I find myself doing a lot of contract work at home these days so comfort and productivity in my home office is very important. There are always so many distractions at home! I find it very important to establish your home office as a different area in the home. As important as it is to have color and energy in other rooms, the home office must contain a level of professionalism and comfort. I’ve seen my own productivity increase dramatically when small improvements have been made to the office. A larger desk has given me more work space to comfortably work through projects while being able to easily switch between making handwritten notes and computer generated files. When we first moved into our new place a temporary fold up chair was being used for a computer desk chair. Though it was comfortable enough in short spurts, over the course of an 8 hour work day I would find my back and elbows getting sore. For a young man like myself (28), this was not something I found acceptable and it would often become distracting to my work. Considering I work in a creative field, the new desk and chair have made the creative process at home much easier!

When we were looking for a bar stools for our new place we were presented with several challenges. In our condo there is a small "breakfast bar" that requires two bar stools that we knew would be a great place for guests to sit while the two of us are doing our work in the kitchen. We needed something stylish, comfortable, and versatile. The stools we saw for sale in the city were each unique looking in their own way. We were originally drawn to the old school "soda shop" style stools with the red leather top but found them too overpowering compared to the rest of our decor. We bought a beautiful dining room table but the attention would be drawn to those stylish stools! We were also interested in classic wooden stools but worried about their comfort. If we were having guests sitting on these stools with regularity, we were going to need these things to be comfortable and relaxing. What good is style without comfort? The wooden stools were too hard, and the cushion stools were too soft. The dark leather stools were perfect for comfort and style, and were far enough from the window that they wouldn’t get too hot and sticky in the summer (a personal pet peeve). The last necessity was versatility. We needed two stools that could be used as bar stools as well as extra seating at our dining room table. We found the perfect solution with high backed leather stools with hydraulics that allowed them to be lowered to dining room height.

When my fiancée and I recently purchased a new home, we were faced with an entirely new challenge: buying furniture. My old place was full of furniture that screamed "bachelor pad," with a hand me down coach, dining table, coffee table and many others. In order to establish our new life as a soon to be married couple, we had to upgrade all of this furniture to symbolize our new beginning. After finding the perfect place, we now had to find the perfect way to fill our first place. While I was interested in modern, simple and sleek furniture; she was more concerned about comfort and quality. Finding a happy medium between both of our tastes didn’t just make our home look the way we wanted it to, our new furniture became something that belonged to both of us. Our furniture became something that both of us looked forward to seeing and showing off. The combination of a classic style (teak and rosewood furniture) combined with more modern furniture like our micro fiber couch allowed our new home to show off both our styles and express our visual tastes. The colors, fabrics and designs all symbolize togetherness and the strides we have taken as a couple.