To finish up our July blogging, it’s time to relax and play a game of “what if?” For example, what if you could choose any furnishings in the world for your workplace? Would you gravitate toward wonderfully weird office furniture? Would there be any pricy and pompous pieces in your collection? Here are some of our favorite silly and one-of-a-kind picks from around the world.

Go, Green, Google

Where do you even begin with the delicious wackiness of Google, London? From floor to ceiling, the new offices are off-the-wall with color and action. But we’ve chosen to highlight a particular office accessory that really “shines a light” on how this hippest of employers is greening up its image. The task lamps in these workspaces appear to be made out of recycled cardboard or paper pulp. We’re betting they have LED bulbs too. The incandescent ones get so hot they might torch these trendy and eco-friendly shades.

Catch the Wave at Work

Rose City Office Furnishings has collected some strange office furniture that makes you feel like Friday all week. The Surf Chair brings your monitor and keyboard down to ground level. No matter what your day throws at you, there’s always the comfort of knowing that you can click over to YouTube to surf your cares away.

What’s in a (Swedish) Name?

From Arnold’s Office Furniture comes a post poking fun at the cheap yet trendy office furniture everyone loves to complain about: IKEA. The assembly instructions are apparently as difficult to comprehend as the names. This blog is all about the odd names chosen for IKEA’s collection. If you ever wondered what Lanarp or Hemnes is, click here.

The Bubble Employee

We’ve got to end up with this idea because it’s a really odd way to go about providing noise privacy for employees. These workspaces have wooden surfaces equipped with Plexiglas domes. Each one houses a clerk working at the office of PONS and HUOT in Paris, France. While it certainly is a novel way to limit the intrusion of phone conversations into the surrounding space, it doesn’t provide any visual privacy. Plus, it’s unlikely that the plastic absorbs much sound. It could get pretty loud inside your bubble!