apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Hey, you wanna see this crazy lady I work with?

Good thing cubicles are usually private, but the rationale of it being small like a bathroom is not quite right. Once you start spending 40 hours a week in the bathroom is the time to start eating a few vegetables and perhaps find a cereal with more bran than marshmallows.

Why not make big photographic enlargements of "Polly Pocket" images from an old 1990s christmas catalogue?

Also a unicorn theme could be coupled easily with anything related to dolphins, ponies, "white horses running on the beach in the sunset", heroic fantasy décor (see TRUE BLUES's post on the "furniture of your nightmare" post from a few days ago for links : http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/la/seating-sofas-armchairs/whats-your-nightmare-piece-of-furniture-055214 ), or any ceramic sculpture that my sister would have made between 1989 and 1993 (I left them in Canada on leaving for Eurpoe, so maybe they are still out there somewhere in the wild thrift world).

It grows TWO FEET in water?! Please share your source!

Glass top tables, anything with glass shelves, and that overstuffed leather or faux-leather furniture that looks like it's been covered with human skin.

I live in cubicle land, too. Last year I picked up black and chocolate brown suede-like material, plus a lovely red, cream and chocolate toile. I hung these on my cubicle walls (with straight pins), hung a couple of french pictures, and brought in a cute black IKEA lamp. I also brought in a couple of my nice teacups from home to use daily. I can still put push pins through the cloth when I need to make use of the space. It occurred to me that I spend more time at work than home, so why not make it feel like my home? My boss teases me that my cubicle is the most welcoming in the office. When I moved cubicles, he kept asking when I was going to put it all back up.

The only problem with making your cube super awesome is the constant barrage of "oooh, look at that" and "how did you ever think of that" I had a super awesome decked out cubicle, but after some Christian lady yelled at me because I had a couple of Devil Ducks, I toned it down a lot.

Hubby sent me this link when I was working in a cube:

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/multimedia/2007/12/gallery_cube_fixes?slide=1&slideView=3.

Yet another great cube http://stylenorth.ca/blog/2008/06/pimp-my-cube/

Well, there is only one thing that goes well with unicorns and that is the color PURPLE. Kelly- get yourself some purple accessories for that cubbie! joking aside- thanks for the inspiration of the Zen cube, oceandreamer56.... i need to get some plants/ live greenery/ better design into the "Cell Block" (my phrase for the incredibly depressing row of cubbies nowhere near a window or natural light source where I am forced to be contained 40 hours a week.)

A black velvet unicorn painting! http://cgi.ebay.com/Unicorn-On-Black-Velvet-Vintage-Mexican-VELVET-PAINTING_W0QQitemZ260122763554QQihZ016QQcategoryZ10862QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247

Kelly's not looking for a promotion any time soon? Because nothing says dedicated professional like having a wacky cube, cluttered with kitsch.

Seriously, I used to work at TV cable network with a woman who had the "rubber ducky" cube. And she stayed an assistant for a long time, never figuring out why she didn't move up and onwards. And whenever department planning moved cubes around--it took her two days to shift all the junk around.

Yeah, not to be a killjoy but I have to back Palmetto up on this. I've read literature talking about how too many personal or kitschy items in an office or workspace can actually have a negative effect on how co-workers, supervisors, and clients view you and your abilities. Right or wrong, it's something to consider when deciding how over-the-top you want to be.

I would've killed for that lamp when I was a kid.

hello, kelley here.
i can see your point palmetto and j, however i think its fair to take into account where one works. i happen to work for itunes and i can safely say weirdness, casualness, flippancy, unicorns, star wars lego battleships en mass...all of it is acceptable here. i think were a person to have a cube with regal or some kind of "professional" decor people 'round here would be suspicious. if your industry embraces fun and creativity go for it and whack some unicorns on your cube walls. if not, fair enough..buy a streamline stapler and matching pen holder and wait for your promotion to come. i'll race you to the corner office.

I guess I didn't read and thought some of those pictures were actually part of a real cubicle... unfortunately, my office isn't really space I'm allowed to be eccentric in, although I do have a few personal elements. I try to keep them minimal. I "represent" the program, and the key to my door is really the key to the room where a lot of confidential files are kept, including my desk. I have a print in there I hate, and yet my boss will not let me take it down.

I do like some unicorns, but I think overdoing it makes you the office freak. That said, my boss has more toys and crap in his office than your friend who likes the unicorns, and I'd say that in a way, I have to be more limited. He has attained a status where things he likes (usually they are presents anyway) add to his ... legend? I don't know what word to put there.

Just like wealthy people are beloved in their eccentricities while poor people are marginalized for the same, people on the lower rungs can't be too weird in certain ways the way you could if you were in upper management. Even if we're laughing at you from down here and telling our friends you can't believe what freaky thing my boss did today, we can't keep you warped sorts from advancing if you're above us, and then it would by nature be petty to do so, unless your boss is Dabney Coleman in "9 to 5".

It helps to have some sort of personality though, if you hope to be picked up and groomed like the pretty puppy you are, but mostly it helps me that I don't really have any wish to advance in my current job, it's just something I'm doing until I can do the next thing.

If you work somewhere cool where putting a lot of effort into personalizing your cubicle is a cultural necessity like Kelley does, there's a different dynamic there I'd probably dislike. I wouldn't want to keep anything of value, and I usually don't like to keep too many personal effects at work. If I decided not to come back one day - Big IF - they could throw out my shit, I wouldn't miss it. I might if I had a lamp or even a mug, much less action figures or such to express my personal fanaticisms. Once I start spending X amount of dollars on stuff I could potentially never see again, or obviously haven't made space for in my house, I would just not do it. Then again, my employment (and location) history tends to be transient. I might feel differently if I landed a solid gig somewhere I could stay, which is kind of why I have to stay where I am right now, with my fake buddha rabbit. I've never left a job and not gotten back to get my stuff, either, I just prefer to think of my office in those terms.

I recently added a Matte Stephens http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5063179 print to my cubicle (I USED to have an office - sob). I am considering adding a few mid century pieces - perhaps an atomic clock - but keeping it subtle.

The funny thing about this is that at my apartment we sort of fell into having a unicorn collection. I think it started with these really amazing kitschy unicorn pictures we found and rescued from our basement and it grew from there. We have the My Little Pony from when I was young, as well as a few new ones. And ours has a special section that is Pegasus vs. Unicorn. Now people give us unicorns when they find them for the collection.

@kelley But regal isn't the opposite of wacky. There's a place in between, and personally, I'm really glad I work at home.