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I am looking at possibly moving my company to another office space. We will do open layout again, since it works for our culture (even CEO does not get a private office).

My budget does not really allow for hiring and architect or interior designer. So I want to get some ideas from your replies and blogs/sites you may point me to.

Team so far came up with ideas of using corrugated clear plastic panels to separate desks. Possibly use some old doors covered with plexiglas for conference room table. Ideapaint instead of whiteboards.

Would really appreciate if you share some links to blogs and possibly examples of how you did your cool office.

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If you don't have the budget for help, then you won't have the budget for idea paint. That stuff is $$. We just got $12 melamie from Home Depot and nailed it up. Works really well for the $. – Sean May 1 '11 at 23:14
Ideapaint is not that bad. You can find deals on the paint from time to time. – Apollo Sinkevicius May 2 '11 at 0:32
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$3.50/sf for idea paint vs. $0.38/sf for melamie + the installation cost (your time's not free right?). That seems like it is that bad. We were going to do entire walls in it... and it was going to be multiple thousands of dollars. I'd rather buy a couple servers. – Sean May 2 '11 at 15:08
I've done melamine before. It is a bit tricky, if you want to use projector on it. Try putting in 8oz of gesso (found at art stores) into gallon of Behr Ultragloss. Use very short bristle roller and put on several coats. You will get almost Ideapaint like surface that also works to project on. Re. servers: after having spent hundreds of thousands on them and building data rooms... I will stick with the cloud. I like my staff to be able to sleep at night. – Apollo Sinkevicius May 2 '11 at 16:17
@Apollo Sinkevicius: Not an answer, but if some of your colleagues feel that noise in the open plan office is an issue, then consider giving everyone a pair of Bose QuietComfort 15 headphones. And buy some battery rechargers and AAA rechargeables for the office. The Bose 15 is currently the best active noise canceling headphone there is, and it costs ~300 USD. – Jesper Mortensen♦ May 2 '11 at 19:03
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Have a look at:

and our favourite

unfortunately our office isn't in there ... yetn

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Rob, The officesnapshots site is exactly what I needed! Thank you, sir! – Apollo Sinkevicius May 2 '11 at 14:39
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Ikea, Home Depot and IDEO (http://www.ideo.com/).

The other source of inspiration is urban cafe's.

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