Your home office can be beautiful and functional.
As life required adjustment over the last few years, the home office has become one of the most important rooms in the house. Many people had to get creative about finding a workspace for mom, dad, and kids… and function was our focus.
Now, as more in-home work and learning continues in many of our lives, designer Emily England says it’s time to revisit how our workspace fits into our homes, make it beautiful, organized, and an inspiring place to spend time. She shared five suggestions for creating a home office as attractive as the rest of your home… and perfectly functional, too.
1. Focus on the desk
The desk is going to be the star of your home office, and it is where you are going to be working, so it’s important to get it right. Even when space is limited and your desk is small, making it a beautiful piece of furniture makes your space an inspiring place to spend your days.
Depending on the needs of your family, you may decide to have more than one desk in an office for multiple working parents, or as homework stations for several kids.
Emily said this has been a huge shift since Covid. “I used to see one desk sitting in the middle of an office, and now I am designing multiple workspaces in the office,” she emphasized.
While you are choosing a desk, make sure to get a chair that’s a perfect fit for your desk, office, and supports your body if you are going to be working from it several hours a day! Just because it supports your body doesn’t mean it has to be ugly either!
2. The Hidden Desk
If your work area is part of another room, being able to clear everything away at the end of the day can be vital for your wellbeing, which is where the hidden desk idea comes in.
You can have a desk built into almost any room: kitchen, laundry room, craft rooms, bedrooms. These can be life savers if your home doesn’t allow for everyone to have a desk in a home office. The key in these spaces is to carve out a niche that allows you to work, but also to put things away when you are done working and enjoy the multi-purpose space.
Emily has designed built-ins with pocket doors that can close when you are done working so the space looks tidy. “I also love to use desks as side tables in bedrooms,” she added. Get creative—but make sure the area has a plug for your computer, a chair that works in the room, and enough storage to put away papers, pens, etc.
3. Functional storage
Offices are a space that easily can get filled with office clutter, so when possible, try to create functional storage in your office. Drawers with filing cabinets are a life saver, find a place to store your printer, and grommet holes and covers for computer cords are a must. Mail slots behind closed cabinet doors are imperative.
Built in bookshelves or freestanding bookshelves are not only lovely, but allow you to display information you may need to reference at your fingertips. “I am such a book lover,” Emily said. “So to me, there is nothing dreamier than a home office that feels like a library!”
Something to consider is scanning documents and uploading them to Dropbox or a hard drive. This allows you to get rid of so many papers, you can search them more easily, find what you need by date or keywords, and you don’t have to look through and store piles of paper.
4. Dress Office Shelves
While it might seem like most office shelves are just thrown together with work related knick-knacks, we really ought to carefully curate items to put in our shelves for maximum effect.
It’s important to dress office shelves with a color scheme and pair books together in a thoughtful way. This will help tie the space together. Adding points of interest, such as artwork and ceramics, items you have collected from your travels or life will make the space personal and more inviting to work in.
“I had a client that lived in France for a few years, so we found French ceramics, fleur de lis book ends, and French wallpaper to give the space a personal touch,” Emily explained. “What I love about collecting items is that not everyone is going to notice these details the first time you enter the room, but we want to create rooms and spaces that are more interesting over time!”
5. Showcase your personality
Simple design swaps can add a lot of life to an otherwise dull workspace. Do you like American History? Do you like architecture books? Did you live out of the country or travel somewhere special? Start looking for decorative objects that you can mix in with your books on your bookshelves to tell your story. Look for vintage art, decorative lamps, and collect objects that are meaningful to you!
Decorative objects tend to have a bit more power when they are grouped in multiples, so think of groupings of pottery, art, decorative objects, or plates. These tell your story and what is beautiful, interesting or inspiring to you! Isn’t that what we all want for our workspaces?
Find Emily’s work online at emilyenglanddesign.com or on Instagram @emilyenglanddesign.
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