6 Tips for Designing Your Home Office

With more businesses moving to a virtual office, employees working from their homes, and a general increase in teleworking, designing a home office is becoming increasingly important for many people. This is for them to work productively and effectively despite being away from the office.

Here are six design tips to help you design a home office that can boost your creativity and a place you can call your own:

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Create an Opportunity to Work With Nature

Whether you are employing a soothing color scheme or incorporating natural elements, try to create a room where you feel like your home office belongs in the outdoor environment. You can accomplish this by: having house plants, using light wood floors, cabinetry, and decorative rugs woven from natural materials. If possible, place your desk near a large window to enjoy the fresh air and let natural light illuminate your work area.

Incorporate Plenty of Storage Space

Home offices should be functional spaces that allow people to efficiently organize their work items and supplies as well as their stuff for their hobbies and craft projects. To keep clutter at bay, incorporate storage space into your design. Use traditional cabinets for storing supplies and books as well as shelves for displays. If doing so is possible, create a closet space where you can hang your clothes during the day while working from home or store your shoes in a large cabinet beneath your desk when not being worn.

Use a file cabinet in your office to contain documents, files, folders, and envelopes. A bookcase or storage shelf are other great ways to efficiently use space and keep all your items organized. Consider adding additional storage bins for papers as well as boxes of old photos, personal mementos and other objects to easily retrieve them when needed.

Make Technology Accessible and Available

Computers have become an essential part of our work environment, so any home office needs to include the necessary technology to support daily activities but without taking over the room. Place computers on tables with plenty of working space, where you may also add a small printer if you frequently need to print documents.

Incorporate Seating Into Your Home Office Design

Ensure that you have comfortable and specifically designated seating available for yourself, your workmates, or other guests who might come over and use the space. If possible, enlarge your office by adding an adjoining sitting area near your desk in which you can relax or entertain friends when not working from this room.

Use an Ergonomic Chair

Whether you use a standing desk as part of your home office design or prefer to have your workstation on the floor, you need to have an ergonomic chair with all the features necessary to provide support and comfort while sitting. Include armrests in your chair if possible, along with adjustable height settings plus lumbar support. You can also make your chair more comfortable by adding padding or squishy pillows.

Add a Personal Touch to Your Home Office

While many businesses require a very professional-looking workspace to maintain professionalism within their offices, some employees find it more effective to incorporate personal touches into their design schemes to increase productivity and motivation. 

Personalize your workspace by creating a decorative theme that reflects your personality. Make sure to display items that help to enhance the ambiance and feel of the space as being uniquely yours.

A home office should be comfortable, inviting, efficient and professional-looking. Not only do you need to consider how your office will function in terms of layout and decor, but also the impact it’ll have on your mood. When designing a home office, keep these six tips in mind for creating an inspiring environment that boosts creativity and productivity.

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