Home office nook with Western Birds and Flowers wallpaper in Prairie Rose, an oak writing desk, a walnut Windsor chair, a linen roman shade and a jute rug

Turn a Nook into a Home Office: A Vintage Cottage Corner with Blush Bird Wallpaper

Stacie Humpherys

Most houses have a spot just feels awkward: the end of a hallway, a corner of the guest room, the space beside a window where you've tried a million different things. With a small desk, a chair and one papered wall or wall section, you can have a magical little home office.

The wallpaper defines the space and sort of plays a visual trick that makes you feel like you're looking through a door. Papering just one accent wall or wall section tells you where the office starts and stops, so the nook reads as its own room even with no walls around it. It also means you're covering just a few feet of wall, not a whole room.

Home office nook with Western Birds and Flowers wallpaper in Prairie Rose, an oak writing desk, a walnut Windsor chair, a linen roman shade and a jute rug

Rendering. Western Birds and Flowers in Prairie Rose on the back wall. Order a swatch to see the true color in your own light.

The style here is sort of an eclectic-vintage cottagecore: bright, airy, a little feminine, and a little bit curated, as if the pieces came from different decades. I built it around my Western Birds and Flowers pattern in Prairie Rose. Everything else is plain and a little old-feeling: a pale oak desk with turned legs, a walnut Windsor chair, flax linen at the window, and brass for the light. The tan in the birds picks up the oak, the linen and the jute rug, which keeps the blush warm.

The furniture and decor are affordable Amazon finds, all linked below. Spend on the wall, keep the rest simple, and the corner looks finished.

The wallpaper: Western Birds and Flowers in Prairie Rose

Western Birds and Flowers is a tossed repeat of hand-drawn songbirds, wildflowers and foliage. Prairie Rose is a warm, yet airy colorway: rich tan drawing on a soft blush ground. I built the color around Benjamin Moore Tissue Pink for the ground and Chowning's Tan for the graphics, so either paint works on the trim or the walls next to it. The repeat is 24 inches wide by 24 inches tall.

Western Birds and Flowers wallpaper roll in Prairie Rose, tan songbirds and wildflowers on a blush pink ground

Each one of our wallpaper designs is available on four materials. For a home office nook, most people will want one of the first two:

  • Pre-Pasted: Water-activated and fully removable. My pick for a homeowner doing it once.
  • Peel & Stick: Self-adhesive and removable within a year. The renter's choice.
  • PVC-Free Type II: For permanent installs.
  • Commercial Vinyl: Class A fire rated, for commercial spaces.

Not sure which one you need? Three questions will tell you.

How much wallpaper for a desk wall?

Less than you'd think. Rolls are 24 inches wide by 12 feet long, and with 8 foot ceilings and this repeat, each roll gives you one full-height drop. So plan one roll for every 2 feet of wall width. A 6 foot wall behind a desk is three rolls. For your exact wall, our wallpaper calculator does the math with the repeat built in.

See the blush in your own light first: order a swatch!

Prairie Rose swatch, Pre-Pasted, $9  ·  Peel & Stick, $12

24 by 12 inches, a full width of the repeat. Ships free, and every swatch order earns a $20 credit toward your first roll order over $200.

Shop the look

Shop the look board for a cottage home office nook: Prairie Rose bird wallpaper, oak writing desk, walnut Windsor chair, brass swing-arm sconce, ceramic lamp, jute rug and green mugs

Some links below are Amazon affiliate links. If you buy through one, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only list things we'd actually put in this room. The room itself is a rendering, so a few pieces pictured are close matches and the linked versions are the ones we'd buy. Prices change often, so check the listing before you order.

Furniture

  1. Martha Stewart Tabitha writing table. Pale oak finish, turned legs and a center drawer, and narrow enough for a hallway corner. For something plainer, the 31 inch solid oak narrow writing desk.
  2. Winsome Windsor chairs in walnut, set of two. The dark wood keeps the room from floating away in pale tones. The second chair can go to the dining table or a guest room.

Window and light

  1. Chicology cordless roman shade in Belgian Flax. Solid flax linen, no stripes, so it doesn't fight the pattern. It comes in several widths, so measure your window first.
  2. Brass swing-arm plug-in wall lamp. A cream shade on a brass arm. It plugs in, so no electrician needed.
  3. Cream ceramic table lamp with a burlap shade. The crackle glaze makes it look like it's been in the family a while.

On the desk

  1. Distressed white ceramic pitcher, used as a vase. For taller stems, the 11 inch white ceramic jug.
  2. White faux cosmos stems, set of six. Cut them down to fit the pitcher.
  3. Green reactive-glaze stoneware mugs. One small hit of green that ties to the plant and the garden outside.
  4. Leather-wrapped journal.

Walls and floor

  1. Small gold-framed wildflower landscape. On a patterned wall, one small quiet frame is plenty.
  2. Water hyacinth wastebasket.
  3. Chunky jute rug in light ivory, 5 by 8. Natural texture that grounds the room. For a flatter weave, the natural flatweave rug, 5 by 8.
  4. The trailing pothos on the shelf is a real plant. Any golden pothos or trailing green plant from a garden center will do.

Making it work in your space

Paper the wall you face. At a desk you spend the day looking at the wall in front of you, so that's the one to cover. Leave the side walls plain. Tissue Pink or a warm white keeps the corner from closing in.

Keep the other surfaces solid. Linen, oak, jute, cream ceramic. The pattern carries the room, and the rest supports it.

Mix in one dark wood. The walnut chair gives your eye a place to land. Without it, blush, oak and flax can blur together.

Use brass sparingly. A sconce, a lamp base and a picture frame are enough.

Renting? Pre-Pasted and Peel & Stick both come off, the sconce plugs in to a standard outlet, and the roman shade is cordless. Check each listing for how it mounts before you drill. If you want a whole rental room, see our renter bedroom.

Start with a swatch

The furniture here is easy to swap. The wall is the part worth getting right, and a photo can't show you its colors in your home's light. Order a Prairie Rose swatch, tape it up beside your desk, and look at it in the morning and again in the afternoon or evening before you order rolls.

Swatches are 24 by 12 inches and ship free. Pick any four Pre-Pasted or Peel & Stick swatches and 15% comes off automatically.

Order a Prairie Rose swatch in Pre-Pasted, $9
Order a Prairie Rose swatch in Peel & Stick, $12
See all swatches

Every pattern I create is drawn by hand here at my studio in Idaho and printed to order in the USA. Looking for a different room? The Bluebird Powder Room is another one worth a look.

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Test it on your wall first

A photograph of wallpaper is a photograph of someone else's light. Yours is different. The same green can read warm in one room and cool in another, and it changes again at night under lamps. Western Birds and Flowers comes in nineteen colorways, which is too many to sort through on a screen, so we packed three sets of four. Choose the material you're leaning toward; every set comes in all four.

Not sure which one your room needs? Three questions will tell you.

Four Western Birds and Flowers wallpaper swatches in light colorways

For a Light Room

Cream and pale grounds that keep a small bedroom feeling open. This is the set for a north-facing room, a low ceiling, or a wall you want to read as soft rather than dramatic. Includes Winter Moss, the colorway in the bedroom photos.

Winter Moss · Fern Mist · Pale Rain · Harvest Fog

$40.80$48 Save 15%Peel & Stick

Four Western Birds and Flowers wallpaper swatches in deep colorways

For a Dark Accent Wall

Deep grounds for one wall you want to feel enclosed and quiet. Best behind a bed, or in a room that already gets good light, where a dark wall reads as intentional instead of small.

Old Growth · Deep Moss Green · Dark Teal Jewel Canyon · Pine Shadow

$40.80$48 Save 15%Peel & Stick

Four Western Birds and Flowers wallpaper swatches, one light, one dark, one warm and one blush

If You're Not Sure

One light, one dark, one warm, and one you probably would not have picked off a screen. This is the spread we would mail a designer. Tape all four up, live with them for a day, and the room will tell you.

Winter Moss · Old Growth · Saddle · Harvest Rose

$40.80$48 Save 15%Peel & Stick

Or choose your own four swatches

Ships free. The 15% comes off automatically at the cart on any four Pre-Pasted or Peel & Stick swatches, and every swatch order earns a $20 credit toward your first roll order over $200.

Featured: Western Birds & Flowers Collection

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Stacie Humpherys, architectural illustrator and Creative Director of PIne + Feather Studio

About the Author

Stacie Humpherys is the illustrator and surface designer behind Pine + Feather Studio. She designs wallpaper and custom commissions for interior designers, boutique hotels, and cultural institutions: by hand, from research, rooted in a specific place or story. She is also an airplane nerd, and an enthusiastic outdoors lover. She lives near Boise, Idaho with her husband Greg and their three dogs.

About Pine + Feather Studio →