Tin Soldier

Letter from the Editor: Editor Stays On As Interior Designer

Note: This article is hosted here for archival purposes only. It does not necessarily represent the values of the Iron Warrior or Waterloo Engineering Society in the present day.

With the relocation of the Iron Warrior Office, it has been brought to my attention that the new location is, despite what people say, aaaabsolutely drab.  In my fabulous opinion, a room which needs to be worked in, must be a room that is worked on beforehand.  Therefore, I have taken it upon myself to use the surplus budget of the term to hire myself on as the new Iron Warrior Interior Designer.  I decided against using IWID for my title as it is much to short for my liking.  Despite initial controversy of my contract, it became a unanimous decision by the Advisory Board after a quick demonstration of my handy work.  Lets just say my many years of experience handling paintbrushes won them over.

My first responsibility as Iron Warrior Interior Designer will be to pick out the wall colours for the new office location.  With a lack of windows, it is quite obvious a cheerful colour is needed to liven the place up.  Now, one does not just choose one colour for the walls, but two or three to bring dynamic contrast.  Since I have worked with with many different colours before, it was very easy to pick the right combination – a darker tan and blue.

The furniture choices will be my next decision.  As most of you know, furniture comes in all different shapes and sizes, so to get some inspiration, I took a trip to the gym.  I find the gym provides the perfect atmosphere for self thought and, within minutes, my inspiration came to me – large black leather sofas with steel accent tables on either ends.  I always find mixing leather and steel bring such contrast to the room, but at the same time make the room feel energized.

Other furniture features will include a long cherry accent table along one wall.  For those who don’t know, cherry is a gorgeous wood, which offers the softness of pine but the sturdiness of oak.  It is also a very warm wood which will work really well against the leather.  I also thought of glass components, but my inner designer said “uuuuh uuuuh, no way mister. Glass is far to hard and cold to mix with leather and wood.”  Listen to my inner designer,  I steered clear. Hahaha, get it, steered clear. Oh, I am just tooo funny!

Now comes my favorite part of the entire experience,  THE ACCESSORIES! Omg accessories are such a key feature to any room and are so much fun to pick out.  I think some beautiful round accent pillows would highlight the leather sofa.  I was thinking white ones with a fur like fabric to add some texture.  But only two, because the first rule of thumb for pillows is always keep them in pairs.  There will definitely be a few throws (the designer word for blanket, duh) to add texture and also functionality.  The school gets quite cold during the late nights of production weekends, so it is always important to wrap up tightly.  There will also be a rug, but I haven’t quite decided on the style yet.  However, it WILL NOT be one of those animal rugs. I just find the thought of rubbing against the animal fur of the rugs to be disturbing, so I just avoid them altogether.

Speaking of late nights, the room will for sure need some lighting.  Although these have been used for decades, I still appreciate the simplicity of the pole light.  Its long slender frame with large lamp shade on the top are a simplistic design cue which is both versatile, yet not understated.

Lastly, to finish up the room, I will for sure need to add some decorative vases.  These can be filled with almost anything you chose as long as its within the limits of its opening.  You don’t want to put something too small or else it won’t be noticed, but something too big will just looked like you crammed it in.  If you are unsure what size of vases to choose, buy a bunch of cheap ones of varying sizes so you can try out your decorative skills with each.  Once you find that perfect combination, then go out and purchase the more expensive kind.  OH! As a rule, never purchase vases which originally held plants.  They leave such a dirty mess on the inside and you don’t want to get that on the accessories you are putting inside.  If you do choose to use old plant vases, then be sure to wash them out thoroughly before use.

So as you can see, I am quite thorough in my work and I have covered all aspects of the interior design for the new Iron Warrior Office.  My next steps in my design endeavor will to receive approval of the design from the Advisory Board.  They will definitely be much harder to convince this time, but they don’t really know what they are looking for.  I can see right through them and know that its my design they want all along.  But until then, I shall continue to work on my paint brush handling just in case I need a little more justification.  Bye bye darling!

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