Travel Theme Vintage/Industrial Office Decorating Ideas

The plan for this office was to incorporate vintage pieces with some industrial and then also have a modern feel. It sounds like a tall order, but I knew I could pull it off. My client always has great ideas and I love to pull them altogether while added in my own mix of office decorating ideas.

The color scheme is black, grays, browns, with touches of greens and reds. We choose a nice medium gray for the main office walls. We painted one side office a darker shade and one office a couple shades lighter. This is a great trick when you want everything to flow, but want a little bit of difference.

We wanted this office to be functional, but have some visual interest. So many offices are boring and decorated so plain. Pulling in custom pieces will really set you apart and your business will be remembered and talked about all over town. It's great advertisement!

The theme of this office is travel. The bosses loves to travel and wanted to bring in the flavor of all the places that they had been. We picked 5 different places from around the world (the home town of the clients being one of them) and featured them in a few different ways. This makes the space personal without being "In Your Face!"

This board is the first one you see when you walk in the door. I'll explain every little detail about it later on.

Here are the boards before I did anything to them. This was an old fence that I tore down. I saved these boards for awhile knowing that I would find the perfect job for them. They were an ugly rust red. I used two 1x2's on the back of the board to hold them together.

Then I randomly added different colors of blues and greens here and there.

Here is the final result of the board after adding a coat of white paint over the dried blues and greens. I painted in on and wiped it immediately with a wet cloth to create this weathered effect.

I also painted the back of the boards white. I knew they wouldn't be seen, but I wanted it to look great anyway.

Next came a coat of Poly. I made 5 boards.

The main piece on this board is a bicycle wheel. It only has one pedal and came with a picture hanger on the back. There are several different photos of bikes and other neat objects. There is also an adorable picture of my client's daughter sitting on a bench in Europe.

The green board is an antique piece and I stenciled the word "explore" on it. There's also a detour sign, a silver wheel, and the letter "A."

I bought these street signs at a flea market. There's travel pictures, the letter "T", a silver airplane, a wheel, and a speed limit sign on this board as well.

This little alcove needed something of interest, so I placed a large black stand up mirror against the wall. I added a plant in front of it and then added a really unique lantern hanging from a modern hook (it's actually made to hold a rod in a closet). Mixing modern and vintage is a great look and so perfect for an office decorating scheme.

Here is a closeup of the cool lantern. I found it at an antique store and knew it had to be part of this office decor.

The microwave cart is a piece that was used for projectors. It was the perfect color and looks so great in the kitchen of this office.

I stenciled the word "Home" on the white antique board, added two silver wire baskets, and a few glass pieces.

I love this clock! It's so retro, but works like a charm in this kitchen. I found it at an antique store.

The table is a vintage piece. I love the script on it. Makes it unique. I went with a very modern looking plant to counteract all the vintage pieces. The chalkboard above the table is an old metal table top. I glued magnets to rocks and placed them on the board. This was perfect because the name of the company is "Red Dirt" and they do excavating and sell rocks.

I also supplied chalk so that everyone could write on the board. Chalkboard paint turns just about any smooth surface into a chalkboard. You can purchase it at department stores or home improvement stores. Just apply it like you do paint. You'll need to do several coats.

It was the client's idea to do floating shelves in here and I think it was a great one. I found these at Lowes. They really aren't that hard to put up and they are so sleek and modern.

I added an old radiator cover to the counter top for interest and placed a silver metal silverware holder on top of it.

A bamboo plant and some vintage green bottle glasses complete the shelves for now. They plan on filling them with dishes and stuff.

Here is a close up of the board that is in the main lobby. The company is called "Red Dirt Equipment" so I added a red metal truck to the board. I wrote their name on the side of the truck.

There are more travel pictures (my client took all these amazing pictures), a "R", "D", and an "E". There are also a couple of old wheels on the board. I added a silver modern lamp and a fern.

The table is a sewing machine base with a large wood top. It's a really cool piece.

To bring in the travel theme in a modern way, I made a few canvases. These are the five places that we wanted to showcase. I painted the boards white, then I outlined the letters from a stencil onto the canvas with a pencil. Then I carefully colored in the letters with paint markers. It was very time consuming, but not extremely hard. I wanted it to be whimsical, so I didn't worry if everything was lined up perfectly.

The old fan brought in the industrial feel to a tee. I added a modern plant and a silver modern stand up lamp to this setting.

This is a flying quote that the client loves. I used two large canvases and split the quote.

This board was placed in my client's private office. It has pictures that mean a lot to her. I added a large vintage brief case for the background. I added some pictures on top of it. I stencilled the word, "YUM" on the pocket, added a key hole metal piece, an antique board with the word "travel", the letter "B", and her favorite number.

More travel photos adorn this board. I added vintage pieces as well.

Behind the desk are clocks that are set to the different city's time zones. Just a fun idea and a surprise when you walk in the door. I stencilled the name of the cities under the clocks.

We wanted a large reception type desk for the main office area. They were so pricey online, we decided to have our carpenter build one. It turned out so fabulous. I really love it.

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