A Tour of my Whimsical Work Office - Design on a Dime Style

I wanted to share some photos of how I recently decorated my new office at work. If you're like me, you may find that you spend a large percentage of your Monday through Friday life inside the four walls of an office.

Many people do not have the option to personalize their space beyond a few framed photos, a pencil cup and candy jar. On the other hand, these same folks typically are provided really nice office spaces with plush, coordinating furnishings that match the decor of the entire office building. And their salaries most often reflect this as well.

I, on the other hand, work in a higher education administrative type of setting. I do not work with high-dollar clients. My typical "customers" are Freshman and Sophomore college students in their very late teens/early twenties. When my entire office was relocated to another place, we were supplied with small offices with white walls -- and a mesh-mash of white metallic desks, ancient desk chairs and wooden bookcases that have a date from the 1970s stamped on the backside! You could not ask for a more blah and sterile work environment.

Since I work approximately 10 hour weekdays (Fridays are half-days), I knew I could not maximize my productivity every week in that cave-like setting. The week we moved, I did a literal blitz of blogs and Pinterest for fun work ideas but without tons of leads. I collaborated some of the ideas that I did stumble upon with other ideas that had evolved inside my cluttered brain...and the following photos show the colorful canvas I ended up with as my work environment...

I added a colorful, striped vinyl placemat (for $1) and secured on the center of the door with 3M Velcro (that is easy to remove and won't leave a mark on surfaces). I use scotch tape to hang flyers promoting various campus events.

One of two wooden bookcases that were already in my office: I used a total of four lime and turquoise plastic dessert cups ($1/ea.) to serve as vases lined across the top of one bookcase. These are great for hiding pens, pencils, loose change, etc.

My desk seemed to be the worse of everyone's desks. It is metal and plastic with lots of scrapes and dings on the sides. I made a chevron pattern on the computer, traced it across the front of the desk and filled in the pattern with silver-metallic and turquoise duct tape from Target. They sell duct tape in every color of the rainbow! This was the most difficult aspect f my office makeover, trying to get the chevron pattern somewhat symmetrical. The brown and lime throw rug is an older one I've had at home for a few years. I am moving soon and do not plan to use it in the new house, so off to work it went!

A closeup of my duct-taped desk handy work!

I used a small styrofoam cube leftover from another project as a "candy dispenser." This idea came to me as I was just about to toss the cube while sorting and throwing out odds and ends in a closet before my move. I bought a bag of Blow Pops and assorted Dum Dum lollipops for a couple dollars each and punched all of the suckers into 5 of the 6 sides of the cube. College students appreciate free candy, especially when they're ducking in between classes.

I found this idea on Pinterest, and I think it linked back to a blog : The Paint Chip Office Calendar. Cut 35 paint sample chips into perfect squares. Line these into 5 rows of 7. Use Elmer's clear drying glue to attach these onto a sheet of scrapbooking paper (measure and cut to fit the size of the frame to be used). Dry overnight. Frame it and use a dry-erase marker to label the month, year and days on the glass part of the frame. My frame was from a clearance bin for about $2, and the frame part of it actually fell apart on me the first day. I improvised by using a couple of large binder clips from our office supply cabinet at work to hold my calendar together. I clipped one binder clip on the top left and one on the bottom right.

 

I used a few old frames with broken glass and picked up a few from Walmart in the bargain certificate frames section. I cut rectangles of fabric remnants to fit inside the frames. The frames were spray-painted a high gloss white. In person these are coated thickly and have a nice glossy sheen. The lighting was a little wacky on my smartphone's camera. I did not use the glass in any of these so that the fabric texture shows through (which makes it ideal to recycle old frames with broken glass). There was also a broken corkboard missing a chunk of cork left behind in my office. I used a box cutter blade to cut a section to fit into one of my frames. I used various sized jar lids to trace circles on a circle-patterned fabric scrap and stapled a few of these on to the corkboard for some additional flare.

This is the 2nd bookcase that was already in my office. I placed one of my purple sequined lamps that my mom gave me from her set of two after her retirement from teaching elementary school for 30+ years. The other sits on my desk. Both were in her classroom for years. I framed a personalized stationery card since I did not have a nameplate at the time. I made ribbon art that I also framed. I made "no sew" curtains using a very cheap spring rod and two fabric scraps from other projects. I cut two panels according to my measurement and used fabric glue (which I already had) to "sew" the pockets across the tops of my two mini-curtains. I made sure to trim the bottom ends very carefully and neatly with my really good fabric cutting scissors since I was not planning to stitch a hem across the bottoms. So far no raveling. For good measure, I made two matching tie backs so I can open or close the curtains to stash things.

This was a very simple project - yet makes a big impact in my office. People always ask me about it. I used 5 empty and cleaned soup cans of similar size. I cut strips of fabric to fit closely around of the can's dimensions and then hot glued the fabric around the cans. I then glued the 5 cans together, making sure to keep the seems down. It is meant to sit on its side like this, because it makes it so easy to grab the utensil needed. I have scissors in one compartment, pens in another, regular #2 pencils in another, mechanical pencils in another and highlighters in the fifth one.

You will notice I carried out the duct tape to this blah faux wood and metal office table in the corner which aids in freeing up some desk space for me. Because my desk only has 3 small drawers, this Rubbermaid-style drawer canister supplements my desk drawer space. The top of it doubles as storage with little sectionals carved into the lid. I spray painted this piece metallic silver (removing the drawers so that these sections would still be transparent). I have several of these pink pails from Target (in the $1 bin which was running 70% off). I used my Cricut machine to cut out fun graphics + labels in Curlz font which I affixed to the fronts of the pails.

AFTER: This worn blue office chair (pictured below) for students seated in my office was given a fresh, new look by recovering the two cushions. I  could easily accomplish this with this style of chair, because both cushions can be removed with a screwdriver. You may remember this pattern from the circular pattern attached to my framed corkboard (seen above).

BEFORE: The blah, faded blue student chair

This is the door sign I created and applied that was affixed to the main door that enters our office's lobby area, thanks to the beauty of my Cricut machine. :)