DeskLodge House has been open a full year in February and we are so excited to have filled every single floor with lots of lovely DeskLodgers! To celebrate we are going to look at how this amazing six floors of inspiring spaces were created and explain a little about the inspiration behind it!
The Hobbit Hole and The Glade
Inspired by a love of Tolkien The Hobbit Hole and The Glade brings a nostalgic fantasy world to life, creating a coworking space that is comfortable yet exciting, by bringing the outdoors indoors as a purpose built hotdesking area.
All of our spaces are imagined and created by DeskLodge founder Tom Ball and his good friend and creative maker Paul ‘Skip’ White and his team. The Builders’ as they are collectively known, use a ton of imagination, found items and upcycled building materials to create unique, fun spaces that are practical too.
“We wanted something that was different”, says Skip. “The Glade was always going to be a break-out space with hotdesking. We wanted some kind of cave and that turned into the Hobbit Hole and I’ve always fancied building a big round door, so I can tick that off my bucket list!“
“To minimize the wastage of materials and avoid cutting a big round hole out of the wood, we used one of the existing doors from the building and then re-used the off cuts from the rounded section of the door to build the fireplace and other bits and bobs. We try to stay as sustainable as possible”.
The Bike Shed
Following the Hobbit theme, our enormous bike shed sits in the DeskLodge House carpark and has a Hobbit Hole aesthetic. Meeting the high demand for many of our keen cyclists at DeskLodge, plus Bristol being very big on cycling, it was an essential build.
Although ‘The Builders’ didn’t make this off the shelf purchase, Tom Ball loves the wooden bike shed dome and it’s very DeskLodge too!
The Festival Area
This fun open space includes hotdesking, booths, phone booths, a kitchen and is decorated with amazing murals created by local Bristol artist Damian Jeffrey.
http://www.damienjeffery.co.uk/
“We needed some bright, vibrant colours”, explains Paul. “It started off with a circus and fairground theme then progressed into a festival! We re-used materials from a previous space in Hemel Hempstead”.
“There are themed booths, we have a rock inspired booth, a Gypsy Caravan and one with famous actors. There is actually a link between all of the booths but it’s for other people to work out what that is!”
The Retro Caravan Booth
This wonderfully kitsch booth is based on the ground floor at DeskLodge House and is always in popular demand for team meetings!
“The caravan is based on an original 1970s caravan from our childhood”, says Paul, whose team is family-run, “It was our family caravan and was inspired by old photos! It’s made from scrap wood and bits of plywood!”.
There are just so many exciting areas and fun spaces at DeskLodge House from the Alice in Wonderland themes to The Kingsman meeting room and The Air raid ‘Brexit’ Bunker. If you want to find out what other surprises are at DeskLodge House you are going to have to pay us a visit and explore our amazing spaces.
Book in a tour and be inspired!
"It's been fantastic to watch a very original building become a thriving DeskLodge workspace. This was our first venture in developing a whole building, which brought some challenges, but it brought even more amazing opportunities to create something truly special. Everyone involved has worked so hard to create this now productive and community led space together and we couldn't be happier" Jamie Ellis, Operations Director at DeskLodge.
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