Remodeling is a time-honored way to celebrate the empty nest.
In 2008 Wendy Lane, founder and president of LANE, a marketing and branding agency, repurposed her children’s bedrooms into a home office featuring neutral colors, warm lighting and eclectic furnishings.
Her office at the agency, located in the Goose Hollow neighborhood, is “very contemporary,” she says. “This is my refuge — much more nurturing.”
The kids may be gone, but markers of family abound. A cannonball on the credenza was a gift from her rock-loving daughters, who scavenged the shot from the backyard. (Built in 1950, Lane’s West Hills home was at one time surrounded by horse farms.) Her grandmother, who died in 1930, was the original owner of the wicker-seated rocking chair.
“Everyone has always said I looked like her. She had fabulous clothes, so I’m sorry I never met her.”
On weekends and evenings, Lane can be found sitting at her mother’s desk, where she works on agency financials and board work — Lane serves on the Historic Portland Public Market Foundation — and writes thank-you notes printed on her own letterhead.
“I tend to be a little more formal than most,” she observes. “It’s important to me to thank people in not just emails.”
The recessed incandescent lighting telegraphs a similar old-fashioned ethos. Energy-efficient lighting is too harsh, Lane opines. “I wish LEDs would work that through.
