As artists we search out places, things, people, and environments that inspire us. It can often propel us to create better art. It can feed our creativity and I’m pretty sure it influences our frame of mind and might even help us be ready to be productive.

Over the past year I’ve been dreaming up ways to make my work space a little less office-y and a little more creative-y. When I moved into my new office this summer at First Alliance Church I saw an opportunity to make it into a creative space. I had gathered some ideas and come up with a few of my own that I was excited to act on.

It started with the large wall in my office. My hope was to fit a couch with two bookshelves on either side. I was able to snag a couple comfy chairs that I slid together to make my couch. It fit perfectly which was great news and so I went from there.

I had an idea for the shelves that I wanted to try. I had seen some backlit shelving on design-milk.com and I wanted to give that a shot in my own space. I chose to take the back panel off the shelves and replace it with transparent coroplast. To back light the coroplast I chose rope light. It’s not as bright as I would like and I wonder if I should have sprung for LED lights but alas, it’s still just a pastor’s office.

As a music pastor I feel no need to show off my library so the books are scattered. I put some glass Ikea lights on the shelves placed between book clusters. There’s a scattering of small instruments and coffee cups on the shelves…you know, the important stuff.

The lighting in my space is fluorescent and ultra bright so I wanted to put in my own softer lighting. I found some cool colored light chords at Ikea and strung those up in a cluster in front of the shelf. there’s another white colored chord over the doorway and the glass lamps and rope light provide the rest of the lightI need.

I wanted a small desk as I don’t spend much time there. I found the perfect one at Ikea (love that place) and got a red chair to match my red folding table which acts as my laptop desk when I’m sitting on the couch.

A small desk left my space for a coffee table. However, I needed to find a place to store 800 of my unsold CDs in my office. I found a spot for some on the shelves and the rest became my coffee table. The top of my “coffee table” is a kitchen cabinet door from the Ikea scrap pile. worked perfectly.

I think my favorite part of the space are my framed paint color chips. I like color and so I figured I would just frame some color for my wall. It’s looking pretty good I think.

There are a couple posters coming from society6.com and echohub.com and then I think it will be pretty much ready to go for now.

What’s your favorite place to be creative?