Customer Lounge - Introduction

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I am the computer administrator in the prepress department here and a fan of modern design. When I first heard about this project I immediately volunteered to help design and build it. I like modern design but I've never actually designed any real projects. I tried to come up with a modernist design that would still be comfortable. Customers sometimes spend several hours here while waiting to approve their print jobs.

The space we have to work with is about 16' square, and has no windows. It also has some electrical panels that have to remain accessible. The original room had a regular 8' suspended ceiling but above that is open space to about 25'. Unfortunately, we can't use drywall for the ceiling. Because of the sprinklers, we have to use melt-away plastic ceiling tiles. Fortunately, I found some that look pretty good.

In order to make the room seem more open I decided to slope the ceiling and put in a fake clerestory window on one wall. We plan to build a light box and put in a backlit photo.

The floor will be mostly carpet, but the area near the entrance and into the viewing booth will be vinyl strip flooring. I was originally going to use real bamboo but I was worried about its durability. The vinyl will be a horizontal bamboo pattern in the natural color.

The posts and ceiling beams will be covered in real bamboo veneered plywood with a vertical pattern to hopefully look like a glue-lam beam.

The stone on the walls will be Corning Pro-fit Ledgestone which is a cultured stone veneer designed to be easy to lay.

I have done some renderings to show what the finished room will look like. I have also posted some photos of the actual room in its current state.

Looking South-East, showing the front door and the entrance to the viewing booth.

Looking South-West, showing the "closet" that hides the electrical boxes.

Looking North-West

Looking North-East, this side will have a planter.

In reading the other blogs here I always like more details and pictures rather than less. Is that also true of other readers? I plan to post regularly throughout this project. I hope people find this blog interesting and useful as we go along. Please feel free to comment or ask questions.