If you were my friend throughout my schoolgirl days, you may remember my love of desk accessories and school supplies. My affinity continues. Like most kids, I too, found excitement at the start of a new school year and shopping for fresh, colorful school supplies. I remember perusing the aisles of the stationery store with my sister for those folders, notebooks, pushpins, and pens that would keep my academics in order with an A+ look.

I will admit, my love for office supplies didn’t stop when I graduated. Instead of organizing notes for history papers and algebra assignments, I now get to sit at my design desk and run my business with a lovely assortment of my favorite desk accessories. As I specify swatches and colors for clients while maintaining accounting documents and other business-related paperwork, I aim to keep an efficient office that will support me with beautiful things and inspiration that will carry over to my design projects.

For this desk design, I had the privilege of partnering with one of my favorite brands, Mark & Graham, to select a personalized grouping of pastel accessories to compliment my space. There are so many practical and stylish choices that coordinated well with the products I love to use. I am drawn to write with sleek and simple Le Pen markers and the color choices are endless. Currently, I am in a pastel mode triggered by feminine florals like a soft blue-and-green pattern that I imagine as a window treatment in an office, with built-in shelves perhaps, lined in a coordinating stripe. There’s no question that a desk chair with pretty upholstery or a cushion like the apple-green-and-white leaf pattern or a chic white leather would make computer time even more joyous.

Of course, offices are just as much about office supplies as they are a decorative shell. To support the pastel theme, pale pink scissors to cut swatches are blissful in their feminine hue. Don’t forget trays of all sizes. I’ll use the large tray to separate paper documents, but smaller versions in fun materials (mix ceramic, faux shagreen, and raffia) will help corral all the littles from binder clips to a stapler and tape dispenser. If you want a moment of glam, a brass ruler is like business jewelry. And showing that sometimes business is in fact personal, with products from Mark & Graham, I can add personalization and a monogram to my office products here and there. A metallic, animal print ceramic tray for my eyeglasses and a buttery soft leather pouch that bears my initials in delicate flowers, make a statement that design is in my blood, and I want to share it with my clients.

It’s likely that all my days will demand some sort of agenda, so I make sure that my paper goods give me a stylish reason to check off my tasks. Here, I found a numbered notepad from The Container Store that separates all my to-dos in a different pastel hue.