Designing A Medieval Office

     Grabbing your steaming cup of coffee you head into your office to begin your day. As you walk through the door you glance around at your walls with framed certificates, articles about your work, photos of friends and family. Your desk sits in the middle of the room with your computer, photos of your kids, yesterdays coffee mug (forgot that again!) and a stack of paperwork waiting for your attention. Off to one side of the room is a small coffee table and a couple of arm chairs. A few magazines litter the top of the coffee table. Resigned you head for the desk, sit down and think, if only I could walk into this office and feel like a king or queen everyday.

      Well, you can! Stop wishing and start decorating! First things first. Something needs to be done about the walls. Let's remove all the pictures and start with paint. If you are comfortable with doing things on your own, go to your local paint or home improvement store. Pick out some paint colors that you feel would suit the statement you want to make. You can choose some grays and blue grays, reds and burgundy, or as I would prefer you can go with shades of golden brown and tan. Next, pick a faux painting technique. Try ragging or sponging to get the "old wall" effect. Now that your walls have been painted let's start looking at what you can hang on them. There are a variety of things available for this style such as tapestries, paintings, wall sconces, sword and dagger displays, shields, and axes. Don't go overboard on the amount of decorations you put up. That will only make it look gaudy and make sure that the items you choose complement each other.

   Next, you can dress up the furniture you already have or you can find new antique furniture to complement your style. Add a fluer-de-lis rug in complementary colors. In the sitting area, how about a medieval chess set for the coffee table? On your desk you can place a dragon letter opener, a medieval style box for cigars, or misc. items and other decor items that would not be in the way of your workspace. Now that you've finished, here is what you will see tomorrow when you walk in your office.

    You grab your morning coffee and walk into your office. As you open the door you are greeted by warm walls graced with a tapestry of a castle in medieval England, light reflects off of swords and dragons mounted behind your desk. The sitting area invites you and a guest to play a game of chess. Your desk is gaurded by a dragon holding a miniature sword and another sitting atop a box daring you to have a cigar, your family smiles out at you from pewter frames. You sit down and flip on your computer, look around once more, and know that you are ready to conquer any job that comes your way