Ford Building Marketing Office Design Plan

You might remember when we introduced the boutique marketing office in our office building that had reached out to us for design help. We call it the Ford Building Marketing Office and if you don't recall the intro to their project, no worries, you can find it here.

These super wonderful folks (& super sweet office doggie) wanted to improve the functionality of their office as well as give it an overall more professional aesthetic. They wanted some solutions for their workstations, conference area & kitchenette. However, they had some unique design challenges such as a large column & ugly electrical panel in the middle of the space. Here's a few of the before photos.

With this information we got started on the design. As usual, we started by laying out the space. We began by considering how to deal with that column with the electrical panel. We knew that they had needed more storage than they currently had so we thought about creating a closet in the back corner of their space that would wrap around the column & cover the panel.

Once we had the plan for the storage issue, we started on the design for the workspaces. We weren't sure if they wanted their desks near the window or off to the side. We came up with 2 space plans that gave them 2 options for their workspaces, conference table & kitchenette. There were pros & cons to each option.

For option 1 we gave them separate workspaces near the window, with the conference table taking center stage in the space. For the kitchenette area, we found out some great news from our plumber. That funky plumbing valve that was sticking out of the wall was a useable plumbing rough in!

So for this option, we included a plumbed kitchenette. It would be an added expense, but SO handy! We gave them a great storage closet with an entrance located near the office doorway, creating a small entry nook. Some of the cons for this option included a smaller closet than option 2 and narrow credenzas under the TV, but maybe these cons weren't so bad?

For option 2, we gave them a larger closet with more storage, desks tucked away against the far wall & large credenzas under each window. The kitchenette in this plan wasn't plumbed which allowed for a doorway that was next to the kitchenette, moving it out of the entrance to the office. This allowed for a large storage/entry furniture piece near the office doorway for coats, bags or other storage. Some cons to this option: no plumbing in the kitchenette. However, we weren't sure the cost of labor to add a plumbed kitchenette was in their budget.

We decided for this project that it was best to share our space plan options for the office first before getting too far into the other design elements of the space. So we presented these two options. Their feedback was that they liked elements of both of these plans. We were excited that they wanted to go for the plumbed kitchenette from option 1 (great choice!) and liked the general placement of the workstations from option 1 but really wanted the storage from the credenzas near the window from option 2. Also, they weren't crazy about working with their backs to the door in either of these plans.

So, we reworked the space plans a bit to give them everything that they wanted from both plans. Here's what we came up with:

Keeping the closet, kitchenette & conference table layout from option 1. We flipped the desks around to face into the space. This allowed us to place the credenzas under the windows as in option 2. To avoid awkward cords & under desk messiness, we added pony (half) walls in front of each workstation. Each desk would also have a wall sconce overhead for better lighting.

They loved this plan! So we started to think about materiality in the space. We knew that this office has really tall ceilings like our office. However, unlike our office they would have a large wall without much to break up the wall space. So we thought it would be really cool to add some kind of interesting wall feature such as wallpaper or even just a painted color block. Here's our inspiration board that shows the general look & feel that we envisioned for the space.

They really liked this modern sophisticated look for their office, but weren't crazy about the pink walls that we were suggesting. So we decided to bring in another color for the walls and keep the color block idea in the plan. Unfortunately though the wallpaper that we loved wasn't in the budget. We all really liked the design direction for the space however and started to choose the furnishings.

They were keeping their mid-century walnut conference table & Eames-style chairs, so we kept that aesthetic going with a mid-century style bench & round brass mirror for the entry wall. Above the conference table we sourced some really beautiful lantern-like fixtures from local Spartan Shop! For the color block accent we chose a subtle blue-grey that complimented the walnut perfectly.

For the desk lighting we chose some pretty swing arm sconces from CB2 and we decided that it would be really fantastic to tile the pony walls in Sarah Sherman Samuel's tile for Concrete Collaborative. So fun!

For the kitchenette we chose a sophisticated navy blue cabinet face from Semi-Handmade to dress up the budget-friendly Ikea cabinetry. And we tiled the backsplash in that same fabulous tile! This space was going to look SO great!

Stay tuned to see the final photos in the next blog post!