Lamps, Lamps, Lamps

If there's one thing I have too many of (besides shoes), it's lamps. I LOVE them. They provide soft light in areas for reading, come in tons of designs, and can be a very affordable accessory in your home. You can find small ones for your bathroom and larger ones for your kitchen. At night, they can provide light for you becoming a make shift night light.

A great place to find inexpensive lamps is at IKEA. You can pick the base and lampshade separately, creating a one of a kind design. Target also has nice tabletop lamps that can jazz up any room. I like modern designs so I like to pair up Lucite (transparent plastic) lamp bases with patterned shades or even a simple white or cream color shade. I also love lamps that have a built in dimmer or can handle a 3-way light bulb. This allows you enough light for reading/studying or to create an atmosphere that is more relaxed and cozy.

I also like integrated lighting. Integrated lighting is defined as combining elements (lights & bookcase in this example) so as to provide a harmonious, interrelated whole. So for example you can light up a bookcase with spotlights or clamped lights that you attach to the top or inside of the case. This is integrated lighting. I have two lights clamped on the top of my bookcase. This is really nice for lighting up photographs or vases. Another great thing about these lights is that you can move them around. They are not bolted in so you can change the location as well as what you are lighting up. They also swivel 360 degrees so you can also use them to light up a wall behind the bookcase. A great place to find integrated lighting is IKEA.

Lighting your office can be a challenge but I find the sleeker, the better. I like modern lamps for my office. I like a streamlined look. I have the Antifoni work lamp from IKEA in silver on my desk and it's great. The adjustable arm makes it easy to direct the light and the overall design is sleek yet simple. The silver color also stands out against most colored office desks. I have a black desk with silver legs and they coordinate well together.

Super Cool Office Ideas

We spend a lot of time in our offices so why not create an environment that inspires you and your work. Blah offices are not visually stimulating, in fact most consist of the following:

1. one black chair that claims to be ergonomic.
2. one black or gray waste paper basket.
3. one gray desk.
4. 3 gray walls. Ugh.
   

Why do institutions pick the same awful, traditional, BORING, stuff to fill their buildings? Don't they know that humans need some stimulation or our brains might go to mush staring at the same gray walls for 20+ years! Here are some ideas on how to create a visually appealing and really cool office space! After all, shouldn't "Happy Hour" be from 9-5.

One thing you'll need is a place to sit, have some lunch, maybe read a book. This is where the Bibliochaise comes in handy. It's a chair which holds books, 5 meters to be exact. Its' cushions come in a wide range of colors and the exterior (book case part) comes in white, black, or aubergine (also available in other colors upon request). If you want to ramp it up even more, they also make Bibliochaise + which is veneered in oak tinted wenge or tinted black, with a wax finish and removable leather cushions in tons of colors!!! This is one of the coolest chairs I've seen.

Another cool idea is to invest in a really nice office chair. Here is an excerpt from office chair maker Herman Miller:
What do we do every day? We sit. We sit in the office and at home. Staring at our computer screens moving nothing but our fingers. We get stiff and tired.

This has now become a fact. We sit and stare in front of computers ALL DAY LONG. Humans were not meant to sit all day but we have to and we do so why not enjoy it while you can. Check out the Embody Chair by Herman Miller. It's pretty cool and comes in 13 colors!

Most likely your office floor is made of old tile or beige carpet. To remedy this atrocity, I would install FLOR carpet tiles. FLOR is the company that makes modular carpet tiles which come in many different designs, colors, and textures. It's also made from recycled and renewable material. I have it all over my house and it's one of the greatest inventions ever. If you spill something on one of the tiles all you need to do is send in the tile, they'll recycle it, and send you another one (cost of tile + shipping fee). If you have an oddly shaped room, you simply cut down the squares to fit! Check out their website: FLOR.

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