Back in April 2015 I set myself the task of re-styling my home office after I won a design challenge by Surface View. The challenge was to show them how you would incorporate one of their wonderful murals in your own home. I had two ideas at the time, one was to install an ethereal mural behind my bed and the other to go for monochrome glory in a home office. I went for the latter.

After I won, Surface View got in touch and we arranged a day for the mural to be installed by a very skilled decorator in their team.

If you want to see all of the photos with the step by step transformation, you better read My Home Office Make-over. There's plenty of imagery in the original posts but here's the before and after photos as a quick reference guide.

I had a pretty clear idea that I wanted to go monochrome in the office so chose a real dark colour on two walls of the room (Farrow & Ball Railings) opposite the mural which made even the IKEA furniture look more expensive than they really are. I was super pleased.

Then in May, I visited one of Abigail Ahern's packed design workshops at Anthropologie. What a great time I had - and if you want to read all about it, you can read this post. The workshop gave me extra inspiration to paint the 2nd office in the house also in really dark colours. Perfection achieved!

After installing the mural, I also installed a beautiful 3-arm pendant light from madeindesign.com as well as got a pair of divine Anglepoise lamps for which I dedicated a whole post with some AMAZING photos. I am pretty close to getting the whole look nailed - though still expecting a Beni Ourain style rug to complete the look.

How did my house end up in Abigail Ahern's House Crush?

Last month, my home office kind of got Abigail Ahern's attention and ended up in her House Crush series over at the Abigail Ahern design blog (which I read daily).

So have a look at the photos I shared with her team and her commentary and drop a comment (here or there) to tell me what you think of the look.

Of course, I couldn't end this post without properly thanking Abigail for taking the time to look at this interiors lover's home and telling the world she found it cool. I am so chuffed!

So I will shamelessly plug in her books here, which are a must-buy, especially for Christmas. Give someone inspiration or simply the motivation to jump over to the dark side!

Jenny Kakoudakis likes to blog about interiors. She launched award-winning Seasons in Colour in 2014 and the luxury interior design blog All The Pretty Homes in 2024.

When she is not chasing criminals out of the financial system (her day job), she gets creative by redecorating her own home.