Part 1: The Office - Is your cube boring and beige too?
Obviously, as a crafter-by-night, that means I am a something-else-by-day. And boy is my office boring. I recently moved from a yellowish-beige cubicle (ugh!) to a square white box of an office. Definite improvement - but it needs more!
So, thinks crafty-me: What can I do to turn my office into a Delight? Aside from doing a whole moroccan fabric draping thing, it will have to be smallish projects that add life and color to walls, desk and Big Gray Lateral File. So this post is about various things I am doing, have done or would like to do about my work space… things that are relatively simple, easy to implement and easy to remove, too!
Here’s Part 1 of probably a few, as I transform my white box. Hope these help you liven up your desk!
1. Make Boxes - we all have a million little items on our desks like paper clips, staple removers, etc. So make a box and hide them, store them, organize them. Try this simple Recycled Paper Box idea from Etsy Labs, or recycle old vinyl into this funky shape bowl from ReadyMade, or go for a more complex folded-magazine box as shown in this Flickr tutorial.
[Update: Ran across this handy video tutorial from Etsy Labs on making bowls like the one above out of vinyl. Actually, I found quite a few tutorials by searching You Tube for "how to make a record bowl."]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOpAGZJmV0A]
2. Your Corkboard - you have one, right? A place to put the memos, the post-its, the calendars that get sent around for all the office staff to never read. A place for that really obnoxious Dilbert comic you found that makes fun of exactly your situation at work? Why have a gray or beige one when you can have a custom-fabric-covered, rearrangeable one? Try this simple tutorial at Apartment Therapy Chicago or another more fancy framed board, ribbon board, or rubber band board from Martha Stewart.
3. Following up on that, Your Pushpins - more custom fabric covering, this time courtesy of the stylings of How About Orange? She shares a pretty simple, snappy and yet quite stylish-looking way of making your own fabric-covered tacks. She even shares where to get the materials! So make them to match your custom corkboard. Make them to clash. Either way they’re better than the standard plastic tacks.
4. Business Card Holder - Take a little of your office DIY stylings on the go, too, with this nifty fabric card holder from Little Things by Magda. Simple, stylish, unique and ever so much more fun to pull out at a business meeting or networking gathering. I used to carry my cards with a binder clip! Granted, it was blue, but how much more cool is this?
5. Do You Drink Coffee? Have a Plant? If so, maybe you should consider making your own coffee cup or even making your own plant pot if you have enough fake fluorescent light (and who doesn’t?) to make a plant grow. How so? It’s my observation that many cities/towns - including my own! - have make-your-own-pottery shops. The one near me is called Cafe Monet. Try searching “paint your own pottery” with your town name in Google.
Until next time, happy decorating 
