Takin’ Care of Business

Hello my fancy friends, thank you so much for tuning in today. You know that I love helping you get your home looking and functioning just the way you want it, but my work life has long been focused in the world of office design, which I’ll admit, when I first got into as a speciality, sounded boring. I had been designing boutique hotels and restaurants, which provided endless opportunities to be creative. But once I got into my first office project, I realized it was a great fit for my personality. Firstly, office design moves fast. In business, time is money, and companies are often working against the clock to vacate expiring leases, or completing projects within a fiscal timeframe. This requires a no-nonsense attitude, and the knowledge of how to create working, beautiful offices. I’m super impatient, and so while hotel projects can take multiple years, offices are usually designed within a 9 month timeframe, and built in about 6 month as an average. That always varies based on the size of the project of course. But, either way, it’s fast, and I love it. 

All that to say, I’ve definitely noticed some common issues that come up with office design, and I have tons of solutions to share with you today. I’ve shared a lot of tips on how to set up home offices on this podcast, and now we are taking it to the next level. These tips are specifically for small business owners and their first or maybe second small office. If you ever dreamed of having your own business, or maybe you are a small business owner already, and you know all the dedication, research, and hard work it takes to build something from the ground up - then this episode is for you. Many small businesses start out needing to be super scrappy to make things work, including working out of our homes, and wearing every hat imaginable to get the job done right. So today, I’m here to help you get all your ducks in a row so that your first office will look great and not cost you a fortune. 

But first, let’s talk about the Color of The Week.  Handmade, e-commerce giant Etsy release a holiday 2022 trend report based on their recent sales, and many of the ideas are fun, festive throw backs like bright colors, kitschy retro tea towels, and yuletide affirmations. But one element stands out - pearls. The site reports a 44% increase in searches for pearl covered accessories in recent weeks, and these little baubles can bring a lot of joy, whether they were harvested from the sea, or handmade by a human. This week’s color is more of a shapeshifter, we are celebrating all things iridescent - from mother of pearl to abalone shell. This reflective quality shows off a rich spectrum of colors and shifts in different lights and from different angles. This is a great way to bring visual interest into your home while still using biophillic and natural properties. This glamorous, ethereal material can enter your home in many ways, and can be mixed with almost any kind decor. Its light reflective properties allow it to blend in and stand out all at once, such a dichotomy! You can find mother of pearl inlays on vintage tables and lighting (both lamp shades and lamp bases can be clad in pearl), tile backsplashes, and even mixed into concrete style countertops from companies like Icestone that are based here in Brooklyn. There’s even the ubiquitous mother of pearl tissue box holder, that will add a pop of femme to any space. You can even display a simple abalone shell with a wooden stand amongst your book shelves to help break up the spines and add a little sparkle. And sparkle is what the holiday season is all about.

If you’re moving into your small business’ first office, working with a limited amount of dollars, it’s likely you’re moving into a space that has some stuff in it already. And by stuff I mean, partition walls, maybe a reception desk, millwork shelving, glass walls, light fixtures in the ceiling, etc. These things are fixed, permanently or semi-permanently attached to the building in some form. We can remove them, but this typically requires some more involved labor and can be a great source of cost. So if you do decide to remove any architectural elements, be strategic. Items that would warrant being removed include walls that disrupt the flow of your office or limit the amount of daylight the office gets. Prioritize daylight in your office, I can’t stress that enough.

We aren’t going for a gut-reno in this scenario - that’s maybe for the next office and level-up, but for now, it’s in our best interest to reuse and restyle what exists in the space, and inheriting items from the previous tenant can be a total blessing because it gives us lots to work with, as opposed to a blank slate. Using the existing bones of the space, as much as possible, will help us save money and time, and I don’t know any small business owner that isn’t trying to save money or time. It’s worth noting, this is also what is best for the environment. As exciting as ripping everything out may be, all that stuff goes into the landfill, which is a bummer. If you do happen to get a space that’s already been demo’d, make sure you work with the landlord to get a tenant improvement budget from them. This is a lump sum amount of money that the landlord gives tenants to help bring the space up to working, finished quality.

And even if we are working with existing elements in an office, that doesn’t mean we can’t restyle them or change the way they look and feel. Commercial leases are usually a bit different than home or apartment rentals, and landlords tend to be more flexible about painting and other major changes, because businesses will sign leases longer than a year and many will likely need to modify the space in order to suite their business goals. SO here, we can utilize paint and carpet to drastically change the feeling of the any office space. You may be keeping walls, doors, and ceilings, but you can change the color and texture of them, which has a huge impact for the cost. 

The first thing you’ll want to do is create a brand palette for your office. This may be similar to the color palette that you use for your marketing, your email list, your letterhead, or your website. But it doesn’t need to be limited to this. You can also start to think about natural building materials like wood, concrete, terrazzo, cork, and stone. Your palette should exude the same ethos that you've developed for your company. So if your brand is sophisticated, high-end, and luxurious; you may want to incorporate metallics, jewel tones, and high gloss finishes like lacquer or back-painted glass. If your brand is down to earth and approachable with a little bit of playfulness, think about incorporating some medium toned wood, colorful terrazzo, or some patterned wall covering. While you may not be able to incorporate all of these finishes architecturally, like on the floors and walls, you'll definitely be able to add them to the furniture later on. But it's also good to develop this palette to give you a strong sense of direction of how you want your space to feel. This palette can be a collection of images on Pinterest, or it can be real, physical samples you’ve collected from suppliers and showrooms.

Once you have your palette decided, you can go back and look at your existing architectural finishes and decide if you want to keep anything. You might for instance, have some dark wood paneling on the walls, but if your company’s aesthetic is light and modern, you could decide to paint these panels white to lighten up the whole space. Or maybe you have some polished concrete floors that actually work really well with your company’s streamlined approach, and so you just choose to have them cleaned and re-sealed.

Speaking of flooring, by far and away, the most common flooring in an office is carpet, and more specifically - carpet tile. Let’s talk about why this is, then we can talk about strategies to find your perfect carpet. Carpet is one of the least expensive flooring choices you can make for any space. Wall-to-wall carpeting is typically priced by the square yard, but when it shakes down to dollars per square foot, it can go as low as $3 dollars, at the time of this recording anyways. This is a few dollars less expensive than hardwood, way less than polish concrete, and really its only rivaled by VCT or vinyl composition tiles, but those lack the softness, and more importantly the acoustic insulation that carpet provides. 

Carpet is easy to maintain. Commercial carpet can be vacuumed and washed, and most commercial carpets are designed with an exaggerated texture and wide range of yarn colors to help camouflage stains. It’s comfortable to stand on for hours at a time, and it comes in literally thousands of colors, patterns, and styles. Now when you hear carpet, you may visualize traditional broadloom carpet, that’s a big roll that gets unfurled and nailed down. The only seams are between one roll from the next. It’s faster to install than carpet tile, which have to be placed individually, tile by tile. This means broadloom is cheaper. If you are really on a shoe string budget, opting for broadloom carpet is not bad idea, just make sure it’s for high traffic commercial use. You’ll be shocked how quickly residential products disintegrate in a public or even semi-public space. 

If there’s one thing I could get every person in the world to know about commercial interior design, it’s that you can’t use the same flooring or furniture that you would in a home. It simply isn’t built to take the rough and tumble of office life - delivery carts, boxes being slid along it, endless wet and muddy shoes, pacing phones calls, the wheels of task chairs rolling over it all day long. Companies like Shaw, Interface, Milliken, J&J Invision, and Bentley (not the car) all make commercial quality carpets. Most of them have both broadloom and carpet tiles. Carpet tiles are the norm for offices in lieu of broadloom, because while they are generally more expensive, they have the unique maintenance feature of being replaceable in sections. If you spill a really giant thing like, maybe a bucket of acrylic paint, or you just notice that an area has gotten discolored after really heavy use, like the tiles under your work chair, you can simply lift them up and replace them with new ones. If you tried to patch broadloom, you would either have to replace the whole carpet, or, and I would never recommend this, but I’ve seen people do it, so it’s worth mentioning for the horror, cut out the stained area and patch in a new cut piece, which often brings just as much attention as the stain because the steaming is so visible.

 It’s important to purchase about 10% extra in tiles with your original order, store them in a closet somewhere and simply switch them out when needed. This allows your carpet to look new for upwards of fifteen years, whereas broadloom may show significant wear in closer to seven. If you want to go deeper in to the carpet discussion check out the episode “Magic Carpet Ride” for a full breakdown of your options.

Once you’ve selected the carpet that’s right for you, you can start to pick out paint colors. Paint is a powerful tool that allows you to define and sculpt your space. If you haven’t listened to the episode “How To Paint A Room” I would highly recommend you check that out, as well as the episode “Candy Paint,” where we look at paint types and brands. The important thing I want to say about painting a space is that you should pick your colors with consideration of every element in the room, especially anything that is existing. Get a sample of your carpet ahead of time and look at it with your paint swatches. Bring in any other major finishes like the wood on the desk or the shades on the windows. You don’t actually have to be a color expert to know when things look cohesive as opposed to clashing. And remember paint isn’t just for walls. You can paint drywall ceilings (but I wouldn’t recommend painting dropped tile ceilings because it decreases their acoustic properties). You can paint furniture, cabinets, desks, counters, doors, and trim. Just ask the paint sales person what the best paint type and primer is, and using a professional paint brand like Sherwin Williams, PPG, or Benjamin Moore will get you a better and more durable recommendation.

In terms of paint application, it’s always important to start the journey of an office with a bang, so I recommend any office has a feature color in the front near the main entrance. This could be as simple as one color and as elaborate as a mural by a local artist. 

Paint color is really only as good as how you light it, and chances are you will be inheriting an office space that has some existing hardwired ceiling lights. Overhead office lighting is not known for its flattering color temperature or angle, so consider the following. If you're able to determine the color temperature of your overhead lighting, that's a great first step. You can do this by carefully removing one of the bulbs and looking for the listed temperature, which should be printed at the base of the bulb. This is a 4 digit number that ends in the letter K for Kelvins. From there, you can match any supplemental lighting to that same color temperature to avoid contrasting light colors through out the space. If you aren’t able to safely look at the bulb, maybe the fixture doesn’t make this easy or you’ve got really high ceilings, it may be worth buying a few different ranges of color temperature bulbs and plugging them into a spare desk lamp to see which one blends in with the surrounding light the most. And if you’ve got great natural light in the space, you can elect to not really use the overhead lighting and instead supplement with floor, table, and wall lights of your own. 

Either way, bringing in additional lighting like desk lamps, plug-in wall sconces, and tall floor lamps will help give the space depth and character and start to chip away at the stuffy office vibe that you’re up against.

It’s possible the previous occupant also left behind pieces of furniture like desks, chairs, and tables. If that’s the case, these can be great to reuse, especially if they are in good shape and look good with your brand palette. If you don’t like the look of your hand-me-down furniture, you can always re-finish, reupholster, and reappropriate. If there isn’t much by way of furniture in your existing space, you’re going to have to bring in your own. And let me tell you, office furniture can add up real quick. Here are some tips to help you save a few dollars for this task. Firstly, always check out office liquidators. I mentioned this in the episode called “Sit Next to Me" which is all about task chairs, but this is true for all types of office furniture -  tables, desks, shelving, and even soft seating like chairs for the reception lobby. This is a great way to get high quality commercial grade furniture for a fraction of the price. You are also contributing to sustainable practices when you shop this way. 

One thing I always do with smaller companies is recommend using tables instead of desks for all of the workpoints, whether it’s a private office or a run of workstations. Office cubicles and desks can get pricey really quickly. This is often because of their elaborate capabilities to be electrified and fit together like puzzle pieces. Replacing these with simple, stylish tables will still provide a work surface for your computer, keyboard, and phone, and none of the bells and whistles you don’t need. And they can be pushed together to create rows or pods, however you and your teams like to work. 

Lastly, you’ll want to think about one very important detail, especially when it comes to computers, phones, and other equipment, Wire Management! This is the organization of wires from the device they power to their power source, and it’s effectively a two step process. First, you’ll want to think about the path that a cord takes from a wall outlet to its final destination. This path should avoid crossing major areas of circulation like hallways, but it should also take the simplest route possible. Secondly, there are tons of trays, hooks, baskets, sleeves and boxes easily available at major retailers that sell office supplies. These will help you gather and conceal wires to avoid the rainbow spaghetti look that’s so common these days. I am a big fan of the company Connectrac, this company offers a lot of raceways that can lie neatly under your new carpet, and keep wires out of sight.

I hope this episode has made your dream of starting own company feel a little closer to reality. Remember, with the right knowledge, you can make this happen. I hope have a great week, and I will talk to you in the next episode.