working girl - ifs office

So for those who don't know, the month of August was pretty tough for me. Too much stress on my body (in particular my right foot) gave me an unfortunate case of tendonitis. Because of the severity of my condition, I was immediately given a cortisone shot, placed in a huge "moon boot" for 3 weeks, and sentenced to office duty. I say "sentenced" simply because my job is very physical, and while there is a nice amount of office work involved, a huge part of it is physical implementation.

To say the least, I was very, very bummed about it... and borderline pitiful. Thanks to the grace of God there were quite a few projects in the store that needed to be planned, which allowed me to focus my full attention on creating the best solutions possible. Three weeks in the boot, two weeks in an ankle brace, and five weeks of physical therapy later and I'm doing pretty well. I still have the occasional shoots of pain, but I'm happy to report that I'm almost back to myself, and happily back on the floor implementing projects. First up was the IFS office (A.K.A the IKEA Food Services office).

The challenge:

1. Maximize the function of a tiny office space to include storage for 5 food service team-leads (otherwise known as assistant managers in IKEA speak) and organize the workspace so that it may be used by at least 4 of those team leads simultaneously. 
2. Incorporate all necessary IT and safety equipment into the design
3. Infuse the space with our Swedish Modern identity  

Did I mention how incredibly tiny this office is?  Keeping that in mind, I decided to place all the workstations and individual storage on one wall, and shared storage on the opposite wall.

 This is my third and final version which incorporates Numerar countertop, Sjunne legs, an Alex drawer unit, and 5 Expedit 2x2 cubes above the workspace. I also ended up taking the countertop wall-to-wall instead of leaving 9" gaps on the end (which were originally going to be for folded step stools but I found another place for it).

Below are the elevations. Click on the image to make it larger. Oh, and do you like my girl? I named her "Long Hair Don't Care" because she always looks totally disinterested at whatever is going on.

After the technical aspect was nailed down, I started to focus my attention on color. I was totally inspired by our Hallenknopp fabric for the color scheme. It's bold, bright, and a little silly. For the wall color, I wanted to take a big risk and go with Citron by Benjamin Moore.

After I nailed down my inspiration, I put together a scheme board to get a feel for how the room would come together. Some finishes and products weren't used, but it definitely helped me get my ideas in order.

 Now for  what you came for - the before and after photos!

The huge storage wall (which consisted of items that mostly needed to be purged) was dispersed on the wall with the opening and split up between 3 Galant storage units. The file unit is down below.

I wanted to come up with a good way to blend the necessary safety equipment without compromising style, so I decided collages were the way to go. Also, check out the light sources. Now they have overhead florescent (which came with the office), Gruntal halogen accent lighting above each individual Expedit unit, and Jansjo LED task lighting.

As for the middle of the office, to say it was rough is a total understatement.

It's amazing what a little organization can do.

While we left the surveillance camera in the corner, truth be told there isn't much of a need for it anymore. We actually had the safe in the room relocated to make more room for much-needed storage.

As you can see, this is totally real life! The team leads couldn't wait another minute to start using the space which is evident the new magnetic boards.

Notice how having desks back-to-back in the this space simply wasn't working. I also down-sized the chairs so that they wouldn't overwhelm the space.

Now this corner feels cozy without feeling super cramped.

On the other wall I used a lockable Galant roll-front storage unit with an extension top for binders. Below the second window is lockable Galant sliding door unit for extra restaurant equipment.

These pieces really fit the space like a glove.

Next to the opening was a plethora of pieces which thankfully got paired down quite a bit.

This was another instance where a simple collage did the trick. Also, see the small, white circle? It's an on-off switch for the Grundtal lighting. I'm still in awe that we have that in the range now!

And just for the heck of it, here's a before and after panoramic view.

 I still can't believe the transformation!

And for customers waiting in line at the restaurant here's what you can see from the window:

P.S. I was in such a rush towards the end that I had to go back the next week and put finials on the curtain rods. :) Big shout out to Michael for painting the office and all his amazing support and encouragement throughout this entire process. Also a big thanks to Hugo for all of his flawless carpentry execution, and De'Airra for helping me with the initial implementation! Oh, and thanks to the IFS team for baring with the process while being displaced for two weeks. Hopefully we made it worth your while!

But wait, that's not the only thing I planned while in the office for almost six weeks. Can we say Children's IKEA remodel? Oh yeah, it's really happening! Stay tuned! :)