Congrats Brenda on your new office!

Must have a coffee pot for staff and customers.
Must have indoor plants as well :)

The place I work at in the staff coffee room is basically a hide away from the residents and family. LOL
Lounging room with comfortable recliners, tv, fridge, microwave, coffee maker, water cooler, pictures on the wall, fake plants and of lots of magazines. BUT they won't give us a computer (Internet)!

I love that room!

Sharon

You know, to really get it right, if I were doing it anyway, I'd hire an interior decorator that specializes in commercial design. It would be a few hundred dollars, but would be worth it in the long run, and you could probably write most of it off anyway.

A decorator would be able to help you set the tone/mood with a good colour scheme and give you ideas that you never would have thought of yourself. Doing it right the first time can save money in the long because you may end up not really liking the space and having to re-do it all a few years later. This is just my opinion of course, but I have taken marketing courses and know how important a first impression can be to a business.

I suppose for the display area, an obvious choice could be displaying some pictures/drawings of past projects in some type of artistic frames. Or even some local artwork (showing community support is always a good thing) could be used. Or even a full size wall mural of something engineering influenced.

Anyway,that's about all I can think of for now. Good luck with that new office!

Laurie

I agree with Laurie about hiring someone if you're serious. I used to work for an engineering firm and their artwork on the walls was a combination of prairie scenes and engineering (old prints of people working on the Empire State Building, the Hoover Dam, stuff like that). You can get really cool framed blueprints of the Titanic and things like that that are interesting to look at.

If you have a whole marketing scheme thing going with "branding" colours, that's a good thing to incorporate into an interior design scheme. If you hire a designer they should hopefully have enough marketing background to know this. Otherwise, I would suggest to keep it friendly and fairly impersonal. Too much personal flair (purple shag rug, red walls, arts & crafts, anything like that...) is intimidating and/or offputting in a commercial environment.

Hope the few ideas help.

What's the matter with purple shag rug! ;)

Nothing, Sharon, if you're running an opium den or an Andy Warhol tribute museum or something. LOL.

Actually as a teenager I always dreamed of a purple shag rug. Closest I can bring myself now is a bright blue berber. LOL

Hey--get a load of this folks. Brenda and I did garage sales this morning, and boy did Brenda ever get a lot of good buys on some good furniture. She is a very thrifty gal and knows how bargain. She doesn't need an interior decorator, knowing Brenda, she wouldn't spend that kind of money. And the office will be furnished on a shoestring. It was fun shopping for all those thhings. Marg

I should probably clarify myself somewhat. If I were furnishing an office, I would get help with the design from a pro, but definitely do the work myself(I'm cheap!), because to hire someone to do everything would cost an arm and a leg, and hey, it's fun to do your own decorating too!

I guess I should have asked if this office is only where employees will be working, or if clients will be there as well? If it's only for employees, then it can be decorated in any way (bring on the purple shag and troll doll collection!LOL). But if clients are involved, then you need to establish who your target market is and then cater to them. For example, if you're targeting middle-aged men, and you don't happen to be one, then it can be difficult to know what sort of design will appeal to the majority of middle-aged men and make them feel comfortable. A professional designer is trained to know what will appeal to who.

But anyway, that being said, I did think of another option that's free. In the past I've used the design consultant at Home Depot which is free(did I mention that I'm cheap?) For residences they will come out and give you ideas if you're within 30 km. I'm not sure if they would do this for a business though. But I'm sure if you brought in a sketch of the room's dimensions, she could give you some ideas about wall colours, window treatments, flooring options and even furniture placement. I know when she came to my house, she gave me ideas that I know I never would have thought of and I was really pleased with how her suggestions have turned out.

Anyway, sorry if I'm being too analytical here, but my business degree and my extremely business-minded dad kind of have me hard wired that way. I just can't help it!LOL

Btw, glad to hear that you found some good deals on furniture, etc yesterday. It's amazing what you can find at yard sales, isn't it? ;^)

On the front cover of House and Home there is a picture of a round glass coffee table and 2 round glass end tables. Then they have a mini love seat between the end tables and 2 chairs on either side in the shade of a light green (I think). Anyways, I found almost the same coffee tables and end tables at a private sale. Took pictures of them with my camera. Showed my DH the magazine. He hates it. Men. So different in thinking than us women. I loved it and thought it would make a nice reception area.

But...I went for a more manly look in the reception area. Since 100% of his clients are middle aged and older men (owners of land and developers) (sounds awful), I purchased for $35 a beautiful solid wooden coffee table and 2 end tables. They are a light pine color and heavy to carry. They could have asked $200 for them. Why do cheap I do not know. But I wasn't even going to barter with them for that price. Sorry, can't take a picture 'cause they are dropped off at the office already.

Now, chairs for that area...the couple had a beautiful pale sage green leather loveseat, chair and ottoman that went with the tables very well. Maybe I will just have to buy brand new instead of garage sales for those. There will only be someone coming in once every few days anyways so it is not like a doctor's office where there are piles of people there constantly. Whether my DH wants a pale sage green for a color we will see. I need to sit down, list what we need, run it by him and then go for it.

How many of you have a water cooler machine in the reception area? Coffemaker, tea pot? Gil...any help there?

Brenda

Sounds like you're having fun!

Definately a water cooler in reception, and if you're going to get a coffee maker, get one that brews directly into a carafe, not into a pot on a warming plate. Tea is a nice option.

Plants! You need plants, sounds like you have sufficient light to sustain live plants.

We just moved into an new office and the walls are painted a nice toasted almond colour, carpets are dark denium blue... don't know what the boss was thinking but he bought cubicles (for us mere mortals) but HORRORS!, they have grape PURPLE cabinetry! Don't know what kind of self respecting engineering firm would mix toasted almond with purple... (I feel better now that I've voiced my opinion, thanks for listening - now back to your thread!) It is always nice to include local art on the walls if it fits in with your type of business.

Hope you'll post pictures!

Brenda, wow it sounds like you have it right under control! Pale sage green sounds beautiful and very tasteful & sophisticated too. And I think wood furniture would definitely appeal to middle-aged men.

At the engineering firm, we had a coffee maker just around the corner, and when people came in the receptionist would ask them if they would like a cup of coffee, and go get it for them. I think a water cooler is a good idea too. I'm sure you could put the coffee out for self-serve but I know I can be a little shy helping myself and people seemed to appreciate being offered.

The kitchen/staff room was also very nice, there were 2 microwaves and a dishwasher, a sink, a fridge and they used those cheap(ish) white vinyl cupboards that you can put together yourself to make a little kitchen corner area. I think you could probably find tables and maybe even something to use as cabinetry second hand if you look in the right places. I guess your kitchen/staff room needs would vary depending on the number of staff... we usually had 20-25 so sometimes it was a busy place.

Yes Brenda, sounds like you found some great tables! And leather furniture does sound like it'll work for a "manly" atmosphere. I can sort of picture an old smoking room/library style of room, that would appeal to men.
To go into that kind of theme, I'm imagining old world pictures or maps. Something along the lines of what's in the link below. They've got thousands of prints and prices are quite reasonable. A few months ago I ordered 3 prints from them during a 10% off sale, which they seem to have quite often. I then went to walmart and picked up a frame in the right size and now have a great framed print for under $45.

Here is a link that might be useful: Art.com

I was thinking of finding some old pictures of Brandon's original buildings and houses and bridges and making a collage or a picture arrangement of some sort. Maybe use barn boards for frames. I would like to have that displayed on the wall in the reception room somewhere. I possibly have a line on some old, old pictures. I would have to get them copied and blown up...

Brenda

Yes, that would work perfectly Brenda. About 2 years ago there was a calendar that came out with all old pictures of downtown Brandon. Maybe you've seen one of these or have one?

No, I haven't seen a calendar with old pictures in it from Brandon. A friend of mine has quite a few pictures of Brandon when he was growing up here (he's in his 90's) and I am hoping to borrow a few from him and get them copied and framed.

I think I found a leather loveseat and 2 chairs that would look great in the office reception area. What do you guys think?

http://www.leons.ca/common/search/SearchResult.asp?xs=6402d54ae6d-6336-4796-9d34-c20ddff22558

It is the Zachary style on page 2. Not fluffy. Is sleek and has firm cushioned support. Simple lines. Very manly, don't you think? Plus, the loveseat is on for $549 and each chair(I would get 2) is $349. Great sale prices.

Think I would get black lamps with simple lines for each end table.

Black leather furniture and black lamps would look good together. I was thinking that black and white pictures in gray old barnboard frames on the wall behind the loveseat would also set the area off well.

Apparently the almond color for the walls is in style, so the salesman at the furniture place was telling me...so the blue walls may have to go. I like that idea anyways.

Comments please........

Brenda

I really like the the lines on that loveseat and chairs. Yes, I would think it would be "manly" enough, but what does your DH think? I suppose he would have the final say?!lol

I wonder if that set comes in brown? I'm kind of looking around for some living room furniture, but it would have to be in the brown tones. Hmmmmm......

Getting those pics from a friend is great. That way you don't have to worry about copyrights and that kind of stuff. I do remember DH bringing home a calendar of old pics of Brandon. It was very interesting to flip through, but I have no idea if it's still kicking around here.