Suboptimal office design solutions.

One of the joys of moving into a spacious new apartment is that furniture that had been dismantled and ingloriously stuffed in a closet can rejoin the family.  Case in point: I have a La-Z-Boy Pinnacle Recliner that, for reasons of space and decor, had been broken down and forced to live in a storage closet.  But now that the wife and I have a spacious new office, it rides again:

That disorganized bookshelf juts four feet into the center of the room, so there's a significant division between work-reading and recreational-reading areas—and when I say "significant," I mean "significant in the sense that distinguishing mental spaces with actual furniture makes it possible to move from one mindset to another by walking across the room." 

There is but one problem.  Certain sounds are strongly associated with the process of falling asleep.  The hum of an air conditioner in an otherwise quiet house or the purring of a cat nestled between my pillow and the wall knock me right out.  Now note how wide the chief pillow of my recliner is and how brightly the light shines in through the window in the reading nook.  What have I created? 

 

I have created the perfect ad hoc cat perch.  Which means every time I sit down to read, a cat hops atop my chair and begins purring and I immediately fall asleep.  For those who are about to suggest that I simply remove the cat from atop my chair, keep in mind that he has a very short memory.  Two minutes later he or one of his cohorts will return and I will fall asleep again.  I think this falls under the category of moderate DESIGN FAIL, inasmuch as I now have a napping chair. 

Comments

[Miriam]

Ahem. What is this "my chair" of which you speak? Given its strategic position vis-a-vis sunbeams, it is clearly the cats' chair. I'm sure they'll let you borrow it. Occasionally.

[Vance Maverick]

And who snapped these photos? Clearly someone is awake with time on his hands.

Nice, I must admit. The reading chair is a bit of a blobfish but looks really comfortable.

[todd.]

It seems this problem could be solved with a set of those spikes that restaurants use to keep birds from nesting in the signs above their doors.

[Ahistoricality]

According to a Japanese comic book I once read, cats hate oranges: eat an orange while you read as a prophylactic.

[JPool]

No, the cat purring is incidental. That chair looks too cushy. The spikes should be for you! Put spikes and rocks in there and you'll be awake for the important reading.

Also, your walls! They're naked. Put things on them for goodness sake.

[SEK]

That chair looks too cushy. The spikes should be for you!

It's perfectly proportioned: when I sit on it, my spine's aligned, but more importantly, I can place an elbow on each arm and have my book in a perfect reading position. The danger, for me, is curling up on the couch in the living room (not pictured).

As for spikes and oranges, well, I love my cats and two of my cats love oranges, so I don't think that'd do me much good.

[Sisyphus]

Aww! What a cute napping spot you have there! And how sweet of you to provide the cats with their very own chair!

Congrats on being unpacked enough to post pics, and I agree with JPool that you need to get something on those nekkid walls.

[Blake Mitchell]

If it were me, I'd completely turn the reading chair completely into a napping chair. Though of course, it wouldn't be a good idea since work is just across the room. But all told, you've got a nicely-lit mini-office space. I've got the same layout in my home, except that across the work-desk area is the music space. All that, with a sizeable collection of DC comics.