office supplies – EcoSalon

10 Fun Office Decor Finds for ‘Desk-Orating’ Like a Pro

Jen Wallace — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 22:45:45 +0000

iStock/KatarzynaBialasiewicz

Life is too short and we spend too much time at work to have a boring desk. Deskorate your workspace with these fun office decor finds.

While other countries have seemed to master the 30-hour work week, the 40-hour work week (or more) is still the norm in the United States. Whether you have a sitting or standing desk, that’s a lot of time to be surrounded by plain old cubicle walls. You take the time to create a welcoming space at home, why not add some office decor to kick your things up a notch at work? Your workspace can feel a little more like your home away from home with the addition of some fun office decor.

Fun Office Decor

1. Terrarium Kit

Not only is a succulent terrarium a great way to add some greenery to your desk, you can DIY with this fun kit.

2. Desk Light Bulb Lamp

One way to add a bit of ambiance is with light. While your employer might frown on the use of candles, no one could issue with this vintage-style USB bulk lamp as fun and functional office decor.

3. USB Mini Lights

Mini string lights are another way to make your desk feel a little more personal and chill.

4. Cork Globe

Form and function are combined in this cork globe. Daydream about traveling the world while pinning up reminder notes about tomorrow’s staff meeting.

5. Bear Letter Organizer

Display your love of the wild and stay organized with this wire bear letter or filer holder.

6. Light Box Daily Inspirational Sign

Have a little bit of fun and share some daily inspiration with your coworkers with this lighted sign.

7. Suspension Bridge Bookends

Who says all those binders on your desk can’t be held up with these cool architectural bookends?

8. Desk Organizer

The office world is made of too much plastic, particle board, and fluorescent lighting. Add something made from the natural world to changes things up a bit.

9. Ceramic Desk Organizer

How cute is this ceramic bowl and notepad holder? They are perfect for holding push pins, paper clips, and other ephemera of the office world.

10. Walnut Speakers

Listen to NPR, or your latest daily mix from Spotify, with these super cool looking computer speakers.

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Eco Friendly Products for the Office: 8 Stylish & Functional Objects

Stephanie Rogers — Sun, 08 Dec 2013 19:01:32 +0000

Walk into a typical office supply store and you’ll be greeted with a depressing array of cheap, generic-looking plastic products emitting the oh-so-tantalizing scent of off-gassing carcinogens. But there’s a magical happy place at the intersection of sustainability and design, where eco friendly products for the office can be super useful and even decorative, and it can be found on the Internet. Here are 8 items for both home workstations and the office, from cradle-to-cradle desk chairs to sculptural air purifiers.

Chikuno Cube Charcoal Air Purifier

Plants are one of the best, easiest and cheapest ways to purify the air in your workspace, but what about smells? You can’t control whether your colleague microwaves horrific-smelling foods for lunch or wears too much perfume, but you can control the odors in your own little work area with a small desktop purifier like the Chikuno Cube. This odorless cube is made from ultra-fine activated bamboo charcoal and clay minerals to absorb smells, and it has the look of a modern sculpture.

Atmos Geodesic ‘Cubicle’ for Desk Privacy

Cubicles are rarely pleasant places to work, but sometimes, you just need a little bit of privacy. The Atmos by Olero is a light, airy modular enclosure for any desk. Inspired by Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic structures and the triangle-frame sculptures of Do Ho Suh, it sections off your workspace while still letting in light, and it looks nice, too.

IKEA Sunnan Solar-Powered Desk Lamp

Need an eco friendly desk lamp? Look no further than your nearest IKEA. Inexpensive and frill-free, this LED lamp gets its power from the sun, even though it’s designed for indoor use. It recharges in about 9-12 hours in sunlight, emits about the same amount of light as a 15-watt incandescent bulb, and will light at full power for three hours once charged. For each Sunnan lamp purchased, IKEA and UNICEF will give one to a child in a refugee camp or village with no electricity.

Pulpop Recycled MP3 Speaker

Plug your mp3 player into a USB-rechargeable speaker made of recycled pulp that doubles as desk decor. The Pulpop speaker has a ring-shaped chamber that amplifies sound way better than you’d expect from cardboard.

Desktop Bamboo Dry-Erase Board

If you’re still in the habit of writing down quick notes instead of using your tablet or phone, you can save a whole lot of paper with a desktop dry-erase board. This one at Uncommon Goods is one example of a bamboo dry-erase board ideal for your to-do lists and random scribblings, and you can also turn any bamboo surface (or virtually any smooth surface at all) by coating it with a little bit of dry-erase sealant. Get the tutorial at Imulus.

Bamboo Plywood Workstation by El Dot Designs

Minimalist hairpin legs and a smooth surface make this desk by El Dot Designs a beautiful addition to the office, but it’s more than just a good-looking modern desk. It’s made of bamboo ply with a non-toxic, water-based finish and features a movable power supply with three outlets and two USB ports. It’s also got a magnetic dry-erase board and a bamboo bag hook on the underside.

Cobi Office Chair

Few things are more important in an office than the chair you’re sitting in all day long, day after day. There are lots of desk chairs out there that provide comfort and support for long work hours, but few of them are on their way to Cradle-to-Cradle certification. The Cobi Chair by Steelcase features a weight-activated adjustment mechanism that naturally puts you in the best position of comfort for your body, sensing your center of gravity. It’s a low-emitting product and has a sustainable lifecycle – the Steelcase Environmental Partnership program will help you responsibly resell, refurbish, donate or recycle the chair when it’s no longer useful to you.

Bamboo Zen Stand for Tablets and Smart Phones

Support your tablet or smart phone with the Lexon Zen Stand, a simple bamboo accessory with rubber stabilizers that will hold onto your gadget safely. It’s also super useful for reading recipes when you’re cooking, or using your phone like an alarm clock next to the bed.

All images courtesy manufacturers.

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Mad Men Your Workspace: Vintage Office Supplies

Jen Wallace — Sun, 08 Sep 2013 07:11:37 +0000

Maybe it’s the TV show Mad Men, which wrapped up season 6 this summer, or maybe it’s because it’s back-to-school time again, but it seems like we are seeing vintage office supplies everywhere. From typewriters to Moleskine notebooks, paper and office supply geeks know that vintage office supplies are in. That means whether you are looking to trick out your home office with a little vintage panache or you just want to add a little bit of retro pizazz to your cubicle at work, we’ve got some ideas and inspiration for you.

Bring a little bit of retro into your everyday with vintage office supplies.

Vintage Office Supplies

Poking around Etsy revealed a smorgasbord of vintage-inspired and genuinely vintage office supplies. Stuff like real ink pens, rotating rubber stamp holders, crank pencil sharpeners and wire In and Out boxes. Here are just some of the fun highlights from out search.

Typewriter

Image: Thread and Brush Studio

Love this teal Olivetti Studio 44 Portable Manual Typewriter with its original case and in working condition. Whether for show or to channel your inner Hemingway, this is a stylish piece. Using one of these bad boys for a bit would really make one appreciate word processors and laptops as well.

Office Supplies and Stationery Tin Box

Image: Inklinks

What a clever find this kit is. It’s filled with vintage office supplies and stationery from 1950s-1980s ready for your next letter writing (gasp, snail mail?) session. It’s filled with all kinds of usable ephemera like a marble-covered notebook, Staedtler erasers, floppy disk labels, old tags, and Owl paper clips, among other goodies.

Fountain Pen

Image: zandbroz

While you might think they are messy, fountain pens are actually a much more sustainable choice over disposable pens. And this restored 1946 Parker Vacumatic Jet Black Fountain Pen is more than better for the planet, it’s also super cool. Leave the iPad back in the office and show up with this for notetaking at your next meeting.

Rubber Stamp

Image: unqueDuJour

Hand stamp your own letters and memos or even create your own stationery using this vintage “Important Message” rubber stamp. Even though we live in the digital age, it’s possible to have some retro fun when sending your paper-based communications.

Rolodex

Image: collectiblesatoz

Even though some of us have phones that “bump” to exchange info and others have business card apps on our iPhones, we still always end up with business cards and addresses written on scraps of paper. That’s why the Rolodex will never go out of style. This one is from the 1980s.

Labels

Image: juliecollings

Instead of reaching for those generic Avery labels from the big box store for your next labeling project, consider using these vintage Dennison labels instead. Form and function together in one.

Carbon Paper

Image: TheInspiredTrader

And for a bit of nostalgic fun, how about some carbon paper? Carbon paper was the original copy and paste! This package of Solvent Carbon Paper by Burroughs Corporation dates from the 1960s.

Pencils

Image: pastoria

And for the back-to-school crowd, how about these vintage Cascade C120 Soft. No.2 pencils—they still use pencils in school, don’t they? These are from the 1980s.

Top Image: Matteo Paciotti | Photography

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5 Green Home Office Supplies We Love

Lisa Hoover — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 17:57:43 +0000

You’ve dug a compost pit, replaced all your light bulbs with the energy-efficient kind, and given up bottled water for good. What about your home office? These five cool office supplies are guaranteed to help keep you productive and planet-friendly all at once.

Sticky Notes – Good things come in small packages, like this pack of 100 percent recycled sticky-notepads. If you use notes all over the place like I do (which is to say, every exposed surface in my home office), then it’s great to be able to feed your craving for stickies without wandering far afield of your desire to be good to the planet.

Handmade Journals – Lots of us use journals to track ideas, plan projects, and collect notes throughout the work day. These beautiful handmade journals are made from 100 percent recycled paper and feature plantable paper covers pre-seeded with poppies, snap dragons, bird’s eye, etc. So when you’ve filled the notebook, just rip the cover off and drop it in your garden or a pot of soil. The annuals and perennials will give you something to look at when you’re on your next boring conference call.

Biodegradable Ballpoint Pens – I’m crazy about these! I have a metric ton of plastic-barreled pens all over my office that seem to materialize from nowhere and never write well. I need to have pens around but I’m not crazy about bringing yet more plastic junk into my house. Paper Mate comes to the rescue with a biodegradable pen that will disintegrate in your backyard compost bin when it outlives its usefulness. Brilliant!

Looseleaf Binders – Whether you use them for work, school, home, or office organization, looseleaf three-ring binders are super handy to have around. The downside is all the cardboard and vinyl components used to assemble them. Earth Binder makes standard and custom looseleaf binders made almost completely from post-consumer material. You can buy ready-made binders direct from the company, or ask them to help you design a custom project at no charge.

Colored Folders – You can’t manage an effective workspace without an efficient filing system. These colored hanging folders from Earthwise are made from 50 percent post-consumer materials and are perfect for getting a mountain of paperwork under control quickly.

Image: Risager

The post 5 Green Home Office Supplies We Love appeared first on EcoSalon.

5 Green Home Office Supplies We Love

Lisa Hoover — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 09:03:01 +0000

Image: Risager

The post 5 Green Home Office Supplies We Love appeared first on EcoSalon.