Decorating an Office - West Virginia Style!

Decorating an office? Me? What an amazing opportunity! I recently decorated the new JustTech North Central West Virginia Office for my son Joshua Justice (founder, owner, and President of JustTech) in Morgantown, West Virginia, and here are the results! Enjoy the tour!

I have always loved to decorate, whether it's a room in a cardboard box, my dorm room, my classroom, or a house! When my son Joshua first asked me to buy some furniture and also decorate this new office for his company, I was very excited! Honestly, I am not a Decorating Pro, so I had no idea how much time it would take, or what all would be involved. Fortunately, I was willing to try a new project and learn "on the job"!

I visited the JustTech North Central West Virginia Office when my husband Charlie (JustTech Director of HR and Business Processes) went there on a business trip. My first impression was massive whiteness and lots of natural light from the many windows! It looked rather clinical! Everything had been redone, so it was all very clean with nice paint and floors. It just needed some personality!

I took pictures, measured, and counted offices in the very spacious building. I noted all this in a notebook.

I would need to decorate the hallways, 6 offices, the Conference Room, the Break Room, and 2 restrooms. Since the hallways and individual offices were so large, Joshua suggested I do some groupings instead of all single pictures.

Of course, we needed a theme. Morgantown, West Virginia, is the home of West Virginia University and the Mountaineers football team. It seemed like a "no brainer" to me to have West Virginia to be the theme. Joshua and the Morgantown employees agreed, so I started my search! I found a few "possibilities" at local shops and brought them back to the office to get opinions. They loved them! Joshua set the budget, and I was ready to go!

Back at home, I set up a Pinterest Page and started the online search. Also, I set up a Morgantown Wish List on my Amazon Account. 

After looking at decorative pieces and their prices online, I decided to make some of the items myself. That saved a lot of money! I did not copy the items; I just used them for inspiration for making something similar. I plan to share the directions for those items on my blog at a later date.

After about 2 months of research, shopping online and in stores, crafting, and painting, everything was done, and it was time to drive to Morgantown. Let the decorating begin!

Upon arrival, Charlie and I admired the new JustTech signs.

We then carried all the new decorations and our decorating equipment inside. I had tried to anticipate everything we could possibly need to complete and hang the decorations, so it was a lot! We unboxed all the items and started setting them out in the hallway first. "What will go where?" Decisions, DECISIONS!!

After we decided where each picture would go, Charlie hung them on the wall. He is a great helper!

I was amazed that we did the total decorating in one day! It felt like we were on a TV show!

And now for the BIG reveal! Drumroll, please!

Ready to start your tour? 

I hope you are wearing Blue and Gold! Why? That's West Virginia's colors! Let's start with -

The Hallways 

To your left is the first grouping, You Are Entering Morgantown West Virginia! Below the metal sign is an aerial view of this growing city. To the right is a handcrafted WV flag made from a pallet.

Turn right into the next hallway, and you will see the Awards Wall on the left. The prestigious Inc. 5000 Award, which has been won by JustTech 2 years in a row, is displayed on the console shelf. Also featured are a boxed West Virginia wood map and a map of the area serviced by the North Central West Virginia Region of JustTech.

Next, you may want to have a rest on the bench under the clock. When I found this gigantic clock (on sale, of course), I thought of the saying, "Go big, or go home!"

While sitting on the bench, you can gaze across the hallway at the "JustTech Car Corner" (my phrase) which features a JustTech car in front of well known buildings in Morgantown. There are tentative plans to add chairs, a small table, and lamp to this area.

Now continuing down the hallway, you will see a wood West Virginia sign with  canvases of a cardinal and a rhododendron, 2 of the state's symbols.

Next is a hand-painted West Virginia wood sign mounted on hand-painted wood.

At the end of the room is a collection of 3 Vintage stadium pictures. The one on the right dates back to 1920! Two wooden signs and a hand-painted football plaque complete the arrangement.

Continuing back down the hallway, on the right you will see the largest canvas. It is the famous Woodburn Hall at West Virginia University, which first opened its doors in the 1870s.

That completes the Hallway Tour.

Before we tour the offices, I want to explain the number of decorations. Each office received a new large Dry Erase Board which is not shown in the photos. Employees decided if they wanted me to decorate 1 wall or 2. If they chose 1, they decorated the other wall, and those walls are not shown in this post. 

I wanted to showcase the local scenery and sites, so I bought postcards at some local shops. I then bought frames in bulk and double-matted the post cards before framing.

Now, onto - 

The Offices

Office 1

Starting on the right, the first office has a wood sign which was made by gluing a simple West Virginia wooden map cutout onto weathered pallet wood.

A motivational canvas and double-matted, framed postcards of nearby scenery hang on the adjoining wall.

Office 2

In this office, framed postcards with West Virginia University buildings hang with a canvas print from the Encyclopedia Brittanica.

A distressed wooden seal hangs on the opposite wall.

Office 3

Since this office contained many decorations, I just added 2 framed West Virginia scenes.

Office 4

A magnetic wood frame was added to this large, colorful West Virginia map before hanging.

Two nearby West Virginia scenes complete the room.

Office 5

This office contains an "Almost Heaven West Virginia" wood sign along with framed postcards containing 2 state symbols: the rhododendron and the black bear.

Office 6

This motivational sign is appropriate with the outdoor West Virginia scenes.

"Torched wood" was used as the background for this hand-painted sign.

The Conference Room

The Conference Room presented a challenge because there was not much wall space to decorate. The clock and Xerox arrangement (below) had been hung, and most of the remaining space was either covered by windows, a Dry Erase Board, a large TV, or shelves.

For wall decorations, I still managed to squeeze in a distressed pallet sign with a West Virginia cutout and 4 motivational framed prints.

Two wood shelves are in the Conference Room. Most of the items for the shelf below were handcrafted and/or hand painted. A trophy from a team that JustTech sponsored is on the top shelf. Brochures are stored on the lower shelves.

The adjoining wall contains another shelf. Appropriate decorations were added to this shelf, also.

The Break Room

If you need a snack or a hot or cold drink, you have come to the right place! This table extends, making it perfect for a small corner and can be larger if needed. This rustic motivational canvas offers many goals to start your day!

The Restrooms

The restrooms already contained large storage cabinets. We added small tables to each along with door signs.

The Ladies' Room

The Ladies' Room received a handmade Ribbon Wreath and a handmade wood and metal picture. Also installed was a new floor length mirror and rustic coat hooks.

The Men's Room

The Men's Room is decorated with a Mountaineers RD sign, a metal West Virginia flag, and rustic coat hooks.

I hope you enjoyed the tour! Thanks for visiting!

Reflections:

I really enjoyed decorating these offices, and I learned a lot. It took a lot of planning, shopping, crafting, painting, and record keeping, but it was worth it! At one point, it was like West Virginia and JustTech had taken over our home, until we moved all the decorations downstairs into my husband's office! 

And - I did come in under budget!

Would I do it again?   YES!!! 

In fact, I have already started planning the next JustTech office decorating makeover. When it's completed, I hope you visit again!

About JustTech:

JustTech is a technology company providing managed IT and managed print services to over 3,000 clients in Maryland, Washington D.C., Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky. JustTech is Xerox’s 8^th largest partner in the United States and provides their full line of copiers and printers. App development for Xerox products is also a focus of JustTech’s with over 65,000 apps installed globally. In 2020, JustTech became the exclusive reseller in the United States of PrintAnyWay which is the most complete & affordable print management software available. JustTech was an Inc. 5000 designee of the fastest growing companies in America in 2020 and 2021.