Tag Archives for office

The Battleroom | New battlestation

For a while, my home office–a.k.a. the Battleroom, just to make life interesting–was not turning out how I wanted it to look. There were a few things I liked about it, like my little hackerspace and my wall color, but the desk I had bought from Target was way too small, and the flow of the room was not working at all. So I decided that I wanted to invest in changing it to make it exactly what I wanted, which meant getting rid of the desk, which I just bought. Luckily, my boyfriend and I decided to turn it into a minibar in our living room and it couldn’t be more perfect. I also managed to find an amazing desk on Craigslist for $40!

This is a picture I had pinned on Pinterest a looong time ago as one of the inspirations for my office:

I loved the white tabletop against the dark grey wall, and I loved the filing cabinets underneath. I’ve been going for a softened industrial look, so that kind of desk really appealed to me. And, to my luck, I found one almost exactly like it. It originally had a plywood top, so I decided to paint it white instead.

 

This desk was incredibly heavy, since it’s all made out of metal, so we took it apart to bring it upstairs. I’m so happy with how it turned out!

 

(That’s my map of Skyrim hung above my desk, but the glare from the window made it hard to see.)

I love the color and texture of the cabinets on the desk. I think it compliments my lamp and the grey wall, and it will go well with my lockers that will soon be going against the opposite wall.

 

It’s great to have such a large, clean surface to work on.

 

By the way, my desktop wallpapers are from this post. Feel free to use them!

Originally, my old desk was situated in the middle of the room, kind of like an island, because it was so small. Now that my desk is against the grey wall, it leaves room to show off some of my favorite items under the window.

I got some new plants, too.

I feel like these changes are making my room into what I had originally intended for it to look like. I’m finishing up my lockers this week, and I’m looking for some more wall art, but overall it’s almost finished!

Planning my battleroom | Colors & patterns

We’re moving on Saturday, and I’m really excited to get my new home workspace set up! Today we went and bought our paint. I’ve decided to paint a wall of my office a dark, warm grey color called Deep Mink. I’ll probably paint the wall my bookshelves will go against, or the wall behind my desk. I also plan on converting the closet into an open storage space, so I’ll be taking the doors off of it and painting the inside a medium yellow–called Dandelion Chain. (The orange Buttercup Squash color is going on a wall in our living room.)

I really like yellow and grey as a color combination. When I Googled it, here are a few images I found inspiring:

I don’t plan on making gray and yellow the only color scheme for the room. I thought they would both work well with other colors. For instance, I have an old dark green Army trunk with a red and yellow label on it. I’d also like to get a couple of hot pink or red accessories. I figure I can mix and match a bit while still making things feel unified.

I’ve also been looking for other elements for the room, especially rugs. I think a great rug really pulls a room together, and we picked out a beautiful one for our living room yesterday. Having a unique rug in my office will help me to merge the themes I’m going for with my decor–modern, industrial and a little rustic. I will probably buy a solid color rug and paint it myself with the pattern I like, but I plan to pull ideas from these I found on Ikea’s website:

Tomorrow I’m heading back to the army surplus store to price out a set of lockers I’ve had my eye on for a while. My idea is to clean them up and spray paint them and use them for storage in the closet. This isn’t a very good picture of them, but I snapped it last time we were there:

Here are some examples of lockers used as home decor:

I love how these look in these rooms, and I’m excited to bring these ideas into my home!

Planning my battleroom, part I | Inspiration

So today Andrew and I signed our paperwork for the townhouse we’ll be moving into in May! We’re really excited because we’ll have a garage, a washer and dryer in unit, and two separate offices (three bedrooms total). For two years we’ve been living in a super cute loft, which means that we have a lot of open space, but no individual areas for us to make into our own man and (wo)man caves.

For the most part, Andrew and I have very similar taste in interior design, so I’ve never felt that I couldn’t add or change things in my home if I wanted to. But there are sometimes things I want that he just won’t go for–and vice versa. So, needless to say, I’m very excited to have some space to myself that I can customize.

My office–which I’ve dubbed my battleroom to make it sound more badass–will be functioning as several spaces. First, it will need to be a good, productive environment for me to focus on my academic work. As of now I have a year left of grad school which will most likely turn into four more years if I choose to enter the PhD program. So I need the office to have a good set up for spreading out a lot of textbooks, research materials, etc.

It will also be where I work on my magazine, Wildflower. Because Wildflower is my business, I thought it was time for me to get an office, but I didn’t want to pay rent at another place–plus I work full time at my day job so I usually work on Wildflower in the evenings or on the weekends. Since we release an issue every few months, plus additional projects throughout the year, I want to have some open areas where I can post pages and layout ideas. I’d like to have a few chalkboard, white board and corkboard displays. And I’ll need to have plenty of shelving and storage for books.

Lastly–and for me, most importantly–it will be a space where I can relax, play video games, listen to music, read, write, browse the web all night long, sip on tea, be creative, etc. Andrew and I have a great relationship, and I believe that couples function best together when they have time apart. And I’m definitely a person who likes to be alone a lot.

But, being me, which means being incredibly indecisive, I’m having a very hard time planning out the layout and decor for my office. The keywords I want my office to evoke are:

  • modern
  • industrial
  • bold
  • cyberpunk
  • functional
  • tactical
I am pulling design inspiration (colors, atmosphere, mood, etc.) from:
Video games–
  • Portal and Portal 2
  • Mirror’s Edge
  • Half-Life 2
Film–
  • The Fifth Element
  • Watchmen
  • Sucker Punch
  • Amelie
Music–
  • Lights (electronica, pop, clean, modern)
  • Eisley (whimsical with a splash of grunge)
  • Emancipator (electronica, atmospheric, soothing, dreamlike but also energetic)
Books–
  • Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis
  • Ecstasia/Primavera by Francesca Lia Block
  • The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
I also want to incorporate things like my travel photos and knick knacks, as well as propaganda posters and other cool things.

And as part of my New Year’s resolution, I plan to make quite a few things myself, and I want very simple and minimal furniture.

Here are some rooms I’ve found inspirational while I’ll been scouring the web.

What does your home office look like? Where do you find inspiration for your workspace?

This will be an ongoing series so check back soon to find out how my planning progresses!

P.S.

If you use Pinterest, follow my Battleroom board!