related links:
Cubicle beautification project
Don’t Intrude On My Personal Zone
flickr photos tagged with the word “cubicle”
Fantastic Fixes for Your Sad, Pathetic Cubicle
end links.
i’m not finding many links that are what i’m looking for. most “how to decorate your cubicle” pages tell you thinks like “put fresh flowers on your desk”, “bring photos of your family to work,” etc. i want to take it much further. i kinda got the idea a few months ago via the above wired’s cubicle fixes gallery link.
a month ago all of us on my nonprofit’s 2nd floor got repositioned, a lot more people added to the floor, and my cubicle was squashed in half. only upside is we got higher walls. cheaper, poor quality partitions that are very depressing to look at. see photo.
yes, you see right. i have no furniture. i asked for a desk for my new cube that wasn’t attached to cube walls cuz otherwise 1) that means anyone walking by you can see what you’re doing, and you walk with your back to traffic, which just makes me uncomfortable and 2) all the cube walls are not the best quality, so anyone shutting a door in any of the 6 cubes i’m attached to… the vibrations travel. quite readily. almost as if amplified. my request was accepted, cuz it’s a cool nonprofit, but a trip to ikea didn’t result in a desk that worked, and so for the past month i’ve been working with a small rectangular table i can’t get my legs under, and everything else i own is on the floor, either directly on the floor, or in cardboard boxes.
my work gave me a laptop, macbook pro, and the programs for it should arrive this week. so one thing i’m considering: do i even need a desk? from years working on laptops, i know the most comfortable, ergonomic position by far for me has been sitting back in a comfy chair, laptop on my lap. i know it doesn’t sound ergonomic, bad for back, shoulders, et al, but… just trust me, i have a very clinical trial-based mind, and i’ve thoroughly reviewed how my back and shoulders feel when sitting at a desk (and i used to teach ergonomics at a former job, so it’s set up right) as compared to sitting in a comfortable chair, kicking back. the latter wins by far. currently, sitting at this craptastic deck? back and shoulders hurt like hell.
so what if i didn’t get a desk at all? what if i got, instead, a really comfortable lounge chair? and then across from me could be a table i could move to if i needed a flat work surface. i already have another pretty nice-looking chair for guests. i’m also getting a tall wooden bookcase, dark. i currently have a very exquisitely sheer, striped curtain held on a shower rod (it looks nice) hanging across my cube. chrome shower rod cost me $10, the curtain cost me $7 at ross. i can see what’s going on thru the curtain, but it takes care of the annoyances of people walking by and staring at me. i’ve never understood why people do that. it’s like driveby cubicle invasion, staring right at you and what you’re doing on your computer, heads craned. just walk away people, i need my space.
so check this vision out: i have a very comfortable rug, oriental style, modern, richly coloured on the floor. padding underneath to absorb vibrations. my comfy chair. a flat work surface, part of shelving that holds my printer, electronics, gear. a tall wooden dark bookcase, holding the stock photography, the collateral archive, all my print materials, specialized paper. maybe even a table next to my chair, or i could sit next to one of the shelves so i could rest everything i need on it, papers, books. of course, plants, at least one big fichus tree. i need to cover the walls, and i’m trying to decide between fabric and paper. there’s a cool discount fabric store on mission near 18th (san francisco) that has the most decadent fabrics, and i want to check it out this weekend and see what they have. another possibility is going to flax or pearl, and getting some exquisitely textured paper. i’d cover the walls with this, and then adhere my photography to it. i have some stunning photography, sunsets over atlantic ocean, sunrise over new york subway lines, curvature of water framed by boston skyline… just some cool images. and a mirror, to make the space appear bigger. i want to try that frame idea i saw in one of the above links, get a fabulous landscape view, frame it within a window. dude, can you imagine a desktop water fountain somewhere in there?
i really don’t think it’d be hard to do, to make it very comfortable. it just takes initiative. i spend way too much time of my life in this cube, though, to not make it so it feels comfortable.
