I am an architectural design writer who often focuses on how environment can affect behavior. Before consulting privately, I received my MA in writing and ran a design boutique in Los Angeles.
I am an architectural design writer who often focuses on how environment... More »
For those who are greatly impacted by the aesthetics and environment around them (yes that applies to you who binge on houzz and other design sites, flip through design magazines in bookstores), the workspace is especially important to get right.
Workspaces require a lot. The fundamental level: meeting the organizational needs to encourage creative and intellectual flow. Then there's the aesthetic level: making it a space you WANT to be in, even on those blue Mondays. Those manic Mondays. Those oh oh longing for the weekend Mondays.
The places we work in can be as varied as our work itself, and these photos exhibit amazing design and rooms that make you want to, yes it's true, work in them.
The details count. In this room the wallpaper, light fixture, and eclectic chairs create the aesthetic. The shelving and art flanking the space not adds pleasant design, but provides storage to save the space from pandemonium.
Ce photo: je l'adore. This room that serves as a dining and workroom is French in its elegance and simplicity. There is not a visual overstimulation (helped by all the white) yet the details are all there. Even a chalkboard for notes. Storage. Good natural lighting. Love it.
This is a much different space that is equally pared down and simplified. Its beauty (and storage for all those loose "in-box" papers) allows it to exist in the room in plain sight.
Just as the categories in our lives overlap, multifunction rooms like these can be the most used and most loved spaces in a house. I adore the slim shelf for books or a closed laptop just below the countertop.
Another beautiful multifunction room, where the dining table can also serve as a work space. The old card catalog unit against the wall adds to the pared down pleasant aesthetic.
Another very important (and in this case, very used) workspace: the kitchen. The details, which are many, are left to the actual utensils and tools. This is a cook's kitchen to be sure, with wonderfully vintage furniture (and stove). The wall tiles are painted: brilliant. And order is kept by clustering things logically, such as the coffee makers etc on the top row.
David, thanks for your question. These photos are of course supposed to be points of inspiration to jump from, but here are some photos of more masculine spaces, one of them even being Rainn Wilson's recently created and publicized "home office man cave." The photo featuring black chalkboard walls reminded me of the amazing creative workspaces at Stanford's School of Design. You might want to check out their spaces online also.
