When working from home, you can do a lot with your space. Learn how to design a custom home office that sparks your creativity and inspires daily success.
Working at home is thrilling because it offers an avenue for real comfort and creativity.
Over the past years, more employees have demanded a better work-and-life balance. This then led to the increase in employees opting to telecommute.
Just to give you an idea:
In 2017, the number of people who worked from home went up a whopping 115% since 2005. That’s about 3.9 million employees in the United States.
Why?
They want more flexible work schedules and time with their families. For others, they feel less stressed and more productive when they work at a custom home office.
About 65% of employees think that a remote work schedule will boost productivity.
Telecommuting has a lot of upsides – no commute, better work-life balance, and staying in your pajamas. You can also design your own workplace! We’ll help you design the custom home office to drive you crazy good productive!
1. Look for the Perfect Location for Your Custom Home Office
It might be an unused room in your house or a small corner space that can accommodate a table. No matter where you like it, it’s important to plan the space.
It doesn’t need to be expensive or lavish. But, it should be separate from the other areas in the house. Check your space. Ask yourself if it can help you work in peace.
Make sure the space can keep everything you need. It should make things easy-to-find, because that’s a must-have to working efficiently within your space.
2. Plan Your Budget
Before starting your home office project, decide on how much you’re willing to spend.
If you want to splurge on furniture and equipment, then go for it. For those with a limited budget, use what you already have. Look around your house for office items, furniture, and fixtures.
You can use spare rooms, tables, chairs, and lamps, depending on what you need.
Spending more time at home can mean more time cleaning, but include this in your budget and avoid that by using a service like Houston cleaning service. They can do the cleaning for you allowing you to maximize productivity during your working hours.
Remember, be creative since it will be your own personal space!
3. Browse for Inspiration
So, here’s the time to take your time off from work and contemplate. Think of the design you want for your custom home office.
You can decide on which color you like, fixtures to buy, and accessories to install. But, it’s important to choose the colors for your space.
Researchers found that dull colors induce feelings of depression and sadness in women. These include gray, beige, and white.
But, men had gloomy feelings when they’re in purple and orange workspaces.
It’s ideal to paint the workstation with a vibrant medley of stimulating hues to boost creativity and productivity.
Low-wavelength colors such as calming blue and restful green, improve focus and efficiency.
For creativity, mellow yellow is an ideal color. It represents energy, freshness, and optimism.
The color stimulates innovation. It’s the best choice for work environments of writers, designers, creative professionals, and artists, among others.
4. Go Ergonomic
Believe it or not, ergonomics plays a pivotal role in making your job easier and safer. Implementing ergonomic solutions in the workstation can make workers feel more comfortable. It also boosts productivity.
Having poor working conditions can contribute to poor health. The goal of ergonomics is to prevent injuries caused by sudden or long-term exposure to force. Also, it prevents strains caused by awkward posture and repetitive motion.
Work-related musculoskeletal disorders remain a major cause of employee absences in various industries. The most common ones include strains, sprains and carpal tunnel syndrome.
Did you know that 86% of workers complain about strain or soreness due to their office furniture?
About 71% said that their office chair gave them back pain. Also, 74% got wrist strain or injury from using their computer keyboard.
How to go ergonomic?
Today, custom home office furniture like tables and chairs are ergonomic. This means that their design helps provide comfort to the workers.
If your office furniture isn’t ergonomic, this means it’s time to upgrade!
When using an ergonomic chair, make sure you have your back straight, feet flat, and elbows at 90 degrees. This will prevent injury. You can have a standing table to promote posture and reduce prolonged sitting.
5. Create A Healthy Space
A healthy space boosts productivity, creativity, and success.
Let’s face it, working at home can be also quite tiring. You’re sitting almost the whole day – which is unhealthy. Choose furniture and equipment that won’t put a strain on your back, neck and hands.
Make sure you design your office not just with aesthetics in mind, but also your health.
So, here’s the deal. You need a space to let you work comfortably throughout the day. At the same time, it’s ideal to have some space to stretch, too.
Did you know that stretching has many health benefits? It’s important to reduce the risk of injuries. Also, it improves posture and reduces muscle stiffness.
A little space to stretch your legs will do!
Another way to keep your workstation healthy is by adding plants. Having plants in your custom home office will help increase productivity and creativity.
It’s an expensive way to improve your home office environment. Plants absorb carbon dioxide in the air. In return, it releases oxygen.
Simply put, those greens (maybe even with splashes of color with flowers) can help reduce health care costs, lower stress, and increase productivity.
6. Make Sure That the Home Office Space Is Well-Ventilated and Lit
The amount of daylight exposure in the workstation can affect activity, sleep, and quality of life.
In fact, people who work in spaces with windows slept 46 minutes more at night.
It is then important to make sure the custom home office has natural light coming in. You can add a sunroom to make sure you get all the sunlight you need.
Yet, too much sun exposure can also become unhealthy. Make sure you explore your Blinds and Designs options to control the amount of sunlight you allow to enter the room.
And don’t forget good ventilation! It plays a vital role in healthy workplaces that some governments even have it in law! It should have an adequate amount of air that circulates throughout the room.
A good ventilation system in your home office will make the air comfortable. It can also control impurities and reduce condensation. Condensation is the culprit in rooms with molds and other allergens.
7. Inject Your Motivation
To be creative and successful in all aspects of life, you need motivation.
Think of someone or something that motivates you.
You can use this to design your workspace at home. Whether if it’s a motivational quote, a photo of your family or snippets of your goals, you need to display them.
By doing so, you can work by staring or looking at these motivational things that inspire you. By doing this, you make your home office design a little personal.
8. Get Creative with Storage
The truth is, filing cabinets in workspaces are nightmares. They aren’t the most attractive pieces of furniture. But, their use in the custom home office is so important, no office can live without them.
You don’t want pieces of paper scattered everywhere, right?
Storage boxes and filing cabinets can provide the needed space for paper works. The question is, how can these cabinets look dashing while serving their purpose?
In choosing your cabinet, get something unique, spacious, and cost-effective. The storage cabinets should suit your requirements. Maximize every cranny and nook of the room.
You can craft desks as part of the storage. You can use hidden storage areas, too.
9. Remove Distractions
Your office space should be in a quiet and peaceful room. Don’t install a television near your work area. The chances are, you won’t be able to concentrate.
Rather, you might get preoccupied, reducing productivity and creativity.
As a work at home employee, you might feel comfortable staying at home throughout the day. So, one of the biggest distractions is doing house chores. Create a schedule to do all chores.
Never stand up to wash the dishes or cook food when you’re currently working. Distractions impacts creativity, productivity, and success.
Set rules for family members. Make a schedule on when they can enter your custom home office. You can also make break times to spend quality time with them.
10. Welcome the Challenge
Working at home can be amazing – you can wake up at any time you want and avoid morning commutes.
It can also be challenging. You have to face more distractions – the television, household chores and family life. No one’s there to watch over how you work, so at times, you might not feel inclined to work.
A home office designed for creative and success addresses these issues. It separates you from your home world – you can imagine you’re at the corporate world office, less the stress and tension.
Start Planning Your Home Office Now
Building a home office needs a great deal of time and effort. Of course, some cash too. Though you don’t need to spend a hefty amount of money, you still need to plan carefully.
Planning your custom home office is important. This will ensure that you will feel comfortable while working. If you feel comfortable, you’re inspired to become more productive, creative, and successful.
Need more help with the design of your own workspace at home? We have more creative ideas here. So, go ahead and feel free to explore!