Study Workspace Suggestions - Ada Gonzalez

Recently we interviewed several interior designers on the topic of creating effective workspaces for students on a budget. Over the next few weeks, we will share helpful tips from professionals on creating workspaces for school. Today’s expert is Ada Gonzalez who joins us from New York City, New York.

If you’d rather read the interview, check out the transcript below.

My Colleges and Careers: Hi, I’m Sarah Ward with MyCollegesandCareers.com. Today on the Education & Career Channel, we’re going to be exploring the topic of creating Effective Workspaces for Students on a Budget. Today we have the pleasure of having with us Ada Gonzalez an interior designer and author from New York City. Ada, thank you so much for joining us today.

Ada Gonzalez: Thank you, thank you for the invitation. Hello from New York!

MCC: Wonderful, well why don’t you Before we jump in, tell us a little bit about your background in interior design.

AG: Sure! I started my business in 2006 and the bottom line of it is I help my clients with their personality to shine within their home.

MCC: Let’s just jump right in. What suggestions do you have for students who are starved for space and on a budget.

AG: Everyone is starving for space. The main thing is organization. We’ll talk about a workspace with students who wants to feel comfortable, organize, organize, organize, That’s the bottom line of it. Organization and a positive attitude because it doesn’t matter how you dot your i’s and cross your t’s, when you have a positive attitude of I can and I will, then surround yourself with organization skills. And the most easiest way to do that is to designate positions and areas within your room. That’s the bottom line of it. Designate areas for everything! So when you walk in and have your coat, and where to put it, designate an area, your jacket, your sweater, wherever it’s going to be. Where you’re gonna drop your books, so it’s not a book over here, a book over there. Designate one particular area for everything. The same thing with pens, don’t have pens all the scattered around.

Have things accessible, especially in a small area. You want to gather all your pens in one little location, put a sprinkle of color, your favorite color. And another way, when you have a small space, you want to incorporate designs that just make it feel bigger or look bigger. This is a wine glass, where we have our pencils over here. So what this does is, number one, it gathers it all together so it’s not scattered around, and number two it elevates it from the desk so it doesn’t feel too cluttered.

MCC: Very nice, very nice. You bring up an excellent point, because students have papers and books and it just keeps adding up. Where are students supposed to, how can they organize this clutter?

AG: Right, right. Just having tools and using it. A great system to always incorporate to help more students, I myself still consider myself a student of life. Every single day we learn from each other and it’s great to be able to incorporate that and share what you learn with others, so I’m happy to be here. These are files, where you can use these manila files, but they’re so plain. Why not perhaps use a decal. This is a very simple decal, just remove and simply add it to the regular manila folder. Or if you don’t want to spend your money, because you can be on a budget, you can actually create your own design. You can go ahead and get those crayons out, get those paints out, those markers out, make it a workspace, to make it effective, to make it you, is to shine around colors that you love. Incorporate that. And as soon as you see it, it will give you strength to move on and focus.

MCC: Yes, it just lifts everything.

AG: This is another one, another file organizer again, another folder, it’s a little more creative. And another tool is this is a file hanger box, it can incorporate a whole bunch of files. So again, designate that space. So this is the space: Where’s that file, oh my goodness, where’s that file? You know exactly where to go. It’s filed away, where’s those mid-term papers, where’s those papers I need tomorrow that I need to go over again, you know exactly where it is, but you designated a particular space for it. And this is a great one. I have it here in white, but it’s available in great multi-colors. Again, empower yourself, there are tools out there that you can use easily.

MCC: OK, terrific. So I know that you’re all about bringing your client’s personality and giving their personal touch to a space. How can students do that, especially in dorm rooms. How can they make they make their personality shine forth?

AG: Decals are really in nowadays. It used to be a time that it was just decals for little kids, but you know what, we’re all kids at heart and we want to shine around. So this is a butterfly one, we can easily take this lamp behind me, all you do is just remove it, pink side up, make it more you. And immediately, it’s yours, because you incorporated that, you created that design, you had a plain lamp and it’s something — a color that you love, and a particular image that you love.

MCC: So good, so good. And decals are available in all sort of different colors, so regardless of their personality they can find something right?

AG: If you love music and you’re studying music, get a music decal. If you love color, punches of colors and geometric shapes overall that you can use, and again whatever colors, there’s so many different sizes of decals and the colors. Choose the one that you love. Not necessarily your friend next door may think, choose something, incorporate something that feels good to you.

MCC: That resonates with them. Okay, great. Are there certain colors that you recommend for students for improving concentration? Speaking of color?

AG: Good question! I always recommend for people to go with colors in nature. What I mean by that is a light blue like the sky, or a light green like the grass, or even brown, like a light brown, such as tree trunk. We have most of these colors overall. These are some clean, again light because it just gives the open feel of outside, fresh in a small space to incorporate. Here are some light blues.

MCC: It’s so soothing.

AG: Isn’t it? Just imagine a small room you have a tiny window but through the window you can see the sky and the sky is blue. But imagine painting the room blue and that blue is extended outside. That’s a visual trait that will make it feel bigger and also much more soothing.

MCC: And it just brings the outside in which always helps. Terrific.

AG: If you always go out and you feel energized by just going outside, go inside studying, you want that energy from outside. There are great colors you can incorporate to bring that energy. And other colors that you incorporate, colors that you love besides that, little accents of happy colors, I call this my sunshine color.

MCC: I see your flowers in the background on the -

AG: Yeah, I have flowers in the background, a little, there’s white with a splash of your favorite color.

MCC: It really perks things up, doesn’t it?

AG: It does, doesn’t it?

MCC: Yeah, absolutely. You also said that you’re going to extend a gift to our listeners. You’re also the author of the e-book Delicious Decorating for the Star in You. So what do they have to do? Do they just have to go to your website?

AG: That’s all they have to do. They just have to go to my website which is www.smartdecoratingsolutions.com and go to look for it and it’s all there.

MCC: So that’s www.smartdecoratingsolutions.com, correct?

AG: Yes.

MCC: Wonderful. Ada, it’s been a pleasure to have you. Thank you so much for preparing these terrific visual aids for us, and we’re so glad you were able to participate with us today.

AG: Well, thank you for inviting me today.

MCC: I’m Sarah with MyCollegesandCareers.com and we’d like to thank you for watching the Education & Career Channel. Stay tuned for more great videos for students from MyCollegesandCareers.com! Thank you, Ada.

AG: You’re welcome.

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Ada Gonzalez is an expert interior decorator, author, newlywed, & creative director of Ada’s Interior Design whose passion is to help people throughout the USA feel great within their homes - without having to spend a lot of money. Her designs use clients current furniture and/or new furniture with a BIG SPLASH of STYLE!

She is nationally known as the ‘Interior Decorator for the Star in You’ because her designs focus on having her clients’ personality & style shine throughout their homes. There is one rule Ada asks her clients to follow .. they must be completely honest with what items they love & do not love; this way Ada is able to design rooms that not only look great, but feel great.

Her designs have appeared in the front page of Life & Style section of The Journal News in Westchester County, New York. In April 2007 she won a design competition called “Interior Motives”. She is a member of Decorators Alliance of North America, & has been honored as an interior decorating Subject Specialist by DETC (Distant Education Training Council) helping perfect learning materials for interior decorating students.

She loves puppies, mint chocolate chip ice cream, caramel macchiato with whip cream, being married, & seeing her clients’ happy expressions. For more on Ada, check out her website http://www.adasdecoratingsolutions.com and her regularly updated decoration blog.

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