Office work can feel tedious, but part of the reason that maybe is that the office itself is boring. Here are a few ways to spice up your office that won’t cost a lot of money but will have a significant visual impact.
Minimize Furniture, Maximize Carpeting
You can put your focus on the carpet rather than the design of office furniture and walls with this technique. Choose a bold, unique carpet that will stand out and clear some space for it in the office. By keeping furniture and clutter to a minimum, you will make the carpet more visible and make it the focus of the office. That doesn’t require a lot of work from you, and it is a great way to save money and make a sparse office look more appealing. If you are going to make this work, though, then you have to keep a clean office. Jan from Diamond Cleaning Calgary says, “You’ll want to have it cleaned regularly to avoid clutter and dust so that the carpet can shine.” Any office with sparse furnishings will look far dirtier with a little grime and dust than one that has a lot of furniture, so keep that in mind as you plan your cleaning schedule.
Go for a Natural Look
Another inexpensive way to make your office look unique is to bring in some outdoor elements. Now, if you were to bring in wood furniture and wood flooring that would give everything a natural look, but it would also cost a lot of money. We are thinking of something more practical and economical. Bring some plants into your office, and the more, the better. You don’t want to go overboard, but you can do so much better than the one-plant-per-office maximum that seems to be in effect at most offices. You can put some plants on the windowsill, place some larger ones in the corners and have a small plant on your desk. Placing some flowers here and there spices up the office as well and gives it some color.
A little bit of woodwork can help, though. You can place wooden mugs in your office, install a wood counter here or there, or have metal desks replaced with wooden ones. If you buy some of these products secondhand, you can fix them up with a little paint or lacquer and give your office a woodsy, rustic look without paying a lot for it.
Themed Office
There are a lot of ways to go about creating a themed office, and it all depends on what you want your theme to be. For example, if you wish to a movie-themed office, you can print out movie posters and hang them everywhere or have workers bring their movie posters. Or you could recreate various movie scenes in each cubicle. How in-depth and expensive you want to go with this is up to you.
We like the idea of music-themed offices that involve lining up CDs and albums everywhere to give people something to look at or even listen to when they need a break from their work.
The number of these ideas is endless, and you have to find what appeals to you and other office workers if there are any others. If you are designing an office for multiple people, find something that everyone can collaborate on and contribute to save costs, and keep everyone vested and involved in the changes.
Make it Cozy
Offices don’t have to look formal. They can be quite the opposite and seem like someplace that is lived in. You can make your office space more comfortable by giving your employees or yourself some freedom to bring in items that make it feel like home. Set up family pictures on your desk or your wall, bring in a few things from your favorite hobby, and personalize the office as much as you can.
One way to do this is to print out a wall design that gives the office a more comfortable feeling. Let’s say that you like a brick design, and you print that out or use brick wallpaper to cover your walls or cubicle sides and give your personal space the feeling of a home. You could do the same using wood paneling prints or even a painted mural. What you can do to decorate will depend on your budget, your personal preferences, and how much freedom you are allowed to have in decorating your office.
Cultural Diversity
Similar to some of the office designs we have already talked about, you can promote cultural differences through office decorating. Encourage your other office workers to bring in aspects of their culture and make the cubicles or office space, a place where diverse cultures are represented. This only makes sense if you have a genuinely different office staff, but if you do, there are some inexpensive ways to implement it. You can use the printed paneling from the previous entry to decorate your walls and cubicles. Workers can also bring in cultural objects, such as records, handmade goods, scented candles, and other paraphernalia that evokes their culture. You can use things that people already have or encourage them to go out a buy some small items that promote and showcase their culture. This splits up the budget and lets you do more with what you have.
These are just a few ideas for redesigning and changing up your office space. Whether you are decorating your own office or a larger space shared by multiple workers, you can implement these ideas in a variety of ways. We have just given you the start of a few ideas you can work with, and these are all ideas that you can take so much further. Just make sure that the office supervisors and your employers are okay with any changes you want to implement before you put them into place.
