How to Add Art Deco Style to Your Office

Kat — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 17:14:00 +0000

We've recently started a series on how to bring specific design inspirations to your office decor… First we looked at ways to have preppy-inspired decor. Today, let's take a look at how to add Art Deco style to your office!

Readers, do you enjoy Art Deco style? Do you have any elements of it in your home or office?

What Is Art Deco Style?

First, I thought it might be helpful to have a general inspiration board — all images come from Wikipedia.

All images via Wikipedia.

I absolutely adore Art Deco style, so this was a lot of fun. I realized that some things I thought were Art Deco, like Tiffany lamps and curved chaises, are actually Art Nouveau. (In fact, Art Deco was a response to Art Nouveau — compare the Paris Métro entrances, with swooping curves, to the geometric lines and sharp angles of, say, the Chrysler Building.)

I've seen some places on the web that characterize Frank Lloyd Wright as Art Deco, but according to the better sources it looks like his early work grew out of the Arts and Crafts movement (before it became the Prairie School). This article on the Saatchi website compares and contrasts Art Deco, Art Nouveau, and Arts & Crafts.

This post from TheArtStory gives a great history of the style; you can also check out these other Art Deco guides from Architectural Digest, The Spruce, and Apartment Therapy. In general I think of Art Deco as having straight lines, geometric shapes, and a fairly dark color scheme with lots of gilded details and saturated jewel tones.

(I'm obviously not an expert here, but if you are an expert I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments!)

Next, here's our general vision board:

I should note that I'm not suggesting you put all of these pieces in one office — but these are all inspirational-type pieces that you might choose a few of to place in your cubicle, private office, or home office.

How to Add Art Deco Style To Your Cubicle or Other Shared Office Space

You may feel like you're limited here because so many Art Deco pieces are BIG — pieces of furniture! crazy wallpaper patterns! But there are a bunch of small things you can do to bring an Art Deco style to your cubicle.

Some easy things: file folders and file holders. Pencil cups. Bookends. There are a ton of affordable Art Deco artworks you can find at Etsy and Society 6 if you have some wall space. If you wanted to go really big, you could cover any bulletin boards with an Art Deco wallpaper or poster, and then use them as you regularly would.

Another fun idea: If you're the type of person who prints labels for folders, binders, and other items, you could always download some Art Deco fonts. This pack from Etsy is only $7. Prefer free? Google fonts Limelight and Poiret One both have some Art Deco elements.

A few of the pieces I saw that would add Art Deco style to a cubicle:

How to Add Art Deco Style to Your Private Office

If Your Office Already Has Dark Wood Furniture

If you have a basic corporate office with dark wood furniture, you're already on your way — I tend to think of Art Deco as having a very heavy, dark style a lot of the time. In that instance I'd work to bring in gold pieces to brighten the space up, such as with a sunburst mirror or other wall decor.

On your side of the desk I'd go with an Art Deco inspired lamp, pencil cup, file folders, file holders, maybe even labels in a specialty font as noted above. On the visitor's side I'd add some throw pillows or a throw blanket with geometric patterns, bookends or picture frames, and maybe even an acrylic tray. (If you're someone who keeps alcohol in your office, there are a ton of beautiful Art Deco decanters out there.)

If you really want to get fancy, you could bring in a special desk chair or visitor's chair, or even go for an Art Deco couch or chaise. If you're the kind of person whose office furniture needs to allow you to occasionally take a nap on it, I'd go for an LC4-inspired chaise instead of a couch — they just look more comfortable.

Another thought: you could add curtains or window film in an Art Deco-inspired pattern — the window film is pictured in the inspiration photo, but there are a ton of choices.

Some pieces that would work if you have a dark office:

If Your Office Is Corporate White or Gray

If your office isn't already in dark colors and you're working with corporate white or gray, I'd stick to some of the advice above for the cubicle. You might also want to bring in some Hollywood Regency inspiration along with your Art Deco — think silver instead of gold, fuchsia/sapphire instead of emerald/rust, and so forth. (These are just a few ideas…)

How to Add Art Deco Style to Your Home Office

As always, you can have a lot more fun with your home office. Wallpaper! Geometric wainscoting! Furniture! Architectural features like columns! You can do it!

If you're making big office furniture purchases, you can absolutely go for one of the amazing Art Deco desks out there. (The pictured one is from Anthropologie and is $1698.)

Another idea: You could modify or upcycle some older furniture to add inlay (such as this one from Etsy) or painted features (this article from Upcycle has some great Art Deco-inspired DIY ideas), or just go for dark colored furniture in general. (Estate sales are a great place to find a dark desk… unless you want a keyboard tray.)

You can also add a chaise or chair, or go for a barrel chair or the more bench-like chaise. (The one we're picturing has STORAGE, too!!) Another easy hack: adding a throw blanket or some pillows that have Art Deco elements.

You can have a lot of fun with lighting elements, also, from sconces to flush mounts and more.

Some general ideas for an Art Deco-inspired home office:

How to Design a Preppy-Inspired Office

Kat — Thu, 18 May 2023 18:27:17 +0000

I thought I'd try a new series: how to design an office, in different decorating styles. First up: how to design a preppy-inspired office.

Do you have (or want) a preppy-inspired office? If you have a very preppy style yourself, how do you think that personality shows in your office? Whether you're hybrid, remote, or in-office full time, how have you designed your space?

I had a lot of fun putting together this inspiration board, which admittedly leans heavily on some Lilly Pulitzer stuff.

All of the products are linked below the image!

How to Get a Preppy-Inspired Office If You Work In a Cubicle or Shared Space

I think the trick is going to be picking a few pieces that make you happy but don't overwhelm the space. For me this would mean maybe getting one of the custom, Lilly-inspired mouse mats, some blingy gold office supplies, and maybe some fun pushpins for your office bulletin board.

How to Get a Preppy Inspired Office If You Work in a Law Firm Or Other Conservative Space

Your biggest hurdle here is going to be overcoming the “executive brown” furniture that you likely have in your office. I would start by making the space as light and airy as possible as possible, with as much white or beige as you can bring in — a white desk mat, an ivory or beige throw blanket on your visitor's chair(s), maybe even a white (ergonomic) chair for yourself if you can swing it. I might also try to stick to white-only binders where possible, all labeled with a consistent label, sticker, or font.

After you achieve a nice white or beige base, THEN you can add accents like a pillow with fun colors, a joyful picture frame or two, a beautiful flower vase (with real flowers, of COURSE).

On your side of the desk, you can get into more twee, fun things like colorful pushpins and more.

How to Get a Preppy-Inspired Home Office

The sky is the limit here, of course! I've seen a lot of offices painted with bold wall colors like hot pink, lime, bright yellow, or some combination thereof. You could also check out Spoonflower — there's such a wide selection of wallpapers there that there are definitely some preppy-ish designs. (For example!) (I believe Lilly Pulitzer previously made wallpapers, also, if you feel like doing a hunt.)

That said, now is the time you may want to check out Core Prepsters like Tory Burch, Martha Stewart, and Reese Witherspoon — I feel like a lot of their offices are still mostly neutral, light colors like white or beige, with fun, bright pops of color as accents. Bonus points, of course, if you can mix and match different prints (toile! stripes! floral!) on chairs, walls, and other designs.

(If you want some examples of interior designs with really sophisticated mixing and matching of different prints, Summer Thornton's Instagram is full of them — such as this, this, or this. Reese Witherspoon's designer, Mark Sikes, is also an expert at mixing and matching patterns — check out this, this, or this.)

Readers, what are your thoughts? Do you have (or want) a preppy-inspired office? If you personally have a very preppy style, how do you think that personality shows in your office?

office decor inspiration - Corporette.com