Arlington designer Susan Sutter had just received a wallpaper sample for a client when the light bulb went off: The bold floral pattern was perfect for the guest room she’d claimed as an office inside her Highland Park-Overlee Knolls home. “I couldn’t believe it—it totally went with the blue walls,” she says, holding up the swatch of Thibaut wallpaper that now brings an accent wall to life.
That decision—“a total splurge”—sparked an entire rethinking of the sunny corner room she’d been using for three years, ever since she left her job in the federal government and got a design degree. “I figured, I do this for a living. I’d better do this for myself,” she says. Plus, with a husband and two boys, she craved her own girly retreat.
In came a pretty desk and a cheerful red chair, which Sutter outfitted with custom ikat cushions. Next, she asked her cabinetmaker to design a wall of built-in storage on either side of a window seat, with cabinets and drawers precisely and efficiently sized to hold her sample books, catalogs, file folders and office equipment. Items that previously cluttered the room now hide behind those crisp, white doors with Lucite and polished-nickel handles.
“Function drives my design,” Sutter says. The bed is still there for an occasional overnight visitor, but most of the time it’s a work space. And a happy one at that. “This, to me—it’s my style. It’s my favorite room in the house. A labor of love!”
Project Credit:
Design: Susan Sutter, Susan Sutter Interiors, sutterinteriors.com
Contractor: Craig Geoffrion, Peerless Painting & Remodeling
Millwork: Ben Clemmer, Ark Woodworking, facebook.com/arkwoodworking