leather “books” is actually an old barware set that holds two decanters and four shot glasses. “He works from home and spends a lot of time in the office, so he wanted a space for himself with some of the things he loves,” Chesson says. “And he’s on Zoom calls all day, so you’ve got to have a nice backdrop.”