Ah, summer! The longer days and warmer temperatures make us dream of beach weekends and vacation adventures, even if when we’re still in the office. Because fewer people are in the office due to travel and vacation schedules, summer can be a great time to tackle cleaning and maintenance projects. It can also be an opportunity to undertake projects that can enliven your office space and enhance your workplace culture. This summer, take some out of your day-to-day routine to work on a project that will bring a little bit of warmth into the office all year round. Here are a few ideas to get you started and make those summer days count:
Refresh your walls
Fewer people in the office means it’s easier to find space and time to to take on a potentially disruptive project like painting. Touching up paint in high traffic areas like the entryway, hallways, or conference rooms is a great way to keep your office looking fresh, which especially important if you regularly host client meetings or public events.
To further enliven your space you could consider adding a pop of color by painting an accent wall a brighter color, perhaps drawn from your company’s logo or design-approved color palette.
If you have an unused or bland wall, consider using it as a space to showcase your team’s creativity. Work with an illustrator or a designer to create a mural based on your company’s mission and values and then recruit your coworkers to help paint it.
If a permanent mural seems like too much commitment, consider painting the wall with chalk board or IdeaPaint and invite your coworkers to contribute to temporary murals.
Develop your green thumb
During the summer, when everyone is craving outdoor time, plants can be a great way to bring the outdoors into the office. Plants are a great way to liven up your space without having to do extensive renovation or buy new, expensive furniture.
Ensure you choose plants that can thrive in an office environment, such as ZZ, Snake, or Pothos plants, and set up a schedule to care for them.
If you have outdoor space available, such as a balcony, rooftop, or back courtyard, why not create an office garden plot with your team? Gardening is shown to promote mental clarity and you could grow lettuce or herbs, which your team could use in healthy lunches and snacks.
Build a company library
When was the last time you read a book just for the fun of it? Creating a company library is a great way to bring a your team member’s interests and personalities into the office space. Ask each employee for the title and author of their favorite book and use those to start building a library. As new team members join your company you can have them submit their favorite book so as your team grows so does your library.
Lily Roosevelt at BetterUp created a company library to complement the company’s value of investing in lifelong learning. And with employees traveling and taking time off during the summer, who doesn’t want a great book to read?
For more ideas on projects you can do around your office to create a productive space to work and build office culture, subscribe to All Hands, a publication about life at work from Managed by Q.
Eleanor Whitney is the Managing Editor at Managed by Q. She is a writer, musician, and community manager based in Brooklyn, New York. In 2013 Microcosm Publishing released her first book, Grow, a field guide for creatives to build satisfying companies and careers. She is currently working on her second book, a feminist memoir, to be published in 2018.
Managed by Q is the platform for office management. Q makes it easy to run an office by connecting companies to services, including cleaning, maintenance, office administration, IT, and security. A solution for recurring and ad-hoc office needs, Q saves companies valuable time and supports office operations for thousands of businesses nationwide.
Managed by Q is the platform for office management. Q makes it easy to run an office by connecting companies to services, including cleaning, maintenance, office administration, IT, and security. A solution for recurring and ad-hoc office needs, Q saves companies valuable time and supports office operations for thousands of businesses nationwide.
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