Cubicle Makeover: Decorating Office Space in 5 Easy Steps
Working girls like me are stuck in the office for 8-10 hours a day. That is a third of my day spent in my own corner rendering service to clients, answering to my boss and delivering what is expected of me.
In the corporate world, if you are just starting, you won't get an enclosed office space right away. You get to share the whole floor with other colleagues separated by simple partitions. And what did I do with the humble space I call my own? Of course I glammed it up! Well, it is not really the kind of "mainstream" glam that you would expect. It is more of a homey glam that is very me. Exact works from my colleagues. My cube is the only standout in the floor. Every time someone sees it, I get a compliment. Some of them rave about it, to the point of urging me to decorate their cube too or blog about it or start a business in office interior decor. Cracks me up every time because of course I have a blog and a business already. I just did not tell my coworkers about it.
Pick theme and color palette
As a usual first step in any design projects I take on, I pick a theme and color palette.For this cube makeover, I tried to mix glam, art deco and traditional elements. I picked gray, beige, white and gold for the color palette.Draft a layout of your work surface
I got my inspiration on this from a CNN article. I had to modify it a bit because I have two monitors and a laptop in my desk.
Here is the actual sketch and scribble in my Onenote when I was planning the layout of my desk.
Pick a canvas
When I say canvas, I am referring to the material you cover the whole vertical area that encloses your workspace or the actual desk surface. So why do I do this? Everyone in the floor gets the same exact cube- you know standard issue- best deal the company could get type of thing. Usually the colors are very neutral and not much life to it. Adding a cover that has a unique but consistent design, you will get a pseudo background that will tie together all the items you have on the desk. If the partitions are made of glass, of course this will not be a good idea. For my cube, I used a very pretty gold geometric craft paper for the vertical space and beige vinyl for the entire surface. The vinyl was pretty good too in covering the cables at the back of the desk.Organize the files and supplies according to usage
After laying the canvas, I added a gold vertical file holder in the left side of the desk to avoid stacking folders on top of each other. The wire file holder is one of the items from Dress My Desk shop that is simple yet style is on point. I made sure that the contents of the folders closer to the front are the ones I access more frequently. Beside the file holder is a translucent drawer for random items that I use but would be an eye sore to my overall design because the color of the containers are way off the palette I picked. It is in this side also that I placed a faux fur mat for some posh touches. My marble desk accessories set are all lined up in this area. There is the tape dispenser, stapler and pen holder that holds the metallic dry erase markers I use to write project Go Live dates on the glass wall.
Add personal and decorative touches
There are three items I added here that are not necessarily functional but more towards personalizing the space. First off is the monochrome print of our wedding photo enclosed in a gold frame. A lot of the people in the office did not know I am married and so they always find that picture a surprise. Second is the gold M block. I actually bought that from a garage sale as green and I just spray painted gold. Last personal touch are the fake flowers. It adds texture, depth and relaxing greenery at eye level.
- Grace Greene
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