Inspirational Setups

One of my most favourite things to do on Flickr is to be nosey and look around some of the great home offices and set-ups that people post in JustSetups. I just love the whole uniqueness of people’s workspace – their wall colour, desk position and of course all the things they surround themselves with. I like to see the really minimal set-ups aswell as the ones which draw your eyes to lots of interesting things. Every time I take a photo of my home office, which my followers will probably say is very often, I make sure I add it to JustSetups aswell as a few other ones out there.

For me my home office surroundings is very important – it needs to be as this is where I earn my living. One of the main reasons I bought an iMac rather than a portable Apple notebook as my main machine was the fact that I wouldn’t be straying very far from my office when being my most creative. I have tried working and concentrating in other rooms in the house, but getting comfortable and avoiding distractions has been difficult. The home office is my little cocoon where I can shut myself away, be noisy with music and get on with work. And it’s always nice to be able to close the door on the room when I’ve had enough. I have a PowerBook now and it’s always quite tempting to drag that off to bed with me for a final late-night web lurk, but I try not to do that too often.

I came across a site a few weeks ago that posts photos of famous company offices. I was particularly impressed with the Twitter HQ. And here’s an updated shot. Look at all those sexy Macs under one roof I always thought they’d have a pretty cool set-up as they’re a pretty cool company, but I found it really inspirational. As soon as I saw that it made me want to overhaul my workspace. We have a spare room slash guest room which is much larger than the room I use as my office. It’s about double the size, perhaps even larger. I was really in the mood to swap rooms as long as the double bed in there could fit in this room. I did some measuring up and it would *just* fit. I was working out some plans and decor such as painting the walls ‘milky coffee’, thinking about a really cool circular desk in the middle of the floor with my two iMac’s and PowerBook on. Then have some nice IKEA shelving around the place and there’d still be ample room for a little bright pink or green sofa for people to chill on.

My interior design brain was in full force until I spent a little time wandering into the guest room to do some measuring up. It just didn’t feel right. It’s located on the same side of the house as my home office, but the sun doesn’t seem to shine so bright in there (oddly, I know) meaning it’s pretty damn cold…and I would miss being closer to this view. The Japanese Cherry Blossom tree always blooms in mid-April for a few weeks and it’s lovely to see from the office window. I tried to imagine what the room would be like when it’s all decorated but I just couldn’t…which is quite unusual for me. So, I’ve decided to stay put for now. It’s nice and cosy in here – plenty of room for me to do what I want. I’m creative in here and apart from the bedroom this is probably the only other room in the house that I spend more time in, so it must be doing something right.

Are you particular about where you do your work, if working from home? Does your surroundings play a part in your productiveness?