Witchy Reading Nook & Woodsy Home Office: Bespoke Interior Design in Calgary

A wonderfully unconventional woodland retreat where working, gaming and reading take root inside a Walden home office designed to feel like a witch’s hollow in an ancient tree.

There is something wonderfully indulgent about designing a room that doesn’t need to appeal to everyone. Bespoke themed interior design gives us permission to take a very specific idea and run a little wild with it, creating an immersive space through architecture, materials, colour, lighting and details rather than simply decorating around a theme. Done well, the result feels transportive rather than theatrical, an entire home within the house.

For this Calgary home office and reading nook, our client wanted a retreat that felt completely separate from the rest of her home. It needed to accommodate working from home, computer gaming and plenty of reading, with a special place for her collection of Star Wars books. But function was only half the story. She wanted the room to feel witchy and woodsy, like the private hideaway of a modern mystic who had wandered into the forest and decided not to come back.

A black console table beneath a framed forest painting, flanked by a wood slat accent wall with floating shelves.

So we took the idea quite literally, without making the design literal. The overarching concept became the hollow of an ancient tree, with an enveloping palette, natural materials and details that appear to have grown right into the room. What had been a rather bland basement office was about to take root as something entirely its own.

A live edge L-shaped wood home office desk with a gaming chair, and matching live edge floating shelves.

Bespoke Home Office & Gaming Desk

If this room was going to feel like a retreat carved somewhere deep into the woods, we started with the wood itself. Custom millwork wraps around the room, pairing richly varied wood veneer, selected for its natural movement and variation, with a live-edge ash desktop that follows the cabinetry into an expansive L-shaped desk. The cabinets are elevated with maple interiors and dovetail joinery, while continuous grain runs across the drawer and door fronts.

The right side of the desk was designed specifically for gaming, with a long stretch of live-edge ash providing plenty of room for her computer setup. Below, a purpose-built open cabinet gives the gaming tower its own dedicated platform, keeping it off the floor and within easy reach, while a bank of drawers keeps controllers, accessories and other essentials tucked away.

A combined home office and reading nook featuring a live-edge wood desk and a cozy reading nook with built-in bookshelves.

Around the corner, the left side of the desk shifts from play to work, with space for her laptop, drawers below and a closed upper cabinet for office storage. Above, two raw live-edge shelves appear to grow right through the cabinetry from the reading nook beyond, carrying some of the peace and beauty of that retreat into her everyday workspace.

Opposite the workstation, we designed the wall behind her desk to double as a backdrop for video calls. Lengths of walnut scatter asymmetrically from the built-in server cabinet, with two projecting into deeper shelves for books and collected objects. The wood draws the eye toward a large artwork of a tree-lined path, leading deeper into our imagined woodland retreat. Below, a sculptural black concrete console has a textured underside reminiscent of mountain peaks, while two lanterns illuminate the scene, as though lighting the path into the hollow.

A wood slat accent wall with floating shelves, styled with books and a candle beside a black console table.
Two floating live wood shelves styled with a brass feather sculpture, a black raven lamp, and paperback books.
A sculptural black concrete console table paired with a wood slat accent wall and framed nature artwork.

Reading Nook

Wandering along the live-edge desktop brings us into the reading nook, beginning with a full-height arched bookcase rising directly from the desk. Below, an open cabinet includes a slide-out tray for easy access under the overhang, finished with a thematic brass branch-shaped pull. But one of our favourite details was drawn into the millwork from the very beginning: rather than simply ending the desktop at the cabinetry, we extended its live edge beyond it to become a built-in side table for the reading bench. The perfect little perch for a book, a cup of tea, or whatever potion the evening calls for.

A corner reading nook with layered live edge shelving holding books, candles, and collected keepsakes.
A close-up of the live-edge wood desk's natural edge, beneath built-in shelving in the reading nook.
A brass wall sconce mounted on the built-in shelving, above the live-edge desk which is holding a book, a coffee mug, and reading glasses.

The cabinetry shifts here from warm wood into forest green, with the open interiors sprayed a deep navy. Storage is integrated beneath the bench with maple interiors and hammered iron cup pulls, while hidden arched alcoves at either end provide shelves and outlets for charging phones and Kindles out of sight. From there, the millwork rises up and over the bench to create the large arch that defines the nook. The arch terminates into the centre of the L so that, when viewed from an angle, the eye completes the curve, giving us that tucked-away nook feeling without needing a deep corner.

Nestled within that arch, the L-shaped bench was intentionally kept shallow enough to easily get in and out of, while still being comfortable for curling up with a good book. Custom upholstered cushions soften the bench, with wallpaper and deep navy carrying the colour upward. Here, we finally reach the heart of our tree. Live-edge shelves emerge from within the nook, illuminated by inset LEDs that highlight the wallpaper and middle shelf, while the upper reaches were intentionally left darker and filled with books, candles, jars, and decor, giving them the feeling of a witch’s apothecary. These are the branches we’ve been following throughout the room, growing outward through the cabinetry and into the workstation beyond.

A moody built-in reading nook seen through an open glass-paned door, with a round leather ottoman and botanical wallpaper.
Built-in shelving filled with a paperback collection, framed art, and decor beside a cozy reading nook.
Built-in bench seating in the reading nook, styled with fluffy pillows against the dark botanical wallpaper.
A view through the door, complete with a glass doorknob, into the cozy reading nook with a custom-upholstered loveseat and gold wall sconce.
A cozy nook corner complete with a dark green throw blanket, fluffy pillows, and a hidden section of the built-in bookshelf.
The glass-paned office door has a stained glass applique of birch trees. On the right, the botanical wallpaper is complimented by additional built-in shelving with decor and live plants.

The branches continue in the opposite direction too, with smaller live-edge shelves reaching toward the entrance and welcoming you into the nook as you step inside. And to complete the circle, we framed in the entrance to this room and added a custom wood door featuring frosted glass and a tree-inspired stained-glass decal.

From the first step into the room to the deepest corner of the reading nook, every path leads back to the woods.

Before Photos