Home Office Ideas

Whether you telecommute to work, or you prefer the convenience of a central workstation from which to pay the bills or write an email, a well-equipped modern home office will help get the job done. If you can spare an extra room, or pick out the quietest corner in your home, it is easy to put together the perfect office in just a weekend. Here are some home office design ideas to get you started.

What Do You Need in a Home Office?

A modern home office can be as large as a converted bedroom, attic, or garage, to as small as a dining room corner or a living room window nook. With any size space, there are four basic requirements to home office design. Once they are in place, you can get to work, because everything else is just filling in the details. 

The four requirements to any modern home office are:

• A desk with a smooth surface area.
• A comfortable, ergonomic chair.
• Practical lighting and decor.
• Proper shelving and storage.

With this foundation set, your home office ideas are put to work for you, with everything you need in an easy-to-find place. It’s all about finding the right office furniture to set the layout. Check out what to look for when designing your home office decor.

Desks

Finding the right desk means focusing on the accessibility and organization of your working area. Look for an office desk that matches the amount of space you have available, from width and length, to the correct height. 

• If you have an entire room to use as a dedicated office, look to the executive desk, as they can provide a lot of room to work, whether on a computer or otherwise. 
• For a living room office, computer desks pair up well with printer desks to provide the necessities in a small footprint. 
• Writing desks and secretary desks tuck into out of the way areas, such as hallways or dining room office nooks, to provide the most basic space for sorting mail or jotting down notes. 
• A laptop desk can complement any arrangement if there’s no demand for a larger computer.

Look for desks with built-in trays to stash the computer keyboard at an ergonomically efficient height beneath the desktop and maximize your working space. Larger desks should include drawers for needed office supplies such as pens, pencils, tape, paperclips, staplers, or anything else you use regularly.

Chairs

Office chairs provide style and comfort as well as support for those long days at work. Protect yourself from injury or strain with the appropriate chair for every task in your office. Look for chairs that offer sufficient lumbar support for your back, and armrests with effective and durable padding. The best office chairs provide adjustable seat heights, with tilt and swivel options.

Here are a few additional tips to find the right chairs for your home office:

• Office chairs or drafting chairs are sturdy, mobile, and built with more customization options. 
• Accent chairs and dining chairs will do in a pinch, but they are better suited for short-term use when they don’t provide the customization of an office chair. 
• For larger home office spaces, lounge chairs offer comfortable seating for reading nooks, or for client consultation areas.

Shelving

From books to trinkets, collectibles to photos, keep things stylish and orderly with shelving that provides organization and storage. Prevent books from piling up in stacks on the floor, or use rows of decorative boxes for filing supplies out of view while keeping them in easy reach.

There are a variety of different types of shelving to choose from. 

• Accent cabinets are shorter cabinets designed to match the features of other furniture in the room. Look to the collection names to best coordinate with your desk style.
• Bookcases can be as narrow as 20” across to over 60” wide. Look for bookcases that allow you to adjust the height between shelves, to be sure you can fit everything in your collection.
• Curio cabinets are for displaying collections behind glass, from fine dishware to books.
• Hall trees offer hooks for hanging coats, blankets, hats, or umbrellas, and often include cupboard storage space above and below for other items. They are as useful in living room and den offices as they are in laundry rooms or craft rooms. 
• Sideboards are narrow cupboards that offer an out-of-the-way worktop surface for small space home office decor. 

From traditional rustic wooden bookcases to ornate modern or transitional metal frames, shelving can be found in styles to complement any room theme.

Decor

An office workspace should be designed for comfort and enjoyment as well as productivity, which means including aesthetic details and decorations to suit your tastes. Not all home office decor is just for looks, and small home offices can especially benefit from functional decorations.

Area rugs add comfort, color, and warmth to any work space. They fit beneath the desk, table, or chairs, or just in the center of the floor. Rugs can be used to designate different work areas in larger rooms, and help muffle sounds on wood floors.

Any office requires adequate lighting to complete tasks, which can include additional built-in lighting like ceiling fans or wall sconces. For traditional and functional work desk decor ideas, desk lamps offer creative and artistic designs to complement every home office style.

Wallcoverings in the home office create a welcoming, visual break from the desk work, and can help make a room seem more open and bright. 

Home office wall decor can include ideas such as:

• Framed photographs and art prints.
• Paintings, dimensional artwork, and wall accents to add color and interest.
• Unique mirrors for extra light.
• Artistic wall clocks to help productivity.
• Wall shelves that can be used as storage space and decorative features.

Wall decor adds color, interest, and character to a space, but also helps prevent sound from carrying throughout the room, adding a layer of privacy. Wallpaper, wall murals, and decorative art panels can be useful in visually breaking up parts of the room to help define the boundaries of your home office. 

For another multipurpose wall decor option, look to message boards. These can include dry erase boards, chalkboards, or corkboards. They help with office organization, idea generation, and even family communication, and can be creatively arranged to display artwork. 

All of these details add interest and encourage efficiency and productivity. Don’t skip the decor as you create your home office.

How Do You Organize a Home Office?

Obviously, the freedom to design the perfect home office decor is going to be reliant on the amount of space available. Think ahead to prepare your office for exactly how you use your work area. Work within the space you have to maximize comfort and personal productivity in your unique home office design. 

Determine if your home office will be a place for professional business, personal business, or both. An office should be designed to be comfortable, effecitient, and safe to use, whether you’re in it for hours a day or for a few minutes at a time. For an office that will handle professional and personal time, keep the tasks separated as much as possible.

A modern home office that will be visited or seen remotely by clients and coworkers may look more formal than a personal office or an artists’ loft. The appearance of the room around you works much like an office dress code, so decide early on in the designing stage if you prefer to go fully professional, or more business casual.

It is important to know exactly what the room will be used for, as different office tasks have different requirements to maximize effectiveness. There are home office organization solutions for many workplace habits.

• For living room office ideas, executive desks can be downsized to a secretary desk or drafting desks. 
• Prevent distractions by building work-zones into the room via strategic placement of the desk or bookshelves.
• Frequent phone calls require quiet and privacy, so if you don’t have a door to shut out the noise, use area rugs to muffle sound, and create room dividers with bookshelves. 
• Sorting and filing paperwork may require desktop access as well as easily accessible storage, such as filing and storage drawers. 
• If working at a computer, dedicate space for the CPU, keyboard, perhaps multiple monitors, and even speakers. 
• Leave enough room in the desk arrangement for the phone, desktop, laptop, or tablet computer to be used easily without causing repetitive strain. 
• To create a reading nook or seperate the crafter’s corner from the office desk, create designated work areas with area rugs as a guide to keep the furniture grouped together.
• Change up the feel of the decor between spaces, such as placing simple, elegant art behind an executive desk, and add contrast with playful, bright wall decor around a study corner.

The list goes on, and no one knows how you work better than you do. Take note and plan ahead to catch all the details. Don’t forget to balance useable space with appropriate storage space. Contain the clutter with drawers and shelves for the office basics used every day, and convert a closet or hutch into a bulk-supply storage. 

Small home office ideas require a little more creativity and precise measurements, but they can be just as effective as an executive suite with a corner office.