Simple fix = big results

13 March 2013

I rearranged my office furniture last weekend, the most notable shift being moving my desk 90 degrees. I also moved a stand that holds a laser printer and Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner, so that the stand now backs up to my desk.

It’s great because it allows me to hide cords. But there was a negative side effect: When I sit at my desk, I now have a view of the back of the printer and the scanner. The problem with that is the scanner back is covered with electrical and warning labels. They’re not only ugly, but sort of urgent and stressful. That absolutely wasn’t going to fly. Check it out:

The back of my scanner covered in labels

In a moment of inspiration—the type of inspiration that doesn’t usually come easy to me, so I’m particularly excited about it —I thought of just the thing to turn this situation around.

My friend, Sally Brown of Roll Over Rover Threads is an amazingly talented illustrator. Her pet-related designs decorate her fabulous t-shirt line. I help her every year at trade shows and am in love with these designs. So I simply went to her website and (with her permission) copied some of my favorite illustrations into a Pages document. (Pages is the Mac’s word-processing program.) They illustrations were in squares and four squares in a row was just the width I needed. I printed them out on my color ink-jet, cut out the strip and taped it to the back of the scanner, using double-sided tape. I used two removable Avery labels to cover the areas between the two cords.

Here’s the result.

Back of scanner now covered in pretty illustrations

When I look up from my keyboard, I now see beautiful illustrations that make me happy and that are infused with the love and support of my dear friend, instead of ugly manufacturing labels.

It was such a simple fix. And it changed everything.

Take a look around your space. Are there any simple improvements you could make to make the space more beautiful and comfortable?

Tagged with: home office, sally brown