Inspiration
Furnishing a home office
We work from home more than we ever did, and with hybrid working now the norm it pays to have a proper workplace in the house. A few things deserve attention when you set one up, and these tips cover them.
Inspiration
Choose the right spot in the house
What makes a good workplace at home? The answer is simple: a place without too many distractions. Choose a separate study rather than the dining table as your default. With children in the house you will not get much done without a quiet room of your own. If your partner works from home too and the space allows it, set up two studies, so you can both work undisturbed.
If your work involves a lot of calls, take them in the study or agree a separate spot for phoning. And if there is no room to spare, a workplace in the bedroom can work: keep the door closed, so the sounds of the house stay outside. We did exactly that when furnishing this loft.
Colour in a home office
Most home offices are small: people tend to give the smallest room in the house to work. Light colours and materials make such a room feel larger. Think of a pale oak floor and light walls. Then add contrast, so the room does not go flat: a dark-stained oak desk, for instance, holds its own against all that light.
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What the workplace itself needs
A good workplace has plenty of light, and the more daylight the better: you concentrate better in a well-lit room. Beyond that, the same requirements apply as in any office. You need to:
- have a height-adjustable desk
- sit on an ergonomic desk chair
- use a proper mouse and a separate keyboard
- place your screen at ninety degrees to your line of sight
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Where the desk goes
The desk is the piece that matters most. If the study has a window, place the desk at a right angle to it: that way you make the most of the daylight. If the sun comes in too brightly, fit blinds or a curtain. In a room with no window, or only a small one, pendant lights and desk lamps have to do the work.
Choose a height-adjustable desk that suits the rest of the interior. A wooden top gives the workplace a warm look, and the adjustability means you set the desk to your body rather than the other way round. Ideally it rises to standing height, so you can alternate sitting with standing, which does your body good.
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Lighting the workplace
As in every other room, it pays to think the lighting plan through. Start with the base layer, which lights the room as a whole. Then comes functional light, so you can see what you are doing: a good desk lamp is the obvious piece. Accent lighting comes last. It draws attention to one element and stops the room feeling flat: wall lights that wash one wall, for instance.
Enough storage
Storage deserves attention too when setting up the home office. Shelves above the desk hold your files, or place a separate cupboard in the room. The advantage of a cupboard is that everything disappears behind closed doors. A tidy workplace gives you a calmer head, and that shows in your concentration.
Bring a plant in
A houseplant is a better colleague than you might think. Research suggests a plant in the room makes you 15% more productive. A plant also raises the oxygen level in the room, which helps in winter when you would rather keep the window shut. And it simply makes the study a nicer room to sit in.
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Acoustics for calls
If you spend much of the day on calls, the acoustics of the room deserve thought, certainly when you video call from a laptop. Wall and ceiling panels absorb the echo. A wooden wall panel or a leather one does the same job with more style.
An example from our own work
For one of our clients we designed a workplace at home along these lines. We kept the materials light to strengthen the sense of space and painted the walls with Marrakech Walls by Pure & Original, a paint that dries to a soft, clouded finish. For contrast we set a desk in a dark colour against it.
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Or have it designed for you
If you do not yet have a proper workplace at home, we are glad to help you set one up. We do that in a design consultation of between two and three hours. In that session:
- you sit down with one of our designers in the studio
- you end the conversation with a clear picture of how to arrange your workplace
- you make the style choices there and then
After the session we work the sketch design up for you into a floor plan, an image to set the direction and a 3D sketch. That is usually the moment the workplace starts to feel real.
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Book an introduction
Curious what we could do for your home? We are glad to meet, with no obligation.
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