Into the lion's den...

Normally The Guy's office looks like a cross between a recycling centre and the inside of a vacuum cleaner bag; papers are "sorted" into plies and allowed to settle until they've accumulated at least 4 cms dust; found objects, such as cairns (the stones not the dogs) will be strategically placed on the piles to mark who knows what along with cables, chargers, business cards and throat lozenges. Woe betide anyone who attempts to clean up this mess, and so, balanced carefully on a pile of papers or books, will be a duster, or swiffer cloth - maybe both - that he promised to use a week month ago to alleviate the worst of the dirt.
Yesterday I declared it a health hazard and took advantage of his absence to clean up. I also gifted him an assortment of box files and desk folders and sorted his documents and resources into easy to find sections. Well, I'll be able to find them, he may not be used to my filing system...


Now he has a tidy desk it's time to prettify the room - this Larry Laslo fabric Signify in Carnelian from Robert Allen is the exact same shade of red as the pendant lamp and is masculine enough to appeal to The Guy. It will be turned into roman shades by the Awesome Designer as soon as she's finished working on another little project for me...

Facelift*

A desire to get things moving on the decorating front, plus a free five minutes on a Saturday morning prevailed over the sensible solution of waiting for two strong guys to come along and move the blue sofa out of the great room and into my office. Lift and slide was the answer - and muscle power, baby!


It fits perfectly on the wall opposite my desk, perfectly that is for a random cat - in this case Hermes - to take a nap


or for me to lounge, and work my way through that stack of magazines I haven't gotten round to reading. Somewhere in that pile is the final edition of Metropolitan Home...

*Borrowing this title from a comment by Why S in yesterday's post

Steelcase

Since I got my sinfully scarlet Steelcase chairs last week I've been coming across the American manufacturer's modernist office furniture everywhere.

Founded in 1912 as the Metal Office Furniture Company, Steelcase got its new name at the height of the mid-century modern movement. Their website doesn't have much information about the designs from the 1950s, 60 and 70s but a few evocative photos can be found at the milestones section.

There's better luck searching for images of catalogs from that era: A selection of red office chairs with a contrasting yellow desk from a Steelcase catalog

or this yellow chrome armchair, from the early 1960s. (If you are hungry for more MCM images the Mid-Century Modernist has a post here).

Of course actual examples of Steelcase MCM furniture often come up for auction, on ebay, or at 1stdibs. Prices vary widely - as does the condition of the furniture.

And if you prefer your work space modern rather than modernist, The Steelcase Design Studio is still producing solid, ergodynamic office furniture. For more info on new products visit their blog.

The downside of wireless

When the keyboard batteries run out of juice in the middle of a post you're typing at 10 PM, that's the disadvantage to no unsightly wires in a de-cluttered office.
"You should always have spare batteries" I hear you cry.
Well, of course I keep spare batteries. In fact I'd just opened a new four pack but I'd put two into the wireless mouse and the iMac wireless keyboard takes three. Three AA batteries. That's so wrong. Thanks to Renovation Therapy (formerly Upstate) though, I managed to score a battery deal: money off plus a $2 coupon! I did have to argue with the sales assistant that the price on the register was not the price displayed, forcing her to walk half-way round the store to check, have a conversation with the manager who wanted to know where she was going, which turned a five minute pharmacy dash into a fifteen minute tussle. But hey, I was right and I saved $2.50, a dollar of which I promptly donated to this week's charity at the pharmacy.

Compromise

In the interests of marital harmony I compromised and allowed Steven to bring the reclining chair and footstool from the den into my office. Now we can both be comfortable while watching Project Runway Canada*. (Un)fortunately there are no cupholders, or a popcorn machine for that matter, so I don't think it qualifies as a true media room.


As moving the recliner left a big dead space in the den I decided to swap the sofas around. It thoroughly confused the dogs.


And now I need to clean the carpets again.


*Project Runway Canada, if you love the US version, you'll adore this. The same but nicer.