Having an office where I can close the door at the end of the day has been an absolute luxury
In a rented apartment that offered little more than white walls and rattling closet doors, an interior designer found herself navigating the oldest tension in creative work: how to build a space that serves both the inner life and the outward impression. Madelaine Mayer, founder of ADROIT Architecture & Interior Design, resolved this by dividing her home office into two emotional registers — calm for concentration, bold for presentation — using fabric, pattern, and furniture as the instruments of that balance. What emerged was not merely a renovated room but a philosophy about thresholds, and the quiet power of knowing where work ends and life begins.
- A designer whose livelihood depends on bold, layered aesthetics found herself unable to work inside the very kind of space she creates for others — the visual noise was incompatible with focused thought.
- A rattling bifold closet, a too-small desk, and walls that offered nothing created a workspace that felt provisional, undermining both her productivity and her professional credibility on client video calls.
- Rather than choosing between calm and bold, Mayer split the room — neutral side walls for mental quiet, Art Nouveau wallpaper on the camera-facing wall, and floor-to-ceiling drapery panels that concealed storage while eliminating the swing radius that had kept her desk too small.
- Gold arched bookcases sourced across two apartments landed between the curtain panels with millimeter precision, reading on screen as custom built-ins at a fraction of the cost.
- The finished office now holds a clear threshold — a door that closes — and that boundary, more than any design choice, has reshaped her relationship to work, rest, and motivation.
Madelaine Mayer, founder of ADROIT Architecture & Interior Design, moved into a rental apartment with a home office that offered almost nothing: white walls, wood-look laminate, aluminum blinds, and a closet sealed by bifold doors that rattled on their tracks. She knew the space had to accomplish two things that seemed to pull against each other — feel visually quiet enough for her to think, and look bold enough to represent her firm's aesthetic during client video calls.
Her solution was to divide the room by function and feeling. The side walls stayed clean and neutral. The wall that would appear behind her on camera received Art Nouveau wallpaper from Spoonflower — intricate, patterned, unmistakably intentional. The real structural thinking came in how she handled the closet. Instead of replacing the bifold doors with any door at all, she hung floor-to-ceiling drapery panels along two walls using fabric from Safavieh. The cost was a fraction of professional custom drapery. The effect was not.
Removing the doors eliminated the swing radius they required, and that recovered floor space allowed her to replace a 48-inch desk with a 63-inch IKEA sit-to-stand model — room enough to spread out samples and materials without feeling hemmed in. Chrome shelves installed under the existing closet rod added storage without touching the rental's permanent structure. Three matching gold arched etagere bookcases — two from her previous apartment, a third tracked down from the original vendor — fit between the drapery panels with almost no margin to spare. On camera, they read as custom millwork.
Mayer had mapped the entire layout before moving in and completed the transformation in a month. But the measure of the project that surprised her most was not the storage gained or the desk space recovered. It was the door itself — the ability to close it at the end of the day and leave work on the other side. For years her business had been quietly absorbing her personal space. Now there was a line. That threshold, she says, has been the most consequential design decision of all, and floor-to-ceiling drapery has since become a signature element of ADROIT's approach to residential workspaces.
Madelaine Mayer walked into a blank canvas: white walls, laminate floors that mimicked wood, a single window dressed in aluminum blinds, and a closet with bifold doors that rattled when opened. As the founder of ADROIT Architecture & Interior Design, she knew exactly what needed to happen. The space would become her home office, and it had to do two contradictory things at once—feel calm enough for her to work inside it, and bold enough to impress clients during video calls.
The tension was real. Mayer spends her days manipulating vibrant colors and intricate patterns for other people's homes. She needed her own workspace to be visually quiet, a place where her mind could settle into the work. But she also needed it to broadcast her firm's signature aesthetic: multiple patterns, bold colors, unexpected details. The solution wasn't to choose one or the other. It was to split the room.
She kept the side walls clean and neutral, then installed Art Nouveau wallpaper from Spoonflower on the wall that would face her during client meetings. The real innovation came next. Instead of replacing the closet's bifold doors with standard alternatives, Mayer hung floor-to-ceiling drapery panels on two walls. The fabric came from Safavieh and cost a fraction of what custom drapery would run in a professional project—thousands of dollars versus a budget-friendly option that still delivered the high-end, designer-level look she wanted. Behind those panels lay her unglamorous office supplies, hidden but accessible.
The curtains did something else too: they saved floor space. Bifold and sliding doors need room to swing open. Fabric panels don't. That extra clearance allowed Mayer to upgrade from a 48-inch desk to a 63-inch IKEA TROTTEN sit-to-stand model. Suddenly she had room to spread out samples, papers, and materials without feeling constrained. She installed chrome shelves under the existing closet rod, adding storage without altering the rental's permanent structure. She sourced three matching gold arched etagere bookcases—two from her previous apartment, a third tracked down when she discovered the vendor still made them—and positioned them so they fit to the millimeter between the drapery panels. On camera, they looked custom-built.
Mayer had planned the entire layout before moving in. She already owned about half the furniture; the rest she sourced beforehand. The transformation took one month. But the real payoff wasn't measured in square footage or storage capacity, though those mattered. It was the ability to close a door at the end of the day. For years, her business had been slowly encroaching on her personal space. Now there was a threshold. Work happened on one side of it, life on the other. That separation, she says, has been life-changing for her mental health and work motivation. The project has become so successful that floor-to-ceiling drapery has become a signature ADROIT layout choice. What started as a practical storage solution became a design philosophy.
Notable Quotes
I needed a workspace that felt calm and visually clear while I was designing, yet still conveyed ADROIT's signature bold aesthetic to clients during virtual presentations.— Madelaine Mayer
Having an office where I can physically close the door at the end of a long day has been an absolute luxury and an incredible boost for my mental health.— Madelaine Mayer
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why did you choose drapery over traditional closet doors? It seems like an unconventional move.
The practical answer is that it saved floor space—doors swing open and take up room. But the real reason was that I needed the space to feel luxurious and intentional, not like a rental apartment with standard fixtures. Drapery softens hard lines and introduces texture. It also hides what you don't want clients to see during video calls.
Did you worry about the fabric looking temporary or cheap?
Absolutely. That's why I invested in quality fabric from Safavieh. The key was choosing something that looked intentional and high-end, not like I was trying to hide something. The Art Nouveau pattern on the opposite wall gave the whole room a cohesive, designed feeling.
How much of this project was about solving a practical problem versus creating an aesthetic?
They're inseparable for me. The practical problem—needing storage and floor space—forced me to think creatively about the aesthetic. Once I solved the storage issue with drapery, I realized the fabric itself could become a design feature. That's when it stopped being a hack and became part of the room's identity.
You mentioned needing calm while you work but bold for client meetings. How do you actually experience that split?
When I'm working, I face the neutral walls. My eye isn't overwhelmed. But when I turn to take a video call, the patterned wallpaper is right there behind me. It tells clients something about who I am and what my firm does. It's like having two different rooms in one space.
What surprised you most about the finished space?
How much the larger desk changed my actual workflow. It sounds small, but having 15 more inches of surface area meant I could stop shuffling papers around. That physical expansiveness translated into more creative thinking. The mental shift was unexpected.