I have never understood why the majority of commercial offices are so dang cold. And in cold I’m not talking about temperature I’m talking about the feel of it design wise. One of the reasons I went into design was because I loved how the design of a room could not only impact a person visually but also mentally. I find it even more important to have a warm and inviting office when its use is for the medical industry. I see it time and time again. White walls, grey commercial carpet usually with burgundy or blue office chairs. I’ll also bet it’s adorned with some terrible photography with some sort of inspirational quote underneath it. Oh…and don’t forget…it’s probably hung 2 feet higher on the wall than it should be!
Many patients have enough anxiety when going to their appointments and I wish more doctors, dentists, therapists etc would understand that by creating a warmer environment for their patients that their overall experience…will make them happier! My sister-in-law (Teri Sorkin, MFT) is a marriage and family therapist and she enlisted my help in making her office an inviting, safe place where her patients could open up to her. She supplied the sofa and chair and I shopped for and styled the rest. Now, a dental or doctors office most likely would not be styled to this extreme but in her industry it works.
I always love infusing natural elements into designs and in this case I created a succulent wall garden to breathe some life into the space. I found these two wrought iron votive holders for a price I couldn’t turn down, but putting candles in this office…well it just seemed silly. I still wanted to use them though and swapping rocks and succulents in place of candles completely re-purposed them. I know using real versus faux flowers is a big debate in the design world buy my motto is to use whatever works best in the space and the person caring for it. As long as they look VERY realistic then I am OK using faux. In this case, faux was necessary because succulents just wouldn’t have survived nor would Teri want to maintain them.
I feel that styling it is THE most important part of a design and is where the biggest mitakes are made by homeowners. It is the jewlery for the room and without it…it is missing it’s personality! Styling is available by the hour and can really transform a space.
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