Micah Ryan Designs

Office Makeover

I work remote these days, but turn back time only 2 years and I was moving into a shared office with my co-worker. We had both been managers at our company for many years, and as sales managers our desks were out among our teams on the sales floor so we could listen, coach, and answer questions easily. We had been requesting a private office for some time, to conduct sensitive management conversations and higher leadership calls without the content being broadcast to our employees through our headsets. After 5 years at the company, we were granted an office to share, we would take turns using it and would coordinate our calendars to ensure there was no overlap in our use of the room.

I wanted to decorate and make the office a comfortable space to work and meet. As a shared space, I also needed to take into consideration the style of my colleague, and I didn’t want to spend very much money on this space as the building we worked in was regularly re-configured. The office also came with a couple of things already that had to remain- the desks, tv, whiteboard, and bookshelves were all permanent residents of the room.

As we excitedly discussed plans for the room, my coworker surprised me with the first piece of decor, a neon sign. It was fun and perfect and gave me a spin off for color choices. I asked my coworker what colors she prefers and would like to see, she let me know that purple was her color of choice. With the neon sign being turquoise, I started down a google rabbit hole to figure out how to design the two colors to work in unison.

I made a rough outline of the room in excel and making mockups of a birds-eye view, as well as a mockup of each wall. This was the ultimate goal of what the space would look like- though I ended up scaling back some of these to keep expenses down.

Once the mockup was created and my colleague agreed on my vision I went to work re-arranging the pre-existing furniture and finding new decor to purchase.

Because we were only allowed to use thumbtacks, and not nails or screws, I simplified the window area to some simple and cheap art that I ordered, framed, and hung. For around the tv I found large prints on Etsy, had them printed at Fedex, and framed and hung them as well.

For the desk Candice and I placed a few decor pieces that we already owned and loved from our own desks, as well as a couple of cute and useful fillers that I found online (Rhino candy bowl, hedgehog tape dispenser, etc). I found a couple of white throw pillows to make the office chairs more cozy, and found a plant that I loved for beside the desk. I bought a concrete pot and spray painted it pink “for the vibes” and topped it off by filling with white stones.

“Ingredients” to an Office Desk Space:

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Shifting to the left, we put the two existing bookshelves beside each other and designated one to each of us. We filled them with the items that we pleased, but also decorated the top to fill in some of the blank space in the taller than average walls. I created a visual triangle with three pieces of decor in the middle and balanced the visual height of the tall plant decor (right) by hanging a framed company-poster around the same height (left).

We hung the neon “good vibes” sign and placed a small table beneath with a Keurig, k-cup organizer, and special mugs specifically purchased for our new office. Above the whiteboard I hung a set of gold metal line art that also helped with visual height. The final touch for the back-facing view was a rug that brought our turquoise, pinks, and purples together.

“Ingredients” to an Office Library Space:

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But the final section of this office is the “shining glory” of it. The wall that my team coined “The Instagram Wall”, in front of which many selfies were taken and meetings were held.

For this wall I used used thumbtacks to secure grass wall panels to the wall the desk faces. I went to Goodwill and purchased 5 different frame sizes and spray painted them gold.

I hung the frames using wire and thumbtacks, hiding all but the frames within the grass. I then hung the neon heart and lightening using command hook velcro and hid the battery boxes belonging to them within the grass as well.

Lastly I secured purple and gold butterflies to the grass wall to look like they were emerging from the bottom left corner.

“Ingredients” to an Office Instagram Wall:

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I hope this gives you inspiration to brighten your own workspace.

Happy Transforming!

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