Jan 5, 2015

By: Chelsea Haley, DKI Ventures, LLC

With the New Year upon us, we have been receiving several emails full of content on New Year’s resolutions – from learning a new hobby each week to setting a new monthly sales goals. So many great ideas have come our way. One of particular interest though, was remodeling office space to inspire creativity among employees, as well as attract new hires. Being in the restoration and remodeling industry, we found a few budget-friendly, office remodeling tips significant for an effective workplace.

Check back weekly throughout this month for a new piece of advice to remodel the office into a fun, inspiring environment.

Color

Have you ever noticed changes in your personality based on certain colors around you? White, empty walls can represent purity and peace, but can also tend to be associated with hospitals rooms and rehabilitation centers. This can convey a sense of sadness, fear, death, etc. You don’t want this empty space feeling upon your employees. A study from 1999 showed that employees working in white-walled offices experienced nausea and headaches more so than employees in red or blue workspaces.

Consider splashing color on those blank walls, either with paint, pictures, or artwork.

Red can sometimes be too bold and convey different emotions based on the person – it can invoke excitement in one, but danger in another.

Yet, orange is a bit mellower and expresses energy and creativity. Yellow is great for stimulating the memory, while shades of blue and green are relaxing and refreshing, and can disseminate feelings of optimism and happiness.

While adding color to your walls may entice your workers more to come into the office, allowing each of them to display their own personality a bit is also an effective method to introduce a fun, innovative workplace. Encourage your employees to make their “own space.” Let them cover their cubicles or walls with family photos, inspirational posters, poetry, etc. (Of course though, set some ground rules to ensure appropriate decoration is displayed).

A way to combine both of these approaches is attributed to Chevron’s employee wall mural (below). This quilted wall looks like an ordinary fabric quilt from afar, but when you look closely, the design is created from individual employees’ involved in various community service projects. This mural adds a bit of color to the office, inspiration from the creative layout of the artwork, as well as portraying individual personalities by involving a diverse group of employees.