Saturday, October 24, 2009

Offices are Tough, Part Deux

Let's face it, my husband's office "transformation" was a pretty big yawn. I mean, it was okay, but it was a nice enough office to begin with...nice paint colors, pretty fabric on the chairs, decent furniture...it was just stark - and don't get me started on the lamp again. I don't think the photos did it justice as far as making it an inviting space. That said..these photos are of an office I did for a law professor at the U of Wisconsin..(he paid for the transformation..not the "U")...I only put that in there because there were some pretty jealous office neighbors, who were too cheap to pay me..let them live with it.

At the time, my husband was with the U of WI, but at a different, smaller, podunk campus, where his office was a hell hole...In fact, I showed him the photo below while I was working on the project, and he said, "wow, that's a really nice office"...I told him that was the "before" photo, which shocked him, as his office wasn't nearly as nice as that - poor guy...I never even tried on that one...it would have cost a fortune. This office cost around $10K to do...my husband's most recent....nothing..I did all the art, and I had all the blue-and-white - but, I digress.

Anyway, these are the befores....ripped out those bookcases, and installed new, wooden ones down the side of the room..also, a new, two-drawer lateral file (none of which is pictured). This is the "after" of that shot...my client let me put nice lamps in...and I did later add a piece of artwork on the end wall. I had beautiful grasscloth down the long wall, and had the room painted. Installed new carpet (I won't go into the asbestos situation, which was finally resolved)...if there is asbestos in a public space - and anything built before the sixties usually has it, you cannot rip it out, unless you can bring in Hazmat suits and evacuate the entire building - ended up just going over it with carpet...shhhhh.
Here's the other end of the room...I do wish he'd have let me do some sort of nice, wooden blinds, but he was adament about just taking the ratting blinds down...he said he never closed them anyway...I was fine with that.

I got these shots in before his new computer set up was installed, but it was not as invasive as the old one...
There, that's it....perhaps one day, I will stop obsessing about the lamp for my husband's desk, but I doubt it...