DESIGN by PAM COOPER, COOPER INTERIORS
PHOTOGRAPHY by VIC WAHBY
TEXT by DONNA ROLANDO
Credit the pandemic—and the growing emphasis on “work from home” that it ushered in. When two Basking Ridge empty nesters decided it was time to transform their home’s old library into a practical, Zoom-worthy home office, they called on Watchung-based designer Pam Cooper. The former West Coast residents made the right choice.
To begin with, the dark paneling had to go. “It was that cherrywood that was popular in the ’90s, and I had always wanted to update it,” says homeowner Charlene McGee. A lighter, brighter look would better serve the room’s new function as a home office for her husband Tom’s commercial real-estate work, and “he was starting to use it more because of COVID.”
Now “it’s better than I could have imagined,” says Charlene of the 2023 redesign, which has invited compliments, not teasing, from Zoom attendees.
The couple had confidence in Cooper, who several years earlier had tackled their six-bedroom colonial’s family room. They specifically appreciated her knack for creating what Tom calls “the wow factor.”
Cooper says she almost hated to paint over the library’s natural wood millwork. But she also saw the need to modernize and brighten with Benjamin Moore’s Elmira White, a creamy parchment color. “So many people would die for all that natural-color wood, but in this case it just sucked the light right out of the room,” says the designer. Yet she preserved the wood beams for the ceiling’s classic vibe.
To highlight the backyard, Cooper stripped lattice from a French-style window, Charlene says, and “brought the outside in.” It was only fitting, then, that while the window inspired a comfy sitting area where blue plaid chairs meet leather pillows, Tom’s Malone executive desk would face nature, with carefully curated bookshelves making a Zoom impact behind him.
Creating one of Charlene’s favorite scenes, Cooper elevated the back of the shelving with natural grass cloth by Cowtan & Tout and spaced the shelves to showcase Tom’s various achievements.
For the bit of testosterone this office needed, Cooper says, the desk features leather-front drawers— complementing a metal frame and brass hardware—while the leather swivel desk chair elevates with brass nail heads. Even the Arhaus Hastings chandelier is styled in leather and brass, joining recessed fixtures to address the lighting on Tom’s wish list. Underneath it all, a hand-knotted rug lends soft contrast to hardwood floors.
The office has no shortage of focal points. One vignette features an antique-store, gold-bamboo mirror above the mango wood console (handy for hiding a printer), topped by blue-and-brass lamps. Another is the fireplace done in Calacatta slab marble, which Cooper calls “a big change” from its black-tile past.
Describing this redesign in their home of 17 years as both masculine and elegant, Charlene says: “I think anybody would love it and feel comfortable, but it is kind of a man cave for him.”
Does Tom approve? Let actions speak. His wife reports that he starts his days with coffee in that homey sitting area, where Cooper’s brass sailboat table topper is ready to inspire the occasional bit of California dreaming. And the Zooms go on.