If you are thinking about creating or redoing your home office, you’re not alone. With most people still working from home, home offices are more popular than ever. If you’re trying to perfect your home office, here are some ideas that can help you.
1. Choose Your Office Space
The first part of creating your office space is actually choosing where exactly you’ll want to have your office. Your two options are to either use an existing room or area in your home or to build an addition or standalone structure on your property to work in.
If you’re planning to build a new structure to hold your home office, you should consider using modular construction. Modular construction is when you use a completely prefabricated design. You can either build modular construction that is permanent or relocatable, so you can make the building a temporary addition or a more permanent fixture. This is also often a quicker and cheaper option, so definitely consider this for your office build.
If you’re using an existing room or area for your office, you should make sure that you have enough room for everything you need. For example, if you need space to hold files and books as well as your computer set up, you should ensure there’s room for a filing cabinet and bookshelf so you can actually have everything you need in your office.
2. Check Your Environment
Whenever you’re building, renovating, or redecorating somewhere, you should think about what your environment is like and make sure to take it into consideration. Is the air dry or moist? You may need a humidifier or dehumidifier to be comfortable. Is there good air circulation, or do you need a fan? Another good thing to check for is radon levels, which is something that many people don’t check for in their home. However, radon can be extremely dangerous — radon exposure has been linked to as many as 20,000 lung cancer deaths. Since you’ll be spending a lot of time in your office, you want to make sure it is as comfortable and healthy as possible.
3. Make Your Storage Look Nice
Storage is a necessary part of any office, but it’s easy for your office storage to look unruly or end up being unrealistic to keep up. The key to having storage solutions that you’ll actually use is to take stock of what exactly you’ll need to store before you start buying storage supplies. Take stock of any office supplies, files, books, or any other things you’ll need in your office, and make a plan to specifically store each thing.
Once you know what you want to store, you can start looking for storage options that fit your style. If you have a lower budget, you can buy cheap shelving and use bins to store your supplies. Make sure that if you do this, each bin has a specific purpose. If you have more money in your budget, you can install cabinetry for all of your storage needs. Make sure that whatever you choose, you only buy what you need. If you have extra storage space, you may end up buying things to fill the space, which means you’ll have more things than you actually need, which can lead to a cluttered space. If you don’t buy enough, you’ll definitely have clutter.
4. Think Through Your Computer Set Up
For many, working in your home means spending hours on a computer or laptop. That’s why one of the most important parts of your home office is your computer set up. Even if the rest of your office doesn’t turn out perfect, this is one area you should really make sure is perfectly functional. Make sure that you put your computer set up in a spot that has a strong internet connection, whether that’s through an ethernet cable or wifi.
You should also strongly consider having a second screen. If you’ve always worked on one single desktop computer or laptop, you’re missing out. Having a second screen makes a lot of the tasks that you do throughout the day easier, especially while you’re in a video call that requires you to view documents or otherwise do work. If you get a second screen, especially for a laptop, you should consider getting a wireless keyboard and mouse. Bluetooth options are available for relatively low prices in a variety of styles, so you can find what you need without having to sacrifice your office’s style.
Make sure that you have a way to back up your computer and files in case something happens to crash your computer or otherwise disrupt your workflow. In 2018, only 72% of IT providers had disaster recovery services, so if your company used an IT service, make sure to double-check what kind of disaster recovery services are available. If you don’t see them as adequate, you should implement your own backup and recovery procedures.
5. Accessorize
The key to making any room look straight out of a magazine instead of like a thrown together room is to properly accessorize it. When it comes to office space, this means a lot of wall decor and other items that won’t just become clutter on your desk. Here are a few tips for accessorizing your office:
- Stick to a Color Scheme. If you choose accessories in two to three colors that you love, you can make all of the decor pieces in your office feel cohesive, even if they’re in different textures or styles.
- Go For a Gallery Wall. Gallery walls are very trendy right now, and it’s easy to see why. To make your own, you can buy cheap frames from the dollar store or even your local thrift store. If you can’t find enough in the color you’d like them to be, spray painting (or regularly painting) them can help make sure all of the frames match.
- Use (Fake or Real) Greenery. If you can’t keep a plant alive to save your life, you should probably opt for fake plants. Although many plants are green, they come across as very neutral when used as decor. Choose fun pots and hangers to add a fun touch to the plants, or keep it classic with plain terracotta.
Your home office can be a great sanctuary for you to work, and you should make sure it’s a place that’s visually pleasing to be as well as a healthy place to be is a great way to make sure you feel inspired and motivated to continue working.
