ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
Room for Improvement: Looking for inspiration
February 11, 2009
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Denise Holtby
YOURHOME.CA
Dean and I are making slow but steady progress with the time-consuming task of clearing the stuff out of our home office this week.
In fact, as I write this, Dean is frequently interrupting to ask where the books should go, which items should be given to the thrift store and why on earth we started this project.
That last question is a good one. My answer is that I’d like to create a room that is welcoming and inspiring, one with space enough for both of us.
Dean understands the latter. But the part about the room being “welcoming and inspiring” makes him suspicious. As he stomps up and down the stairs with yet another box of clutter, I think he’s beginning to imagine plump pillows and chintz curtains.
But that’s not what I have in mind at all. Instead, I am looking to create a clean, uncluttered space. Wires and cords neatly tied. Books, papers and other office supplies hidden in drawers and behind doors. A small flat-screen television in the corner. Soft carpet underfoot, floor-to-ceiling drapes and perhaps a chair and reading light in the corner.
You see, I’ve been searching the web lately for home office inspiration, gathering ideas and peering into the homes of others to see what they’ve been up to.
In particular, I’ve been surfing blogs by non-designers who just want to share their decorating accomplishments with the world. Websites such as IKEA.ca also provide ideas and tools.
But a recent visit with my mother and father led me in a different, quieter direction.
My parents are creative, slightly eccentric people. My father, now retired from a career with a government agency, is an artisan with his own wrought iron and welding shop.
My mother’s creativity, on the other hand, is evident in her garden. She has taken an ordinary but strangely contoured piece of land in a small town and turned it into a colourful and beautiful oasis. Every square foot is covered in plants and flowers, with water fountains, a pond, my father’s sculptures and other small works of art interspersed throughout.
And inside their home, there is barely a place available on the walls for another piece of art. My parents are always befriending local artists and buying pieces small and large to enjoy.
And that is what has inspired me this week. For Christmas, my parents surprised each other with works of art by neighbour and gallery owner Norman R. Brown.
Because they haven’t found just the right spot to hang them yet, these new pieces are still sitting on my parents’ living room floor. But they are beautiful just the same. Norman has a way of painting the landscape that makes me feel like I’m in a familiar and secure place, even when the sky threatens.
So I’ve been checking out Norman’s website and have my eye on a few different pieces. I’ll make my way to his country gallery to get a closer look, with an eye to picking out the painting that feels right.
Soon the warmer weather will come and all along the country roads outside Toronto studios, independent shops and galleries such as Norman’s will fling open their doors. Inside, I know I’m bound to find plenty of inspiration.
Do you have a favourite place to go for inspiration?
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(Editor’s note: Get your own home office inspiration from Colin and Justin and Debbie Travis, along with some tips on office essentials and easy office crafts.)
Catch up on Room for Improvement's office overhaul:
- Time for an office overhaul
- Of reader polls, antiques and home offices
- What's next for Room for Improvement?