Cubicle Design Update!

Ok, so weekend before last, I'm sitting in my friend Buffy's (aka Bethany Nelson, House of Figs), in her cozy living room in her cozy little home, talking about how to decorate my cubicle. When all of a sudden it hit me -- she does interior design. So I hired her! (I can't believe I hired someone to decorate my cubicle...)

I had already decided on a decorating theme. "Sophisticated Persian" Do ya like it so far!?!

Wait -- did I mention that the cubicles are not EVEN pink? I don't know why I thought they were. I mean, I walked through the place after my interview and saw pink. My coworker said "Maybe you were wearing rose colored glasses that day." LOL. The color is actually tan. It's a nice tan, I swear. It's embossed with kind of circular patterns. The furniture is blue, and the carpet is kind of reddish brown. The cabinets are upholstered with brown combined with tan and black. And there is lots of dark gray metal, but the desk is very light oak, oval shaped. It's a lot roomier than I thought it would be.

I had purchased a beautiful red wooden box at Cost Plus. No, it's not Persian, it's East Indian. And it wasn't cheap either. It has an embossed metal frame on the top, around 6 small paintings of men and women. Ahem. Not men and women together, more like, little portraits of men and women singly. And then I purchased a turquoise placemat with a beautiful red stamped motif right down the center. It's kind of my centerpiece.

And that's my tea box. I have my chai, ginger/lemon, and green tea (with my secret ingredient, crushed cardamom) in the box, along with sweetener and a tea spoon for the cardamom.

I also bought a big wooden letter M at Cost Plus. I have never in my life had my initial anywhere, not even on a keychain. But this one is dark wood, with beautiful bronzey embossed metal. I hung it near the entrance. On the second day a woman came in and started petting it. She said, "This is very visceral." I said "I think you mean tactile." LOL! But it did start a wonderful conversation that involved calling to people over cubicle walls to come and pet my M.

Anyway! Back to the decorating. Buffy got on it right away and brought me four lightweight paintings on vinyl that look like Persian flowers -- big blowups of them. They're red ochre, warm golden orange, and walnut brown. She arranged them. I put a big blockprinted calendar made by one of the OFFCenter artists on the locker at the back of the cubicle, to kind of tone down the metal (and plug OFFCenter). It gets almost as many comments as my M.

We pushed a big two-drawer file cabinat (long and rectangular, not tall) closer to the entrance, and today I brought in the most beautiful silk scarf I've been not wearing because it gets all wrinkled when I wear it. I pressed it and draped it over the file cabinet and it's positively exquisite (without being all bulky and flea market looking). It was handpainted in Turkey, in shades of blue, black and gold, and it features dudes riding horses and leaping gazelles! Oh, and the most perfect complement to that is, in my email program, one of the "letterhead" designs you can select from is a Persian guy on horseback! I'm so coordinated I'm squeaky!

Buffy is bringing me two plants tomorrow, along with a pillow for my guest chair. She said she also found a vase, and she showed me a mirror this weekend that also goes perfectly with the Persian theme.

My final touches will be on the cabinets. The MOTH, aka the consummate Goodwill shopper, brought me a 1969 appointment book of Persian miniature paintings, and the colors go great with my schtuff. Plus they add a lot of sensory vibe that I can't actually put for real into the cubicle (music, cooking, scents, etc.). So I'm going to slip them into those very sturdy clear acrylic sheet protectors with velcro on the backs. I picked out about 6 images, that I can rotate out now and then.

But the best part is, I picked out 2 images that have squares/rectanglular shapes in the middle, like Persian paintings do. I'm going to cut out the shapes and put my family photos behind them, then slip those into the sheet protectors.

So depending on what Buffy brings me and how soon I can find family photos to fit those little openings, we're just about done! Did I mention I have stocked one of the little cabinets with snacks??? Yum. Just today I got my phone messaging and email working, so I'm starting to feel at home.