Need ideas for an outdoor-themed office?

Question

i want to decorate a small office in an outdoor theme--hunting, fishing, and general outdoor inspiration. i need ideas of cheap and easy things i can do. an example that i already thought of is preserving cattails and putting them in a vase in my office. i welcome any and all suggestions!

Answer 1

Put up some fishing net to place your stickum's on, yeah cattails in a vase sounds really good. Get a couple of fishing hooks and wrap some raffia around the middle of it to make a wall arrangement. And get a colorful ceramic bowl and fill it with dirt and then put moss over it to look like hills of moss.

Answer 2

get a tiki torch!

Answer 3

Stuufed animals...not the cuddly kind but the real ones.  Pictures oor Paintings of wildlife.

Answer 4

Drift wood with old fishing lures hung on it by the hooks, use a spongue and paint deer tracks along the base of the wall, old boxes of ammo or old fishing equipment.

Answer 5

a mural always looks really cool. you can buy them online at www.muralsyourway.com then at the top of the screen search murals then you can pick from different categories. you also can put lots off plants in the room. and if you really wanted to get into it you could paint the ceiling like a sky.

on the website some murals are pretty pricey so search on different websites and you can find better deals.

I hope this helps.

Answer 6

~~~Driftwood table ~~~~

You have seen the antler tables and chandeliers?  Very expensive... here is another idea that costs very little...

Go to the biggest river you can find locally.  Pick up drift wood.  Arrange the drift wood in weird and wild shapes... tie together in a wrap method with jute rope.  Cut a few of the pieces flat on the top to be able to hold a piece of plexiglass.... or regular glass that you salvage from another table.

Use a clear varnish to seal the driftwood.  Will take a couple two or three coats.  Really get it thick.

Add some hot glue to the tips of the driftwood where the table top glass will set level.  Then stick the glass down onto the new driftwood table.

(You could also use just random tree branches/twigs ... just avoid those with bark that will fall off easily.)

~~~Fire Pit~~~

Get an oversized glass bowl.  The glass can be either clear... or natural colors.  A marbled glass with some greens and browns and oranges would be best.  Just so the colors stay in the 'natural theme'.

Fill the bowl with river rocks.  You know the smooth kind that you buy at the craft stores in little bags for a $1-$2 dollars.  Then go rock hunting to find a few very unique small rocks to add in to the smooth ones.  Leave room in the bowl for candles.

Add an odd number of pure white chunky tall candles.  They do not have to be the same height... but should be the same diameter.  

This can be your fake fire pit.  

~~~Water Element~~~~

Add a table top fountain.  This would be great on top of the driftwood table.  The sound of running water is very soothing.  There are many you can choose from on the market.

~~~ Wind Element~~~~

Get a small fan.  Put the fan on the floor hidden in a corner.  Use some grass mats to hide the cord that will run under the mats to the plug in the wall.  

Use small vases in front... medium size behind those... then maybe some larger ones in back.  You are going to square off the corner with the vases and hide the fan in back of those.

Plant grasses and other thin leaved green plants in the vases.  Point the fan in a way that it will 'russle' the grasses and plants as the wind plays off the wall in the corner.  

Your cattails would be great used in this way.  

~~~Life Element~~~

You could have clear vases on the floor with fish in them as well.  I would however put this on a rolling plant stand so you could take it to the bathroom to clean the 'fish vase' from time to time.  If you put the fish in front of the grasses in the clear vase... the visual illusion would be that the fish were in their own little grassy pond.  Fill the bottom of the vase with the smooth river rock.

~~~ Decor for the walls~~~~

For the walls....

Get some old picture frames from Goodwill or some other random place that will have great frames with horrible pictures covered in glass.  Save the frames and the glass. Open the frames and pull out the pictures.  Get some posterboard in green and brown.  Use an exactoknife to cut a huge leaf design out of the green posterboard.  (The type of leaf design doesnt matter.)  Lay this green piece of posterboard aside.

Now... take the brown posterboard.

Use decoupage glue and paint it just enough to adhere some recently fallen leaves to the posterboard.  Cover the entire piece of poster board with leaves.  Overlap some if you need to in order to cover the whole thing.  

Allow to dry.

Once it is dry... come back and cover the whole thing with decoupage glue.

Allow to dry.

Apply another coat of glue.

Allow to dry.

Apply another coat.

This should do it.

Now lay the green piece of posterboard over the top of the brown posterboard to create a 'framed effect.

Reassemble the frame and hang on the wall.

~~~Other ideas~~~~

Use other things in nature the same way.  You can do flattened flowers this way as well.

Use some shadow boxes to put in cool stuff that you find in nature.  

Dont forget to look in magazines for cool pictures.  Old calenders are great resources for natural pictures as well.  

Wild bird feathers would make a great craft project too.   A lamp shade covered in bird feathers would be an interesting piece.

Layers of turkey feathers to make a window treatment/curtain would definitely be a great conversation piece.

At art stores they usually have coloring books from the Audobon Society.  This art work is amazing.  These pictures would look great colored with colored pencils.  These could be added randomly around the room as well.

You could also wrap a chair seat in jute rope or cover in outdoor type fabric.  

~~~ Desk~~~~

For your desk... add a piece of plywood that has lots of knotholes on it for the desk top.  Then scatter wood shavings over that.  Add a piece of glass over the top.  Will be a very natural look.  

For desk top items... Find wood bowls that still have the bark on them. (You can find these at craft stores.)  This will store ink pens and paper clips ... and odds and ends.

~~~Decorative Shelving~~~

Get a chainsaw sculptor to design a tree trunk shelf for you.  Find a long piece of wood that you like that will stand up in the corner of the room...

take the wood to the sculptor.  Tell him/her to cut out cubbie holes in the wood so that you can put picture frames of your family in there.  

Once the sculptor finishes it ... tell him to sand the cubbie holes smooth.

You apply a clear varnish to the whole thing.  Allow to dry then stand it in the corner of your office.  

Stick picture frames of friends family and pets in the cubbie holes.

~~~More Shelving for books~~~

Use cinder blocks stacked on top of each other...end to end....not one on top of each other.  (You will get more height this way)

Use concrete stain to make the concrete a natural color.  Hot glue natural river stones all over the blocks.  

Use boards going through the center of the cinder blocks to make the 'shelves'.  

Before putting the shelves in place....distress the wood.

Take the boards outside and thrown the around...preferably on gravel.  Be careful not to break the boards.  Then use a hammer to distress the wood.  Just pound it.  Then take nails to make scratches on the surface of the wood.  Make the wood look like you picked it up after it layed in the woods for years.

Get a bucket of water and fill it with two gallons of water.  Put a dozen or so tea bags in the water.  Let it sit and really get dark.

Use a sponge to stain the wood.  In all the 'distressed' areas the tea stain will seep in and be darker.  This will really define the 'bad places' in the wood.

Now ... get some light colored stain and go over the wood again.

Cover will clear varnish and stick the wood through the holes in the cinder blocks to make your natural shelving unit.

Hope these ideas help you or at least give you some inspiration to go your own direction!

Sharon

Answer 7

E Bay: Search for stuffed and mounted animals, or Deer Antlers.