If you’re lucky enough to work from home, you’re far from alone. In fact, more than 5% of Americans regularly set up camp in their home offices and get to work!
When working from the comfort of your house, though, it’s easy to fall prey to distractions. That’s why it’s important to set up a space that’s conducive to hard work and sets the tone for productivity.
Here, we’re going to give you a few expert home office design tips that maximize both comfort and work efficiency, so read on to boost your professional life at home!
1. Choose a Monochrome Scheme…
A monochrome scheme is one that is either in black and white or in varying tones of one color. This is ideal for home offices because the human eye is drawn to color schemes and patterns, which can be distracting.
If you choose a monochrome scheme, white walls with black shelving and furniture look modern and funky. You can also use dark blues, reds, or greens in place of blacks if you want to add a pop of color.
This article by Urbanology Designs details some ways that you can make a monochrome scheme work with dark accent colors and minimal styling. Check it out!
2. …Or Select the Right Colors
If you don’t think that a monochrome color scheme is a good fit for your space or your personality, then you may want to look into color psychology to find a good aesthetic for your home office. Color psychology is a scientifically proven phenomenon that pretty much boils down to color affecting mood.
Yellow or orange is probably the color to go with for a home office space. Shades of yellow are known for promoting feelings of energy in those who view them, so this color scheme will keep you awake and alert while you work. Orange is the color of attention and excitement, so you’ll be ready to go and maximize your productivity all day long.
Using color psychology to choose colors for a home office boosts productivity in multiple ways. First, it puts you in the mood to work and be productive by stopping you from becoming tired. You also will be able to easily create a cohesive decor scheme when you select one color and use varying hues of it. Also remember that these days the color schemes offered by furniture manufacturers are abundant so you do have a lot of choice. For example, even budget office chairs come in all sorts of colors – red, blue, grey… (not even mentioning your typical black, grey and white).
3. Minimize Distractions…
When you work from home, it’s easy to get distracted. After all, everything that you own is there! Your phone is at hand and no one is there to stop you from using it. Your favorite comic books? Right there.
You want to keep your favorite graphic novels in the other room. Your home office isn’t the place to incorporate them into your home decor. In addition to the comic books, you’re going to want to leave other “fun” objects elsewhere in the home. Items that shouldn’t be in a home office include:
- Excessive artwork on the walls
- Books that you enjoy reading for fun
- Knickknacks and tchotchkes that you can play with
- Excessive amounts of desk toys
- More office supplies than you absolutely need
All of these items have the potential to become distracting. Don’t incorporate them into your home office decor.
4. …But Maintain a Personal Touch
That being said, your home office will become an intolerably clinical space if you have nothing that brings you joy in it.
Consider a curtain for your window with a warm, interesting pattern on it in a color that matches your interior decor. This will bring your space some much-needed warmth and personalization.
While you shouldn’t hang a lot of art on the walls, a calendar with floral images or cat pictures serves a practical function and won’t be too much of a distraction.
Also, we know that we said not to have excessive amounts of desk toys, and we stand by that. But one single Funko pop of a favorite character that stands by your office supply organizers won’t be too much of a distraction and will provide you with a sort of (inanimate) work buddy.
5. Keep All That You Need on Hand
When you design your home office, make sure that everything you need is well at hand. This will prevent you from making multiple distracting trips into other rooms and forcing you to rip yourself away from your work.
A tall wooden table beside your desk is a good interior design idea. You can use this space to keep a cup of tea or glass of water on hand so you aren’t making tons of trips to the kitchen.
Make sure that you have a chest of drawers where you can store spare office supplies. Pens, reams of paper, and spare organizers all should go here. Additionally, that chest of drawers (or another small table) should have a printer on it so you don’t need to leave the room and become distracted every time you print something.
6. Use Appropriate Lighting
When designing a home office, you’ll want to incorporate home office lighting that goes with your design but isn’t distracting. Bright lightbulbs in desk lamps and floodlights are generally a good idea. They illuminate your space and provide you with the lighting necessary to prevent eyestrain.
Make sure that you have multiple lamps that provide you with many different light sources. This will ensure that every area in your room has appropriate lighting for you to do your job.
Additionally, a window or two needs to be part of your home office design. This will ensure that you get enough Vitamin D to stop yourself from becoming a depressed work drone. When you create your home office, make sure that the room you select has a window in it.
More Home Office Design Tips
Now that you know the best home office design tips to get you started working effectively from home, it’s time to learn more about organizing the layout of your space.
Check out the ‘design’ tab on our home page and head to the ‘home design’ section. Here, you’ll get more tips for making your house as comfortable as possible so that you can boost your mental health and your worktime productivity.
