Design Your World
Design Your World!
Our blog tries to give students and the public an insight into the working week of a Graphic Designer, an Interior Designer (Avril Murphy Allen, a free-lance Interior Designer and presenter of RTE's Desperate Houses) and a Product Designer. Our contributors talk about their business and projects they are working on and relevant items that caught their attention!
(Image: Crown paints)
More and more I'm been asked to design ‘Home Office’s’ for clients and I’ve taken on a project in my own home to make my working space more efficient. The ‘Home Office’ has become very popular over the last couple of years. Whether it’s for professional reasons or just for keeping up with correspondence and weekly administration, it’s important that the space you work in is enjoyable.
The main requirements for a home office are a desk, a comfortable chair, good storage and light. When deciding on a work area in your home, choose a place that has plenty of light. Good light creates an atmosphere of motivation so you need to cater for dark, shorter winter days and evenings with good task lighting. Adequate storage is also very important as it will enable you to keep your work space clutter free. The smaller your office space the more uniform your storage should be as it’s easier on the eye.
If working full-time from home try separate your work life from home life so the lines between the two don’t blur and it becomes difficult to have down time. If you are unable to allocate a small room you could partition a small area with either a movable screen or purpose built armoire. Don’t put your working area in your bedroom as this room should be a haven for resting.
Colour: Small offices are often painted white to appear more spacious but white isn’t the most inspirational colour to sit in front of. If you do choose a colour it should be a colour that you love as you might be sitting at your desk each day. The colour should be stimulating without being overpowering. Green’s tend to be good colours for study’s as they are both relaxing and nurturing. Colour is so personal, even as I write the colour ‘green’, I’m wondering what colour you are conjuring up in your mind! I’ve just painted one wall in my home office/T.V. room/music room Farrow & Ball, Teresa’s Green... and I’m enjoying it immensely.
Before 'Upcycling'
These last few weeks seem to be all about sofa’s for me. Maybe because I was buying for my own home and two of my clients were looking for new ones. For myself I needed a cream or white one. My room is quite small so I didn’t want a dark expanse of colour cluttering up the space. I also have two children who actively use the room so the sofa had to have removable, machine washable covers.
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