A New Office Library for Everyday Inspiration

I recently got an email from someone that asked, “Where do you go for new design inspiration?” She went on to say, “I use Houzz and lots of popular sites, but I feel like Iâm stuck in an algorithm and keep seeing the same things.” I know the feeling â it’s so easy to get stuck. And we all need some inspiration from outside sources!

A big part of what we do here as a team at CLJ is visual media â from photos of our home and styling to digital graphics for gift guides and round-ups. Our entire team loves to innovate and explore new angles, so it’s no surprise that we need a stream of inspiration available at all times. Most of the time, we get our best ideas from Instagram, Pinterest, magazines and coffee table books. Of course we all have laptops and phones in the CLJ studio, but we’ve been missing that tangible hold-in-your-hands inspiration.

Chris Loves Julia | CLJ Office Conference Room with Magazine Wall

That gave me the idea to create an “office library”! The conference room walls have featured three bulletin boards on them since we first moved in, and before that they were in the office of our previous house. We had cut out some of our favorite magazine spreads and displayed them on the boards, but we weren’t refreshing them often enough. It was just not as functional for our everyday routines.

Chris Loves Julia | Magazine Wall in the CLJ Office Conference Room

So a couple of weeks ago, Chris and I put up some clear shelves to create a little library wall of media. Now each of us on the team can dive into some reading material whenever we want a fresh perspective (or even a little down time during lunch!). I filled the shelves with a big pile of home design and cooking magazines, and I plan to rotate in some coffee table books.

Chris Loves Julia | Magazine Wall and scattered magazines on the table in the CLJ Office Conference Room

Two Toned Ceramic Mugs | Table Basket

Chris Loves Julia | Team members reading magazines in the CLJ Office Conference Room

Vase | Faux Hydrangeas | Home Design Magazines

It was a pretty quick project and something you can easily do in your home office, a hallway or even a kid’s room. See the video we did below, and check out some of my current favorite magazines for design inspiration!