A whole lot of people are working from home these days. The modern home office is sleek and efficient, multi-layered, sustainable, and can be anywhere in the home or, increasingly, tucked into a corner of the garden. That’s right, the trendiest home offices are freestanding “sheds” set close enough to be convenient, but self-contained and individualized. Sometimes, that workspace must do double duty for family use or put on a party face for entertaining guests, but that’s usually not difficult because, stylistically, the furniture has multiple personalities and is rather minimal to begin with. The style of your home office can, of course, be anything you want, from sleek to antique. You can also “transport” your office laptop to the living room sofa on occasion. Nevertheless, the home office is the hottest thing going in many of today’s homes.
If you work from home, even on a part-time or periodic basis, here are 5 professional design tips:
1. The Productivity Principle
Your home office space needs to work for you. That’s the point of working from home, after all. If you’re going to produce at your peak, you need to have a space that puts you in the mood. Knowing when and how you reach peak productivity is vital if you’re going to design your home office space to be efficient. Knowing whether you need solitude or if you can produce in controlled chaos will determine not only the location, but also the look of your home office space. You will want to minimize distractions and maximize potential in either case. If you function well in group settings, it might be wise to include conferencing capability, or set up a second desktop so that a coworker (or spouse) can collaborate with you.
2. Streamlined and Minimal
Homework is the “going to work” of the future if current numbers continue. Almost three million Americans work exclusively from home. But another 25 million or so call home their office at least one day each week. Integrating living space with work space takes some doing, but it can be done with style and efficiency. Let’s face it: Paper is a thing of the past. So is the need for lots of storage. Cloud computing, digital scheduling and record-keeping, video conferencing, and smaller and more powerful computers, tablets, notebooks and phones will supply most of your needs. The double pedestal desk has also become a dinosaur, giving way to minimal tabletops with nary a drawer in sight. Open shelves are apt to dominate a wall; but they are as likely to be filled with art and sculpture as with research notebooks and business tools.
Whether you give your home office its own room or integrate it into the corner of other living space, it is likely to be used on occasion for other purposes. That’s the message of the future: The work at home crowd is working hard to integrate professional duties with home life, enriching both .
3. Made to Multitask
If the days of the basement office or the attic studio are disappearing, the days of the backyard work shed are just beginning. There is something to be said for the idea of “going to work” even if your commute involves only a few steps through the garden. Freestanding pods have long been popular with artists and other creative types, but they are now becoming mainstream for flex workers and freelancers as well. The home’s spare bedroom still serves as an office for multitudes of stay-at-home workers, but whether it’s dedicated office space or serves other needs too depends totally on your personal habits and space availability. Today’s home offices are apt to multi-task as home planning centers, kids’ homework stations, or even as television/entertainment spots in the evening. It makes sense, because home offices are often loaded with wiring, computing capability and tricked out technology
4. Sustainable
Embracing technology, eliminating the commute and being energy-efficient are part and parcel of the trend toward working from home. Some forecasters predict that job-sharing, flex-time schedules, telecommuting and the proliferation of consulting and freelancing opportunities will swell the at-home workforce to 50% or higher in coming decades. If the office buildings of today become obsolete, then future home offices will have to be smart, technology-laden, efficient, durable and innovative. If you begin moving that way today, you’ll be ahead of the curve. Address lighting and sound control needs and, if you’re building new or remodeling to accommodate your home office, check out the latest green technology.
5. Uniquely Customized
Working at home is a uniquely personal undertaking. It requires commitment, discipline, adaptability, time management talent and the ability to juggle priorities. Actually, any job requires those skills, but if you work from home, the distractions are different. Whether you work in your jammies, get up early to exercise before going to the office, exercise in your office, go out to lunch or bring your lunch to your desk, take breaks to walk around the block, or walk through your back yard for inspiration, your home office is an extension of your daily life and routine.
Take care that you leave the office occasionally. As growing numbers of Millennials attest, it’s important to have a proper work-life balance. So, when you design your office in your home, take that balance seriously, and make your home office uniquely personal.
