On Decorating Your Work Space

I'm a big believer in making the space where you spend most of your time tidy, practical and beautiful to keep your motivation lifted.

My summer version with cooler colors. Also to keep spirits cool!

My winter version with warmer colors to keep us feeling cozy and ward off depressing cold icky days.

The art I have on my desk is a favorite now in with my co-workers and was created by www.prestontaylordesigns.com, a local MD artist and construction guru.  

My co-workers also love a little nature in their life!

 There have been a few times where I have been tempted to cross-stitch something along the lines of "Office Sweet Office" or now "Cubicle Sweet Cubicle".

This has been the first time in years that I've had a cubicle and it opens my mind to how we share space with others so keeping that in mind has guided my choices in decorating my space.

Here are a few things that have worked for me that I would love to share:

1. Layout: There is a good flow and a broken flow to things and usually a focal point.

Doodling layouts to think of flow works really well for me. This is for a room at home and doodling helps me determine what will work best. 

Pick a point in your office or space that isn't used so frequently and choose to make that the focal point. Then there is the Rule of 3 (that is the number which works easiest on the eyes and mind to register). I can't remember if it was Aristotle or Socrates who said that giving anything in 3's were better, speeches (memorizing a speech is better if you mentally chop into three), writing a paper or designing. Anyway, 3 is good. Picking two smaller things on either side of the focal point works well. I love symmetry as it balances designs and supports focus so in small spaces I tend to sway towards keeping my two smaller things within the same color palate of the central figure. Once it is set up step back and look at it from a few angles before decided if that is really the best way to come walking toward it and what might look better.

2. Color palate: picking colors that suite your skin tone, are soothing, and keeping it to 2-3 max colors makes it easier to narrow down which colors to pick. Right now my desk is a stark white. It looks like an autopsy table where we could see what the patient died of! Natural causes! This desk is so hard on the eyes by itself and the work doesn't make it look any better. Debating a color palate I knew I had to incorporate white in it to blend in with the surgical white of the desk. I decided to choose a palate of greens and white and an occasional burnt red.

My skin is olive tone and green looks decent on me and red is my best color. Had I picked yellow it would have brought out my yellow undertone. Had I picked blue I would have looked sick. Etc. Your sitting body is part of the design (or standing) if you have a standing desk! So make sure that your accessories are good colors you can wear everyday in your office. I feel sick without nature so decided that my accessories would be reflections of things I love in nature, following the rule of 3 and in a color palate that didn't make me look like Morticia Adams.

The wrong color palate can make you look ill or creepy. 

Things I incorporated in my cubicle:

• A green and black handcarved globe from Ghana (wood makes designs feel grounding) and I really like remembering that there is more to life than the cubicle!
• A print from the National Gallery of Art (also where green is the main color)
• A green and cream table runner from Couleur Nature (A French inspired cotton print artist) for the summer and a red one for the winter to make life a little warmer during these cold indoor days! Ask "Could I wear you if you were a dress? Yes? Come away with me and be my love..."

  

  
  Something I would wear in winter. 

  
  

  

  Something I would wear in summer!

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• A smaller print of a Magnolia flower 
  
• Local art that makes your heart happy. 
• Now on the small wall that isn't visible to other staff I put smaller prints that make me happy. Following the rule of 3 I put The Reading Girl, some splattered paint that my friend's kiddos made, and a print of fruit and cake because....its tasty!

3. Sharing: When I worked in the public library I wanted to create a space that I could share with others. I incorporated real butterflies (educational and beautiful), puzzles (fun and art!), music (get those senses flowing) and my aim was to make the library a welcoming and stimulating sense so people could feel free to flow to books and topics out of their normal mental routine. Working in a Law Library and a doing so from a cubicle (different type of collection) has made sharing the space a bit more challenging to design. I decided the theme for my sharing would have to be professional and homey and to give the feeling that "you are doing ok". Because sometimes tension runs high! So when thinking of what people will feel when you are sharing a space keep it a little more neutral and calm. I would love to sit under a Rothko painting or shelve books with monastic chants throbbing in the background, intense burning and water trickling from a fountain that would also have a demur cat sitting next to the fountain.... but I know my fellow librarians probably wouldn't share that joy. So while my lay out at home might be a little more specific to my personality I like to keep shared space a bit more Communist to the needs and reactions of those who will partake of their visual experience with me.


A few words on tidying: Keeping a tidy office helps me keep an organized workflow. I am messy by nature so need to step out of my comfort zone to organize my projects at the end of each day and stack all papers back into their bed for the night. I also have a Swiffer duster and a big ol'can of cleaning wipes! The cleaning crew will never do as good of a job at disinfecting your phone! Its also an easy way to avoid viruses. Routinely cleaning my mouse, phone and keyboard has resulted in fewer colds.

Practical: I highly recommend keeping a little pantry and emergency shoes at the office!

My pantry with tea, cosmetics and a colorful basket with emergency goods.

Emergency boots for walking the wet cold streets of Wintery DC!

 I might have over done it and have a pair of boots, a pair of sandals and a small pantry with a cosmetic bag full of things to make me pretty, dry shampoo, a good umbrella and a black blanket. I feel like everyone needs a small black blanket....in the summer the AC gets cranked to 40 degrees and my toes turn to icicles and as I left the building I would melt in the balmy DC summer weather. I got a bad cough and decided to keep a black lap blanket because it matched with any black pencil skirt and no one would look that hard to tell that I had a blanket draped over my lap! And if they did, they were too nosy!

Spiritual Heart of my desk: I have a drawer right next to were I sit with things to remind me of my faith in order to live my faith as best as I can each day.

My mini-sanctuary. 

 I keep in a little drawer an image of St. Joseph with baby Jesus, an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (who I spend 2 minutes with before starting to work), a bottle of Holy Water and Holy Oil and dab the sign of the cross on my mind, mouth, and heart before starting work praying for God to give me the grace to be mindful of my thoughts, words and to live with His love. And I also keep a very special prayer can made from an Altoid tin can with names of people, situations and virtues I hope to grow with that I lift in prayer during the day. During the day I say several prayers, one between projects and listen to the rosary and dedicate it to something or someone on my daily list.

Little prayer can

Filled with slips of paper with prayers for each day. I have Anima Christi in Latin at the top of the can. It is one of my favorite prayers. 

Oh the prayers you will hold!

Plant:

 I think everyone should have one plant and max two in their office. No one shouldn't have a plant (unless they are allergic, of course) but plants are live creatures that just making living an office lifestyle a bit more acceptable. We were made to live with goats, pull beats, and live with sunshine etc so office living is not our natural habitat. Plants are great. But an overflow of plants like the Amazon is overwhelming.

So those are my tips and advise for having a happy mini-house in your office where you spend so much time!