Help me redecorate my husband's cube for his birthday

April 13, 2011 8:07 AM

My husband is turning 40 tomorrow. We work together but he's not in the office today. I want to decorate his cubicle. Give me some creative ideas.

Constraints:

• Some light teasing is fine, but I don't want to overemphasize the "over the hill" part
• Cost: $20-$30 max
• Normal standards of work appropriateness apply; we work in IT project management
• He needs to be able to get stuff done; I don't want to encase his keyboard in jello, for example
• Needs to be able to be completed by 5 pm tonight
• For health reasons I cannot blow up a bunch of balloons or lift more than 20 lbs
• I do not have physical access to his computer; it's with him

It's your standard size cubicle with a desk, 2 monitors, overhead cabinet and upright metal cabinet. One office chair and a "guest chair" - both wheeled. There's a whiteboard and the walls are the kind you can put pushpins into.

posted by desjardins to Grab Bag (17 answers total)

I would probably just run to the dollar store or closest shop and get as many tiny, cheap, silly things as possible: toys, candy, snacks, weird gadgets, whatever. Buy 40 of each thing, and disperse them around the cube in clusters or 8x5 grids. You could tape them to the walls, leave them in piles on the floor, hide 40 cookies in his desk drawer, line 40 tiny army men up on the top of his monitor...

Print out SFW pictures of the sexiest 40-year-old men you can think of (or any sexy person, at age 40) and push pin them onto his bulletin board.

On the white board, write/draw out a list of 40 things you're looking forward to doing with him this year.
posted by booknerd at 8:15 AM on April 13, 2011

Print out a photo of something iconic from each year that he has been alive. For example you could use the album covers of the billboard best selling albums for each year - alternatively movies, etc.
posted by rongorongo at 8:24 AM on April 13, 2011

It's spring, there's a ton of Easter stuff in the stores (depending on your location, of course), and "rebirth" is an excellent theme for a 40th birthday. I'd suggest tulips, pretty eggs, maybe some helium balloons in pastel colors, a cute stuffed bunny, lots of green (maybe some lovely office plants!), and, if you think it's a good idea, maybe a new lumbar support for his chair (or maybe a new chair if you're feeling saucy). Flowers, flowers, flowers. He's in the flower of life.

You could explain that the fruit of life is in 10 years or so :)

Oh! And how about some way of playing nature sounds: birds chirping, babbling brook, etc.
posted by amtho at 8:31 AM on April 13, 2011

Dollar store, here we come :) I would decorate it like a kid's birthday party for a 4-year-old, drawing in the "0" with a sharpie if you get anything that says "4". A lot of dollar stores do helium balloons, get a bunch of them to attach to the entrance to his cubicle. Streamers, cone hats, signs that say "happy birthday". If available, do whatever theme you think he'd get a kick out of - spiderman, cowboys, trains, music, dinosaurs, whatever they have.

And then you get him a cute card for a 4-year-old that says something like "what a big boy you are today!" (draw in the "0") And write something inside along the lines of "You might be 40 today, but in my heart you'll be young forever". And leave it for him on his desk, with a little toy wrapped up inside a box with a bow.
posted by lizbunny at 8:39 AM on April 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Since you said light teasing was fine, you could add this flowchart to the decor.
posted by Dragonness at 8:49 AM on April 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

I was going to suggest tons of balloons, but in lieu of that, maybe miles and miles of crepe paper streamers. Also, confetti.
Also, for any occasion, you can never go wrong with an inflatable plastic sheep, if you can find one on short notice.
posted by MexicanYenta at 8:54 AM on April 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Fill the cube to the top with black balloons. Some packing tape across the opening will hold the balloons in. We did this to a guy at the last office I worked in.

We also filled a cube with paper wads.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:55 AM on April 13, 2011

Just as an fyi- Latex balloons filled with helium will not last overnight, mylar (the metallic ones) will.
posted by ridiculous at 8:59 AM on April 13, 2011

A nice plant would be a gift that would decorate his cubicle for a long time. Sometimes greenhouses have a variety of succulents that come together in one pot - I have one of these in my office (it was a gift) and I think it's neat.

A good box of donuts to share on a birthday is a nice touch too.

I recommend against teasing at work - it's not really fun for the receiver, even if they are a good sport and play along.
posted by fritley at 9:04 AM on April 13, 2011

If you hide anything make sure it's shelf-stable: I once decorated my boss' cube for Halloween, and two years later, when he left and I got his job and cube, I was STILL finding pieces of candy I'd hidden!
posted by telophase at 9:53 AM on April 13, 2011

I would have his desk temporarily taken over by Peeps. Peeps on the phone, on the keyboard, on the chair. He can eat them as he uncovers items and they relatively inexpensive.
posted by Leezie at 10:10 AM on April 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Ugh. I went to a "party store" nearby and all they had were pastel streamers and stuff more appropriate for baby showers. There was a CVS a block over, so I managed to get one roll of black streamer and 2 smaller rolls of birthday-themed streamer. And a card. That was really all they had.

So all I have left to work with is generic office supplies.
posted by desjardins at 10:26 AM on April 13, 2011

As a Secret Santa "prank" one Christmas at work, I wrapped as much of the boss's office as I reasonably could in dollar store gift paper and added some large bows. It was a hit in general, and he left the gift wrap on the door and filing cabinet (I'd wrapped only the top and sides and left the front free) for the remainder of the holidays. The gift-wrapped monitor and keyboard had to be "opened," of course.
posted by EvaDestruction at 10:34 AM on April 13, 2011

I think it's time to bust out the post-its then! Here's some inspiration, and this video is adorable. Write out Happy Birthday? A picture of a cake? Smiles in folders? Notes in manuals?
posted by grapesaresour at 10:43 AM on April 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Do you have Christmas lights, the little ones? String them all over the cubicle. Ask all his work buddies to help you do a 40 display by giving him 40 of something to show how big/small 40 is. 40 pennies, 40 rubber bands, 40 pencils, etc. 40 Peeps would be good, too. FYI, latex balloons make some people ill, not that I learned that the hard way or anything. Esp. at work, the 'over the hill' theme is overdone.
posted by theora55 at 10:52 AM on April 13, 2011

Office supplies are the best!
Write out "40" with a variety of materials... thumbtacks on the walls and post it notes on the cabinets, binder clips and pencils and paper clips on his desk and chair.. Surround him with 40s.
(And maybe get him a 40oz beverage and hide it in a drawer.)
posted by rmless at 11:03 AM on April 13, 2011

You could print out Happy Birthday (Mr. Desjardins)! banner by having one letter per 8.5x11 sheet, or maybe 2 letters in landscape view if you don't have that much room... and then tape them together. Highlighters for coloring :D

There are these cubeecraft paper toys freely available online, all in different characters, including popular ones like Batman, Star Wars characters, Star Trek characters, Mario... and apparently you can design your own here (make the two of you?) Then you can print them out in color, cut them out and tape/glue them together.

The Rasterbator will let you convert an image to poster-size by breaking it down into 8.5x11 PDFs so you can put them together with tape. You could make something in Powerpoint and print it out big with that.

And well, you could make pom-poms out of toilet paper or coffee filters if you wanted additional stuff to use with the garland you picked up. Paper clips hold stuff to the ceiling tile ledges pretty well.
posted by lizbunny at 12:00 PM on April 13, 2011