Here at Arnolds, our mission is to buy used office furniture from businesses that no longer need it and restore it so that it's just as perfect as furniture fresh from the flat-packed box. In the process, our customers save thousands and help the environment while doing it.
Still, even after all that, some want to put their own personal stamp on their workspace. To give you an idea of what's possible, we've dug up a few examples of do-it-yourself refurbishing that shows the difference between bland furniture and office furniture with personality.
The Redone Cubicle
The cubicle is often the subject of a lot of abuse in modern pop culture. Whether it's Peter trapped next to Nina from accounts payable, or Dilbert dealing with his pointy-haired supervisor's incompetence, cubicles are often held up as a symbol of conformity and blandness. ?But they don't have to be.
Believe it or not, adding some personality to your cubicle is fairly simple. Changing out the cloth is fairly simple if you have a few basic tools and some pins, and it's also fairly easy to remove if you get promoted to the office you're looking for.You can also use little craft items like appliques on the glass to add even more personality.
File Cabinets
The humble filing cabinet may not be in for the kind of abuse the cubicle gets, but that might only be because it's hard to notice. Many of them are nothing more than bland steel boxes, usually in a khaki or gray color, and that's where it stops.
Fortunately, their simplicity also makes it easy for you to give them a little style.This example that we've found uses spray paint to get the yellow color, and glue and damask fabric to give the faces a bit more color.
But you don't need to invest quite that much, if you don't feel like it. You can easily use scrapbook paper to put front-facings on your file cabinets, or simply repaint them to get a bit more character into them. After all, the file cabinet is something you'll see a lot... shouldn't it be something you enjoy seeing?
Desk Chairs
And finally, here's a good example of an office chair getting an overhaul. Generally, when office chairs are discussed, they're usually talked about in terms of comfort, not style.
Office chairs are often the most colorful of office furniture, but the color tends to be fairly sedate and limited to shades that will mix well with other furniture. Most office chairs we sell are fairly simple to disassemble, and thus, fairly simple to reupholster. We will, however, recommend that you use a cloth that resists stains and is very durable. After all, this is the furniture you'll be sitting on week in and week out; you want it to look good and feel good.
These are just three of dozens of options available for giving your office furniture a whole new look.Crafty folks on the Internet have plenty of ideas for you to try. So, after you get your furniture in, take a look around, and see what you can do to put your own spin on it.
