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Functional Work Spaces

S so let's talk about work spaces. So what are we going to be thinking about when we're considering our workspaces so I know tens of you, several of you have already said you work from home, I know tons of people in our audience working from home quite a love them run design business. Yeah, this is from homos well designed businesses from home photography businesses from home, any kind of sales, lots of people work from home these days. And so what does that look like for you? It could be a lot of things for some reason. To me, when you think of a homework space, the typical style that comes to my mind is more more urban, like more clean line modular. I don't know why, but obviously you can have, you know, very traditional work spaces at home to we can all think of studies and offices that definitely fit that model, but from a function standpoint, what do we want to think about? Well, you need the ability to focus to be productive right on so that's might encompass all sorts of things ...

that may mean that you don't want to put a television in your space. It may mean that you need tio have a space that's more free of clutter than other parts of your home and there's a lot of things any anything in particular that any of you've dealt with it would be a problem for being able to focus at home? Um, well, if some come to mind, you know, sometimes we have more than one person working at home. I know I have lots of clients with both people that live in the home actually work from home, so how do you keep them from distracting each other? To be really challenging? Sometimes you need to actually have a space to meet clients in your house. So have you created a place or room? Are you constantly finding yourself have tio having to go to star books or, you know, somewhere else of the local restaurant or coffee shop to meet clients because you haven't created a space that they can come into your home? So what does that look like for you? And how do you, uh, stay true to your style and have professional meetings in your space? We'd certainly want to be organized, so hopefully more and more this they're going to paperless processes, they're getting closer to that, but I think for a lot of us that's going to be along long process to get rid of aa lot of the things, the store and organizes faras documents and other things, so what does that look like? Free? And then technology your computers and all of the things you have to store so how do we make those look chic if we've got all this equipment? We've got cords everywhere um and then really tailoring to your own personal work style because everybody works differently so you have to think about that as well, and this can really play into if you have two people in the house that you're maybe say, for example, if my husband had to work from home but really I've been in charge of a lot of the home styling with how would I make a workspace taylor to him? Um fortunately, he doesn't work at home because every time I go to his office it's appalling the number of documents and piles that are on the floor, but how would you accommodate that if that was what you were having to deal with? So let's look at some functional workspaces and see how we can, um, use pinterest for some cues. Tio how we make spaces functional and stylish for the home office because it's a really big category for a lot of people let's see, there we go what we're finding right? Yogi has just written and said her photography equipment is taking over two of her rooms right now that's really challenging uh yeah equipment can be a big a big challenge and two two rooms is a lot lot yeah be interesting to see how you could start to maybe condense some of those things or have storage, so just looking at some of these merely from a style perspective, this certainly to me feels like an artistic traveler space um just a lot of it is very much a bohemian kind of look, but using containers and things to store clutter is certainly helpful in this space. I love the way they've used the natural light because for productivity, I think that could be really important and I can't remember if we talked a lot about colors I think we did for productivity and other things went in our color course, but there are some colors that are better for that and of course it depends on your own personality aa lot of people are drawn to blue, which is pretty calming, but studies have shown that some colors like orange and some other vibrant colors could be really great for productivity to so it depends on your style because if you want something that's really sleek and minimal and mutual, you're not going to probably want to paint all the walls in your office orange, but you might could paint the backs of the bookcases or bring in an orange chair, do some other things that make it have an orange feeling without being an orange space um but certainly this is one approach to the office function. Um, a different one here. I think this kind of what? What do you all think this feels like? What style? I think it's pretty traditional, traditional. Almost even even though it's a mix of a lot of things. Like a modern chair in a traditional table. There's. A little bit of glamour in that to make it. I don't know if it's the pillow or it looks a little feminine, but yeah, pretty traditional. Eso similar and in function to the space we were just looking at but leans towards something. Probably a little more traditional. Less bohemian, a little more tailored. This probably is a dressing room, but you could see how you could create a work space. I think we might even have one in here. Yes, we did. That's, mary macdonald's workspace it's certainly glamorous, but just thinking about the drapery treatment here in the lucite manatee. Um, thinking of how that could translate to a desk or a work space for a this next one is the one that's mary macdonald that has that kind of feel to may so very glamorous. So what is a glamorous work space, little aiken, could you function in that kind of space, would that work for you? Um, you know, probably wouldn't have all of the things displayed on the table like she does for this photo shoot. Maybe it depends on if that makes you feel comfortable, are connected to your space, but certainly a way to bring glamour into the home office, which I think is beautiful and fun and something completely opposite, which is more of that scandinavian kind of look or something danish, and this could just be when we're talking, even like small space design, it might just be a corner of your room, or your workspace might have to be your bit side table, and this might be the desk let's beside the bed. But thinking about how, if this is your aesthetic, what your workspace can look like and what we're going to use for storage, and I can envision if you loved this kind of style, how you could have an entire wall of, um, of built in cabinetry with doors on it, it was just in a warm would tone in the numerous amounts of documents and books and all sorts of things that you could, um, store and a really sleek sort of way and really be true to this aesthetic, so so this one, what do you think? What do you think this feels like a traditional new, maybe glamorous? Got a lacquer desk a tufted chair we've got some chrome detail ing on the fronts of those bookcases and they're in black lack or so certainly traditional but it has a lot of glam tio um so that would be one way to have a work space particularly if you have lots of books that you needed to store that you were going to be using so library kind of style um this one is very modern with the glass desk the crume chair large um apple computer which is fun and it becomes an accessory in and of itself because of the beautiful sleek design so that's maybe what um urban workspace could look like this was I think this is the living room of the owner of jimmy to shoes so very much fashion forward and this is obviously just a table in her living room but that could totally function as your workspace and may be at this for her in new york penthouse um but certainly glamorous and she's even that what I loved the storage here I love these open bookcases and it's really artistic almost like a collection again the way the books and other elements are display there but you could actually use all of those things and you could have boxes on those shelves that held things that you need to work with and you could literally go get it off the shelf and bring it over here that to the table so again thinking creatively have had a store things that you're really going to use it arms length you know within arm's reach but have them look really stylish or like a collection I think is really exciting let's say a couple more and this is the more of that urban kind of retreat and I love just having the book stacked on benches and this this is kind of um tells the whole story in and of itself if you're interested in willing to just have things surrounding you like a big you know if you were a designer and you had a big box of blue prints and floor plans they almost become an accessory to the space in a way for something that's more urban like this blue lacquered walls fabulous I think bold color certainly that's probably fits in a a glamorous style but it could be a lot of things that could be traditional really probably glamour with with this sort of art deco looking desk but um traditional elements there for sure with paneling anything coming to mind with any of the this is a final into this is that traveled global kind of feel that I love this space thiss one interest because I'm working from home and I'm not a very toddy person but I like to have a lot of inspirational stuff up around me but I'm working from you know a glass table that's also the table of the house. So I do have that bench with stuff, and then I have my table there, and I want to have a pin board, and I know when we did your color workshop, you had inspiration boards and pin boards. How do you see in suppression boards and pin boards working when you have a smaller work spice in a bigger room like this? What can you do to clean it up a bit? I mean, there's, what there's some options for things like that that you could actually cover up so things that you could open up that had a cover of him, I love him to just actually be what they are. So I think maybe creating a multipurpose pin board, so that has photographs of the family. If other people pin things on there. I don't know if that works for you, it's it's interesting. It depends on how how much of your time in the house's spit in that space is the office and how much is spent at as a dining table. If that makes sense, and I think you're gonna want to see sort of lean into the one that he that it needs to function the most free, that heavy scene rooms I've seen lots of great rooms that air. Libraries with the dining table in them so room full of bookcases and books, but that has a dining table in the middle. So it's really kind of a library, but you happen to eat in there so that's, you have to kind of decide which one is the dominant purpose for you. And if it's really mainly your office in your creative space than maybe you just lean into the idea of the pin board because that's what you're using the majority of the time and don't worry about it or if you really feel like it's taking away from the experience with dining, then you make it something that represents the whole family. Oh, or something that could be taken down and put away. Um, in a space for one of my clients, I did a built in that looked like a pantry almost, and then when you open the doors of the built in on the inside or court boards and so all of her pin board is inside this almost like an arm wine, and so when it's open it's the pin board, you could have the computer and there are other things, and when then it's close, it's just looks like a cabinet, so it kind of goes away, so you have to make some decisions sort of like we get to decide if we have you know sixty percent of our style traditional and twenty percent glamour and twenty percent something else it's kind of the same idea with function how much of your time is in this space doing this activity versus this one it's I have people for example I have lots of clients who want to create spaces for entered entertaining or guest and they'll let that really drive the end result of a space or they want to and then I start asking more questions and say well how often do you actually entertain or how often do you actually have guests well we have a guest you know three or four times a year and so we have been a conversation of ok well you live here three hundred sixty five days of the year we're going to design this space for four times a year maybe four to eight nights a year that doesn't really make any sense so thinking from a function standpoint first ah and how often you're using it should help you make some decisions from jaime in texas they're saying all of these images that you've been using the offices all of extremely clean and tidy and he obviously clearly has a problem with cabe management was all of that like incorporated into these setups and this is something you have to encounter yes so something like this I mean I'm sure there's well she's she's using our this a laptop so if that's the situation you're gonna want to actually create something that's maybe not a freestanding piece of furniture here but maybe a built in cabinetry you know, pieces of cabinetry or something that's actually going to accommodate what you need tio store or hide and I agree with that I mean, we all many of us have to deal with that so if you have a floating lucite desk you're gonna have a hard time choosing this as your desk if you need to sit a computer on it and that has eighty different chords coming off the back of it it's not going to look that great s o that might be a place where yes, you would love to have this disk but you ultimately make a decision that it's not a fit for you you don't have to abandon the whole style concept but maybe you just don't bring in a lucite this if you're gonna have a lot of courts so that sometimes people it's a little frustrating from four people cause they really, really want something and it just doesn't function in that space and that's where I said, well, where else could we use that? Could we use a lucite uh, desk as your bedside table? Could it go in the living room like the one we just saw behind the sofa as a secondary workspace? Andi just sometimes have to get practical about how you're using a spice and it doesn't mean you abandon the entire style idea by any means but if clutter is an issue for you you know if that stresses you out to have that visual noise of courts which it does me then how are you going to accommodate that and you think about it you don't just rush out and buy the desk and then figure out the cord control because it doesn't really work that way? Um this is a fine one that's a little more uh artistic and um maybe even a little little scandinavian the feeling so I think we've gotten the idea that there's all sorts of great ideas for all kinds of styles that work in the home office is well and you're really going to be thinking about functions driven design first I think before and then how do you blend that with your style cues? So I prefer that you think a function first it's easier and works better to think of the function first a supposed to picking the style piece first and then trying to figure out how to work with it because you're going to pin yourself in the corner a lot of times just like it would happen if you have a loose cider a glass disk like we were just talking about anything come to mind with a for any of you that are working at home or any of this the solutions that you've had her challenges you've had that would be worth mentioning here from a home off this perspective, julie, if you run into some of these issues I have I might work spaces in our living area and and I don't want it to look messy, you know? And then also, I don't know when I'm done working, I don't want to look at it, so I'm using the secretary, so I just close it up, right? And I love that I think that's great, and that didn't show the image, but there was one picture on them, and I think that's a great idea, kind of like the idea that I was signing of even an arm or any kind of cabin, and I know arm laws, and some of those pieces of furniture have falling out of favor a little bit. People don't he's on the way they used to, because you're not necessarily hiding a television or you're putting your wardrobe in there, but they weren't great for something like, ah, home office, work space, that you can put everything away, and and then things don't get lost. People aren't moving your work around off the table cause that's probably a challenge for sally if she's working on the table and then it's timed to eat dinner and every single time it's ready for a meal? You have to pick up all the stuff that you've been working on and then get it all back out and start over the next day. That could be a challenge. Eso thinking that through. Okay, let's, look at see marie, do you work from home? Teo? My desk is it's so disorganized. It's terrible. I don't have enough space for all the stuff, but I didn't see many files in these pictures and I know we're trying to get to more paperless office is, but I feel like I still have to have a lot of things in files or in binders, and I agree, and I think that's really where you're going to use a lot of built in cabinetry. And the great thing is you could have built in cabinetry in any style. It could be really traditional with a raise panel door. It can be really, really modern and clean with a flush panel door, and then it can be everything from any species of wood to paint grade that's, you know, very traditional and matt white or shiny high gloss, cobalt blue or even mirrored if you're looking for a glam look, so cabinetry is so versatile. On my love for you to even think about it, not just go make a wall of cabinets but taking the next step and go what am I storing in here and do I want to make a space for my printer that's actually on a little tray that pulls out and the outlet is inside there so all the court can control goals goes behind it? And do I have a stack of drawers and two of them hold files and the other's hold other, you know, equipment or whatever really taking each piece that you need because we all have different storage needs. We all have different things that were housing in our in our offices. I think about my design work room, and I haven't a big island in the center of our workers it's full of cabinetry for all the catalogues, drawers underneath for things like wood samples and tile samples and then a big island and all the drawer fronts are plexi glass, so I could put fabric samples in there, and I can see what they are, and I have him organized by color. So have, like red solids and red patterns and pink solids and pink patterns and green solids and green patterns, and I know right where to go, and I could see see them, but they're all tidy, and they say, really need plus it's kind of fun and exciting to look in there and see other people love to come into my workroom. And I just it's, like I can be looking at the colors and the fronts of the drawers said, thinking ahead and really planning what you need to store and then go okay here's the function piece like we were talking about, how do I then make that fit with my style? And does that mean mirrored cabinetry? Or does it mean you know something traditional styling, but certainly I think built ins are a great way, and if you can't build into your house, if you're renting or if it's not your forever has taken certainly by all kinds of cabinetry on dh you storage containers in them. I used tons of boxes. We keep all of our client projects in fabric covered boxes, so with each client they may have, even if it's a whole huge house, they may have two or three boxes, but all of their swatches of the samples and paper worker in those and then in a binder. And we know exactly how that stored and there's a system to it, and it looks great team so and even to that so here's, we're getting to my hanging chair here. J k starting to shake, but to that to that idea, thie, you know the boxes could even be what reflects your style. It could be a pattern or a print or color, that kind of thing. Okay, basketball baskets are really everything. Not just office stuff, but shoes, toys, yes, when actually covered, I have stopped him clients who have trouble with clutter because they have several children and, you know, lots of people in and out of the house, and people come home and everything out of every pocket, the backpack, everything goes on either onto the kitchen counter are on the floor, and so we're constantly using things like containers and baskets, because the idea is it doesn't matter how much chaos is inside the basket as long as it's in the basket and put on a shelf. You can't see it so that visual vault noise that volume goes way down, but just putting things in containers.