Martha Stewart Home Office with Avery Discbound Notebook Textured
About one year ago we had the opportunity to attend the launch of the Martha Stweart Home Office with Avery product line at Staples, and now we get to share with you some more new products from that line. Today we are looking at the Martha Stewart Home Office with Avery Discbound Notebook with Black Textured Cover. This version is the smaller 6.5″ x 9″ but it also comes in 9.5″ x 11.5″ as you can see if you check out that link.
Martha Stewart Home Office with Avery Discbound Notebooks with Task Pad Sheet and Colored Divider Tabs
There are plenty of accessories that come with the Martha Stewart Home Office Discbound Notebook, and you can see a few of them in the photo above. On the left and right you can see the plastic tabbed dividers in assorted colors, and on the left attached to the discs you can see the long skinny Discbound Task Pads. The tabbed dividers are pretty self explanatory and do a fine job of dividing up your notebook with some easily noticeable accents of color. The task pads serve a dual purpose though. Besides just acting as a place to list out your to-do items, tasks, or any other lists, you can also use them as a page finder. By adjusting the placement of the task pad (higher vs. lower) on the rings you can position it so that a small portion of it sticks up above the rest of your pages making it a handy book mark. The ruled pages that you see in the notebook are the standard ones that it comes with and they do a decent job of handling fountain pen ink as well as gel ink. There is a moderate amount of show through on the back of the pages with those types of inks, but I think for many users it wouldn’t prohibit them from using the back of the pages.
Martha Stewart Home Office with Avery Discbound Notebook Planner Pages
The 2013 Calendar Page Inserts that can be purchased separately(click on the photo above for a closer look) have a weekly layout running horizontally Monday through Sunday, while vertically the days are blocked into Morning, Afternoon, and Evening sections with two smaller sections below for your own categories. In addition, the right side has the current and next full month as thumbnail calendars as well as a small task list. The calendar also comes with pages for jotting down your personal information, displaying a list of major holidays through 2017 which is nice, and a few pages for an address book.
Martha Stewart Home Office with Avery Discbound Notebooks, Black, Textured Task Pad Tab Extended
If you click on the photo above and look closely you can see the task pad that we mentioned before as it sticks out from the rest of the pages acting as a page finder. The larger photo will also give you an idea of what the texture on the cover looks like. As it relates to the construction, the notebook seems to be put together pretty well, although I do have minor concerns about how the finish on the discs will hold up.
Martha Stewart Home Office with Avery Discbound Notebooks, Black, Textured Inside Pocket View
On the front inside cover of the Martha Stewart Home Office with Avery Discbound Notebook, there is a flap that lets you store documents behind it, as well as keep some business cards and/or credit cards. On the right hand side of the photo, you can see that it also comes with a clear pocket folder that can hold additional documents that are not punched for the disc binding.
Martha Stewart Home Office with Avery Discbound Notebooks Writing Sample Including a Fountain Pen and Sharpie Pen
UPDATE: I forgot to include the scan of the writing sample when this review was originally posted, but here it is now to address the comment below, and to supplement the earlier statement that this paper handles fountain pen ink pretty well. I saw absolutely no feathering with a fountain pen or a Sharpie Pen, and there was a minimal amount of show through to the back of the page that didn’t even show up in the scan.
Ignoring the minor concern with the finish on the discs, I’d give the Martha Stewart Home Office with Avery Discbound Notebook a thumbs up for its quality and abundant available accessories which are well thought out like the task pad and calendar pages. Check it out at your local Staples or online, and thanks again to the folks from Staples, Martha Stewart, and Avery for getting us this review sample.
©2016, Brian Greene. All rights reserved.
