Filed under: Your Home, Living Room, Furniture
Feel like you need to squeeze more hours into your day to get everything done? Here's a more realistic solution: Follow these tips for making your time at home more productive.In our latest bid to show you how your home can help solve your problems, we're exploring how it can help you be productive. We reached out to the New York Design Center's new Access to Design designers to get their thoughts and tips on how your home can inspire you to get more creative. (You can also get great advice and find a designer at accesstodesign@nydc.com.)
Courtesy of Marks & Frantz Design and Decoration.
Lisa Frantz and Lydia Marks of Marks & Frantz Design and Decoration say start with the right storage and the rest will fall into place.
"One of the first things we always ask clients is how they envision using their space? If you decorate so there is functionality along with beauty you will be more productive at home. Design your room to suit your needs -- a great example of this is using cabinetry to create spaces that are specific to what needs to be stored (books, clutter or other odds and ends) so you can stay organized. If there is not room for a home office then cabinets can be added into the bedroom that could function as both bedroom storage and a place to keep all the paperwork organized. We gave this client a large built-in in their bedroom that functions as a multi-use space -- part work area/office, part storage, and it even holds the TV, cable box and wires out of sight."
Courtesy of John Loecke Inc.; Courtesy of Thomas M. Burak Interiors.
Jason Oliver Nixon and John Loecke of John Loecke, Inc. are all about making productivity fun.
"Jason looked up the word 'productive' in the dictionary and fell in love with its colorful synonyms. He is currently scampering about the house peppering his conversation with bon mots such as 'fruitful', 'fecund', and 'prolific'. To wit: 'I was especially prolific today, let's make cocktails to celebrate.'" To create instant fecundity for yourself, Jason and John suggest crafting a work nook that brims over with color and energy. After all, who wants to work in a space that is beige and boring? "Our office looks like a piñata at Punky Brewster's birthday soiree," notes John. "It inspires colorful thoughts and buckets of creativity and reminds us that margarita hour starts at 5pm sharp." Here's an especially fertile space that we 'did up' a few years back with a jaunty John Loecke, Inc.-crafted wallpaper, green grosgrain ribbon trim, a color-blocked carpet, and loads of artwork. This space makes me want to be especially fruitful and fabulous and tackle heaps of paperwork," chortles Jason as the sounds of a margarita-making blender echo in the background.
Thomas Burak of Thomas M. Burak Interiors suggests multitasking furniture.
"To be more productive in the home why not place a desk next to your bed? You can turn those sleepless nights into a quick work session with a handy pad and pen or your computer. And when you're finished, your bed is right there, awaiting your return."
Courtesy of Apropros Furniture through NYDC.
"I have a special book shelf in my office lined with beautiful leather file boxes. Each box is organized with specific subjects. For example, one box is filled with ideas for curtains, another with unusual furniture arrangements, another with meaningful quotes from famous designers, etc. When I am meditating and looking for inspirations, I frequently look through these files to observe what other designers have done and said. It is a well-known fact that good design inspires good design. These files are invaluable to me. After having ruminated for awhile on these good solutions to difficult or unusual conditions, I find that inspiration always comes to me in the most welcome and inspired ways."