Interior Design Shenanigans

In various places we've lived, I've had friends ask my help organizing their homes as they move in, or to advise them what colors to paint their rooms. I love thinking about that sort of thing. Usually in that context, the person requesting advice views me as the creative/organized one. Well, trying to reorganize and redecorate a design studio full of creative people is next to impossible. EVERY one has opinions and in the opposing views, nothing ever gets done. The other print designer, Old Surfer Dude and I basically just staged a coup this week. Our creative director left for another position last week, Gentle Man was very busy with work and Broadway Director was focused on moving his stuff from a dark corner into a beautiful corner of the design studio. So, Old Surfer Dude and I both arrived at 8 AM every day this week and moved things, purged things and made it all better.

Gentle Man would come in every day around 10 AM and dig things out of the trash, "We really should keep this, you never know when it might come in handy..." Have I mentioned that since cleaning the house after my mother's death I've been a total purger?! He drove me nuts all week!!! Old Surfer Dude kept shaking his head. When it was just the two of us he'd make comments about having had to deal with Gentle Man for years. I understand 'just in case' thinking, but the reality is, if you haven't touched it in a year and can't foresee a use for it in the next year, you won't miss it! Hanging on to things creates an anchor that makes it hard to be agile and move ahead.

Anyway, below are the promised photos.

This is what the rest of the office looks like. It helps you understand why people love to come into our area.

Mouse maze anyone?

It's not all awful. The waiting area near the receptionist is ok.

The hall leading toward our area isn't bad either.


Welcome to the design department. (That's a poster I designed for an event last year. On the shelves is a collection of old wooden tools belonging to Old Surfer Dude. The vase is my o-so-exciting fish tank!) The door leads into the creative director's office.

The fish tank. I'm really, really hoping that there are no floaters on Monday!

The snails keep sneaking up to the top of the glass and freaking me out. Not because I worry about them escaping, but because from a distance it looks like one of the guppies died and is floating on the surface.

I never knew there were fancy guppies. These are called "Tequila Sunrise". There are two female guppies in the tank, so we might get babies!


This is OUR waiting area. It's right across from the creative director's office. The reality is that no one will ever sit in that chair, but it looks good, right?


We moved the bookshelf from the 'waiting area' and created two 'rooms'. On the left is a conference table and on the right is our 'brainstorming lounge'. (I find that naming areas helps define the purpose which then helps determine what objects to include and how to flow the space.)

The view from our studio is amazing. We have a small airfield to the left and a national wildlife wetland to the right.

Friday we invited everyone to come into the design department for drinks. The lounge worked perfectly. I don't think you can see it, but in the middle of the table is another fish bowl with two guppies and a snail which is a great conversation starter. We call them Oscar and Felix. When I left work at 6:15 PM, there were still five people gathered around the table gossiping and laughing.

I call that a job well done!

Old Surfer Dude suggested they let me loose on the rest of the building. I would LOVE that, but I doubt it will happen.