Combining Design and Function

How to integrate a functional and temporary whiteboard wall into your home office space

 

Before we get to it, those of you who don’t know me, I’m Naomi Finlay and I’m renowned for making healthy, wealthy and beautiful spaces using ontological design, body biology, space medicine and, obviously, environmental psychology.

One of the things that I get asked about a lot is how I make an amazingly beautiful space and, at the same time, how do I make it highly functional.

Many of us in our businesses – maybe you’re working from home; you may be working from the kitchen bench or you may be working in an office space similar to my office here. We are often asked how is how we strike that balance.

One of the biggest things people comment to me about is when they’re doing some big visioning or when they’re doing some big planning and they want to be writing all over the walls or having post-it notes everywhere, but at the same time, they really don’t want that terrible look of a chalkboard that can get dusty sometimes and not always look as fresh and amazing as when we started.

Or, they don’t like the idea of a big framed whiteboard with the frame that gets dusty and dirty and a bit gross, hanging in their beautiful space.

I have something for you.

You can use this whether you’re in an office space similar to my office, which is this one here, or whether you’re working from a home office or even if you literally have your office set up at your breakfast bar or your kitchen bench when people aren’t eating.

You need a wall in your house or in your home or in your office that you can plan on.

That you can big vision on and that you can spread things out and map out the year to come, map out your priorities and have it all in front of you.

Today, I want to talk to you about whiteboard walls. I know that’s a bit of a mouthful, isn’t it – whiteboard walls.

There’s this amazing product – it’s a combination of two products – where you can actually have a whiteboard wall that still looks like an amazing wall in a property.

The wall behind me, it is a version of white that’s actually quite a warm gray white. But, when I take off that piece of art that you can see there, it’s actually a whiteboard. The entire wall from corner to door, which is on my left hand side, is a whiteboard.

When I’m just working in the space on a day-to-day basis:

• I can have my picture up there
• I can have anything I want on that wall

and then when it’s time to do some big visioning and some big planning, I can crack out my whiteboard markers, I take down my piece of art with the hook remaining and I’m able to write all over the wall.

The beauty of this is if, you didn’t want a light white wall, if, for example, you had a moody blue wall or you’re really into oranges or you had a canary yellow wall, this whiteboard paint actually goes over the top of the wall and it does very little to change the color.

You don’t have to have a pure white. You don’t have to have a huge whiteboard on your wall. You can actually have a multi-functional space.

The part where this is really, really clever, apart from the fact that we don’t need to have a whiteboard on our wall anymore, is that it means for all the entrepreneurs that may be working from home and don’t have a dedicated space …

If you have a wall in your hallway or a wall in your entry or a wall that backs on one of the lounge rooms, you can actually paint it with your whiteboard paint and when it comes to planning time.

You can map everything out on there, photograph it, clean it off and then next quarter you can do exactly the same thing.

No one will be any the wiser.

That’s my top tip today on creating healthy, wealthy, beautiful space that you can thrive in and grow in, be creative and be productive in. I hope you’ve enjoyed it. I’ll be back soon. Bye guys!