making decisions: my office at work

I brought in a couple of pillows from home that were about to end up in Pillow Purgatory (ie the spare room closet). I love the color they bring into my office, but in the sea of creams, browns, grays and secondhand furniture that is my office, they just seem a bit out of place. Instead of being bright and cheerful, they're a bit pathetic. Which just means I need to add a bit more life into the rest of my office, right?

My brother-in-law is a photographer and took the most beautiful pictures this summer when he and my sister were in Vermont. I mentioned to him that he should make some of them into posters, but then kinda forgot about them. But then I was thinking about what I could add to my walls and immediately thought of these picture. They're just so green, they'd be perfect.

I already have a large poster of Grand Central Station and my first thought was to add 3 photos to either side:

I went with vertical because I liked these shots better and I like the neatness of it. I have a scattered gallery wall at home and I love that, but at work I like more order.

But then I thought - hmmmm, what if I got rid of the poster? It's not like this poster has great meaning for me. I had a blank wall in college and this poster filled it up. It then moved with me to my DC apartment and lived perfectly in the foyer there for almost 8 years. When I moved to Greenbelt, this poster no longer had a home (and its purgatory space was under my bed). So I like having it in my office, but it's not mandatory.

If I took it out, I would add a lot more pictures and think I'd do a sort of modified grid:

And I like all the color it adds, but it just feels a bit messy to me. As a nod to work - there's no there there. No real focal point. Plus looking at the first grid, I can see how the light from Karl's pictures mimic the light coming into GCS - it's all coming from the left. It works, right?

Okay, decision made. I'm going with the first option. THIS is why I have a blog, to help me think through all of my decorating options as well as to chronicle them. My mind gets jumbled with all the possibilities, but when I see it in print, it suddenly becomes clear.

What Would Debbie Do? My office at work

I've been pretty lucky - I've been in an office the entire time at my company.  We don't really have cubes and most assistants sit in hallway desks.  No walls, no door, no privacy.  I've been in the same office for my 10 years here, through several promotions and several different officemates.  It's a good-sized office, but not huge and for the first 7 or 8 years (they run together), I shared it with someone else.  Then my last officemate moved to her own office, but left her desk behind.  There was always the promise (threat?) of someone else moving in and I did have an intern in with me during the last political season, but for the past 2 or 3 years, I've been by myself.  But with two desks.  My good-sized office was still cramped.

The other day, though, the second desk was finally taken out!  I had a dream of a couch, but there wasn't one available that would fit.  The office manager did give me an unused arm chair - it's a nice dark charcoal and very comfortable.

I have some ideas for redecorating my office with unused posters and pillows from home and I plan on taking some pictures once I get it all together, but all this room also made me dream a little.  Hence another chapter in What Would Debbie Do?

There are some things that need to stay.  The olive green carpet, the cream walls with a goldenrod accent wall, my orange-y wood desk, large black file cabinet and the charcoal armchair.  So I came up with a gray, pink and yellow color scheme.

First, I'll bring in the 75" Hutton sofa from Room & Board in Blossom and toss a couple of throw pillows from Etsy on it in a black and gold ginko leaf pattern.  Then on the charcoal chair (very similar to this one from Room & Board), I'll add another Etsy pillow in a goldenrod chevron.

Pretty, right?

I already have a nice and simple desk lamp, but I need more light in here to avoid using the overhead fluorescents.  So I'll add two of the Kenrick floor lamps from Mitchell Gold & Bob Williams.  One up near the door and then one behind my desk.

Now we have places to seat and plenty of light.  Time to pretty up the joint with some stuff on the walls.

I like my desk pushed against the accent wall (still looking out the door), so along that wall will be three different pieces.  Behind my desk will be a cork board from Ballard Designs - the size of the largest one in this picture, but with a black frame.  And I'll have their little gold bee push pins, natch.

Then above my desk will be three faux film reels from Pier 1 (I do work on Broadcast Production, after all).  These suckers are big - the dark one is 24" and the small is 18".  I'll go Small-Big-Small straight down in a row.

Then, evenly spaced to the right of the reels will be this very pretty painting from World Market.  This is the spot I see as I come into my office and so I want something lovely to greet me.

Now on to the other wall.  I want something to ground the space, both in size and in color, so I selected this blueprint of the Eiffel Tower from Ballard Designs.  Though I've never been to Paris, I still love all things French.  It's a dark gray-blue so it goes with my color scheme without being too matchy-matchy.  And I just think it's freaking cool.

The back wall is all window and I don't want any curtains blocking my view - my immediate view is of a brick building, but over to the right is the Potomac River and the Kennedy Center.  It's pretty sweet.  And I keep the blinds open all the time so I'm not even going to bother replacing them.

Overall, I love this plan and am going to keep it in mind when I start redecorating my office for real.  Though since it'll all be coming out my pocket, I think I'll forego the $300 cork board...