5 Tips for Designing Your Home Office
When you spend a lot of time at home, like you probably do these days, it can be easy to spot things that need changing. Your home office, for instance, might not be ideal for working from home on a daily basis. The best home office reviews should help gauge where your office stands when it comes to effective home office designs.
Designing the perfect home office may not be as hard as you think. From simply switching rooms to slathering the walls with productive paint colors, these activities are made even quicker and easier when you’re working less than 10 feet away from your bed. Here are five we think are worth giving a go!
The Home Office Goal: Productivity
Picture this: a spacious office with solid oak doors and a giant desk overlooking vast green space that is cooling to the eyes. Okay, this is not likely the case for most people, but a home office can still be designed with productivity at the forefront.
If possible, stay out of areas with a lot of foot traffic and pick a room with a quiet corner. Paint this space with a soothing color that encourages productivity, like green, for instance. Ideally, this area should also have a window overlooking greenery to refresh the eyes. In case there is limited natural greenery, you may decorate your corner with plants and other non-distracting items that give you peace and calmness. Your office should also have enough space that everything you need to get the job done easily is at hand.
Home Office Design Tips
Transform your home office from a drab and dull space to a vibrant and productive work environment by implementing the following tips:
Switch Things Up
Your work environment at home could be the biggest thing holding you back from optimal productivity. And this doesn’t necessarily mean your home environment in general; it could simply pertain to the room you chose to work in.
If working in the bedroom makes you sleepy or the living room is too noisy, get things done in another room. If you feel the need to change things in your current office, so it becomes more work-conducive, do it.
Switch things up if you feel there’s a need to—if it helps you become more productive. Move your desk close to the window or shift the position of your monitor. Among other things, playing with placement can do wonders for brain productivity.
Pick Out New Paint
Another thing that could keep you from giving your best that you might not pay much mind to is your walls' color (or lack of color). You know something’s not right with your home office when walking into that space doesn’t give you life. Some paint colors are more productivity-inducing than others, such as yellow, green, and sky blue. These shades also uplift and promote focus, which is exactly what you need to do your thing.
Make Sure There’s Enough Natural Light
It can be difficult to get in the right headspace for work when your space is filled with harsh lighting. If your current workspace isn’t encouraging productivity, consider incorporating more natural light into the area. You may accomplish this by simply moving your desk close to the window or adding one or two more windows to the room.
Play Around With the Set Up
As mentioned previously, getting or not getting things done in your home office may depend on placement. The first step should always be to position your desk close to the window, but you may play around with the arrangement from there.
Perhaps your setup calls for a new desk or a different chair that offers lower lumbar support. Maybe it could use one or two small bookcases to bring a calming feel to the space. There could be quite a few things in your setup that need maneuvering so that it meets your energy needs.
Keep It Personal
Space that has your personal touch all over would be a dream for you to work in. That’s because you’d be right at home in it. No one knows better than you what gets your creative juices flowing, so use that knowledge to spruce up your home workspace.
What screams productivity for you? It could be a few potted plants, framed pictures of friends and family, a bookcase, or all these things. Make it so that your office has you written all over it.
Declutter With a Vengeance
Clutter has a habit of collecting in home offices. The inevitability of this only increases when you have kids.
Make it a point to do regular home-office purging of coffee cups, paper files, books and magazines, knick-knacks, and whatever useless item there is that’s taking up space. Furthermore, neither you nor anyone else should be using the room that you work in for storage.
