As I recently mentioned, now that I live in house that was built in 1908, I feel like I want to incorporate some old, charming, refined, beautiful pieces into our interior design. Yes, there will still be a lot of white and modern pieces (like lighting, I hope!), but I just feel like this home should not be filled to the brim with modern and shiny.

I’m not really spending time on one room at a time, but rather I’m going to use the approach of when I spot things we love, that we think will work in a room, and where the timing of the purchase is right, we’ll make the purchase. Slowly, we’ll build each room to our liking.

This approach is slow, yes, and it feels like I’m juggling things in the air a lot, but I also feel like it’s a bit hard to concentrate only on one room at a time. In addition, we don’t actually need anything (combing two houses means you end up with a lot of stuff!), but it’s moreso that we’re trying to add pieces to our existing collections that will enhance function and style in our new old home.

On top of all of this, I’m also practical and we do have a budget to balance. We do have to spend money on less fun things as we get settled – this week’s purchase was a water softener. Not so fun, but very much needed in Waterloo.

So, anyhow, I bought a beautiful antique desk a few weeks ago, which is setting the tone for my office. I think I would like to add a wood hutch/wardrobe to serve as a bookcase, and a new rug and light that keeps the room modern. I’m not yet sure about art. I know a lot of people loved the gallery wall in my first home, but I think a similar installation would overwhelm my new office, so it’s unlikely I’ll be recreating it. Besides this, some of the art has already moved to other areas of our home. The colourful rug is currently in my office, but it, too, feels like it’s overwhelming the space and doesn’t quite match the desk, so I’ll be moving it out soon.

With that, here are two options that I quite like at the moment.