Can secondary spaces make the same design impact as primary living areas? In this new build, glam transitional finishes were applied to the wellness spaces: a home office, gym, and laundry room. Black cabinetry, gold hardware, and marble accents brought these distinct functional zones together under one unified, coordinated aesthetic.
The Challenge: Work From Home + Wellness Spaces
The client approached Decorilla for creative interior design for their 3,300-square-foot single-level new house. She wanted a transitional home interior with glamorous touches, emphasizing functional zones that balanced utility with statement. In the third segment of the project, the designer addressed the elegant home office, gym, and laundry room. Among others, the challenges included:
- Hidden door integration in the office for a concealed gun room, visually coherent with the dining room’s hidden door system
- Tray ceiling design with two-tone dimensional detailing and statement lighting
- Dark, glam-modern office aesthetic
- All-black gym environment with strategic lighting, mirrored surfaces
- Layout accommodation for sauna and nine pieces of specialized equipment
- Multi-function laundry layout integrating an elevated washer/dryer and tall storage for cleaning equipment
- Material palette coordination spanning white, black, gold, and taupe finishes
Pro Tip: Thinking about your own wellness spaces, but not sure what they should look like? Try our Free Interior Design Style Quiz to discover your ideal style today!
Design Inspiration: Home Office, Gym, and Laundry Room Design
The client treated wellness spaces as separate zones, each with distinct programming. Her home gym design inspo gallery centered on total immersion. All-black finishes promoted focus on exercise, along with the mirrored surfaces that also doubled the visual field. Concealed mechanical access kept installations hidden and produced a cohesive layout with an atmosphere of a secluded wellness retreat. Their laundry room ideas comprised tall built-in storage adjacent to the elevated washer and dryer. Each of those designs justified square footage through practical layering.
On the other hand, the client’s work-from-home space references pulled from offices with executive weight. Dark walls anchored the eye and expressed the design’s character. Upholstered panels added material depth, while walnut surfaces added warmth through grain. Built-in lighting accentuated display shelving, defining the zones within the room at the same time.
Initial Concepts: Finding the Right Designer
The Decorilla team initially matched the project with two designers whose portfolios, among others, demonstrated experience in wellness spaces and work-from-home environments: Casey H. and Erika F. Each developed concepts that addressed the brief’s functional essentials. After reviewing both proposals, the client selected Erika to move forward as the sole designer for the entire house interior.
Erika’s home gym design proposal established an all-black envelope with strategic material breaks. The moodboard positioned equipment against mirrored wall sections, where linear lighting ran horizontally at ceiling height. Rubber flooring extended throughout, interrupted by taupe-toned zones that separated the sauna from the main workout area. Fluted millwork appeared in beige, providing textural relief against flat black surfaces. The layout also accommodated nine pieces of equipment, as requested, plus the sauna, without crowding sightlines.
Her work-from-home space proposal introduced a tray ceiling with two-tone detailing. Dark walls met taupe upholstered panels arranged in a grid, backlit to create depth. Built-in shelving in black held books and objects, punctuated by gold-toned hardware. The moodboard centered a freestanding desk perpendicular to the paneled wall. A secondary seating area occupied the opposite end, anchored by darker millwork with integrated lighting.
Glam Transitional Home Interior Design Series
This transitional home interior came together through a phased approach, with Erika addressing one rounded set of units at a time. The living areas established the material palette and design language, and the primary bedroom suite followed, leading into wellness and work spaces. Each phase built on the established material palette and design language. Follow the creative journey through the rest of the story:
- Before & After: Glam Transitional Home – Open Concept Living (Coming Soon!)
- Before & After: Glam Transitional Home – Primary Bedroom Retreat (Coming Soon!)
- Before & After: Glam Transitional Home – Spare Bedroom Designs (Coming Soon!)
Results Revealed: Productive Work & Wellness Spaces
Erika made a few adjustments as the design evolved and the client’s vision took shape. In the final design iteration, the work and wellness spaces share a material vocabulary centered on black cabinetry and gold hardware. Each room features statement lighting, such as gold bubble chandeliers in the office and laundry, and linear LED systems in the gym. Marble serves as a contrasting element, while the hardware remains consistent across all three rooms. This palette coordination ties the productive spaces to the home’s broader transitional aesthetic while giving them intensified material contrast.
Moody Glam Work From Home Space
The work-from-home space achieves visual density through material layering. Black marble anchors the rear wall, where thick gold veining moves diagonally across the surface. Horizontal LED strips divide built-in shelving into lit zones. The tray ceiling drops the center plane in black, framing the room’s perimeter in lighter gray. A gold bubble chandelier descends from this central recess. Paneled walls in charcoal wrap the adjacent surfaces, their relief adding dimensional variation.
The desk sits perpendicular to the marble wall, its taupe lacquer finish carrying gold-trimmed drawers. Two small ottomans tuck beneath the opposite side, creating auxiliary seating within the work zone.
The designer positioned the desk to face outward rather than against the feature wall, orienting the user toward the room’s length. Glass French doors with gold frames mark the entry, their transparency controlled by the hidden gun room door concealed within the adjacent paneling. This integration maintains both the overall flow and the wall’s continuity.
Gold accessories populate the niches alongside books and sculptural objects. The black textured rug grounds the furniture grouping, its irregular weave contrasting with the marble’s polish. Fluted panels also appear on the perpendicular wall to break the flat panel sections with vertical rhythm.
Transforming Challenges into Creative Solutions
The tray ceiling addresses the client’s request for dimensional ceiling treatment in a room with limited floor area. Rather than expanding horizontally, the design moves upward. The center section drops in black, creating a recessed field that holds the sleek chandelier. This darker plane contrasts with the perimeter, where the ceiling steps up to meet the walls. In addition, the two-tone construction adds perceived height while defining the desk area below through vertical alignment.
Luxurious Home Gym/Wellness Room Design
The wellness home gym design operates as a secluded environment for restorative rituals. Again, all surfaces read sophisticatedly moody. Walls, ceiling, and rubber flooring extend the monochrome envelope throughout the zoned-out wellness spaces.
Vertical LED columns frame mirrored sections along the perimeter, their warm light breaking the darkness at regular intervals. In addition, horizontal strips run above the mirrors, creating layered illumination zones. Fluted millwork in taupe appears as accent panels, their vertical rhythm adding textural relief against flat black surfaces.
The spatial separation of this wellness room design is also established through material commitment and concealed infrastructure. Mirrored walls expand the perceived volume while serving functional training needs. Glass entry doors with gold frames separate the wellness space from adjacent rooms, maintaining transparency while marking the threshold. Meanwhile, heavy rubber flooring absorbs impact and reduces noise transmission.
Per the client’s request, the designer positioned nine pieces of equipment without crowding circulation paths. The gym room’s design layout now accommodates a squat rack, bench, dumbbell rack, cable machine, hyperextension bench, leg curl extension, and hip thrust station, plus cardio pieces. The functional trainer anchors one end of the layout, its steel frame and weight stacks positioned against a mirrored wall section. Cardio equipment sits in the center zone, facing mirrors backed by planters filled with live greenery that soften the hard edges of the equipment.
The sauna occupies a dedicated wellness zone alcove. It sits behind glass walls with gold frames, seamlessly integrated, with a light wood interior visible as a contrasting zone within the larger black field. Likewise, the glass enclosure maintains a clear visual connection to the main gym floor.
Laundry Room Design
The laundry room design programs four distinct functions into a galley layout. Black paneled cabinetry lines both walls, establishing visual weight in a utilitarian space. The washer and dryer sit elevated on a platform within floor-to-ceiling millwork. This seamless integration makes their black fronts read as an intentional part of the design rather than a bulky necessity. The elevation also adds base storage, while upper cabinets extend to the ceiling, eliminating dead space above.
Adjacent to the built-in are the pets’ private wellness spaces. The white marble dog-washing station occupies an elegant recessed niche topped by two floating shelves. The tub’s height allows for comfortable bathing. Large-format white stone with gray veining covers the walls and basin floor, paired with a gold handheld sprayer that mounts to the wall.
The floor makes quite a visual feature with its white geometric pattern in gold and taupe. It adds a refined surface detail where most laundry rooms default to basic grid layouts, breaking up at the same time the strong vertical lines of the flanking cabinetry.
The black-and-gold drum pendant provides ambient light from the ceiling center. It visually communicates with the drawer pulls and cabinet hardware, maintaining the material palette of white, black, gold, and taupe.
Opposite the laundry zone, a farmhouse sink anchors the counter run. Marble backsplash rises behind it, matching the dog wash material. Black lower cabinets provide concealed storage, while open shelving above the counter holds baskets and daily-use necessities.
Design Details: Sourcing the Perfect Pieces
Decorilla’s 3D renderings helped the client assess proportional relationships and material behavior before committing to purchases. Dark finishes can carry risk in rooms with variable daylight, and the visualizations confirmed whether contrast elements would register as intended. The renderings also addressed spatial questions that floor plans couldn’t answer, particularly where ceiling treatments changed the room’s vertical reading. On top of that, the trade pricing shifted the project’s financial structure. Lower costs on furniture meant the client could specify better cabinet construction and thicker stone without exceeding the original budget.
Erika adjusted the design through revision cycles. Some changes addressed functional concerns that emerged during planning, and others refined aesthetic details as the client’s confidence in darker finishes grew. Each round brought the spaces closer to the brief’s original intention. The client’s final response acknowledged the process: “Thank you so much for everything, you exceeded my expectations in every way! Forever grateful for you 😀.”
Get the Look: Classy Work and Wellness Spaces
Achieving this aesthetic requires sourcing pieces that share a material and finish vocabulary. Our curated furniture and decor selection supports the transitional glam palette with coordinated elements you can use to build a cohesive work or wellness room at home.
Looking to design wellness spaces at home?
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