If you know me (and I assume, if you are actually reading this, you probably do know me personally), then you know that I don’t have a natural aptitude for anything domestic – cooking, cleaning, decorating, fashion. When I moved into my new office last month, I was met with a much larger blank canvas than I anticipated and nothing to fill it. I had a diploma frame and a couple of 12×18 pictures I thought would do the trick. Not so much.

What I immediately enjoyed was the natural flood of light into my office (very different from my previous prison-cell window) that allows me to keep the bright overhead lights turned off all day. I brought in a little lamp to use as needed, but otherwise I bathe in the natural light all day.

What I didn’t enjoy was the clinical, institutional feel to a lot of blank wall space. I considered purchasing a huge canvas to take up space on the wall I face, but ended up brainstorming (with the help of Pinterest) a wall collage. After collecting all of the pieces and drawing up a diagram, one of our awesome maintenance guys lined everything up perfectly for me. Here is the result:

I love it! I also bought a plant (let’s see how long it lives – add “keeping plants alive” to my list of non-skills) and some other frames and personal items, so now after a month it’s starting to feel like my real office.

Sometimes I consider this potential problem when I think about us moving into a larger house. Sure, it would be nice to have the extra space, but will we lose some of the family togetherness we currently have because we are all squashed together all of the time? Will the blank canvas walls be intimidating and clinical to me?