Every room of the home should offer some form of functionality and appeal. Both in terms of aesthetics and capacity, each room provides homeowners with an opportunity to be productive, relax, enjoy company, or simply deal with the day-to-day realities of life. Given that many spend considerable sums of time outside of the home, some have less incentive than others to maximize their home’s appeal.
However, a growing number of individuals are either working from home or pursuing office-related projects and hobbies without ever leaving the house. For these people, having a dedicated space that is both functional and appealing becomes far more essential. While some tasks can be worked on from the dining room table or living room sofa, many others need a quiet and inviting workspace.
Home offices provide such an option. Nevertheless, any standard space isn’t guaranteed to be a welcoming and appealing area in which to work – as such, optimizing the space’s look and feel remains critical to the room’s level of productivity. To help those in need of better home working spaces, we’ll review how you can improve both aspects of a home office to ensure its potential.
Give the Room a Color Overhaul
One of the first – and easiest – ways to renovate any room for optimal home office conditions is to liven up (or in some cases, mute) the look of its walls. A home office should be inviting and calm, yet inspiring and beautiful. The simplest approach to change the look and feel of the room is to incorporate a new color scheme via paint, wallpaper or other accents.
There are a variety of colors to consider for any home office project. A common choice is blue, due to its relaxing and focused vibe. Green is another interesting choice, intended to be a color for focusing efforts and keeping on track. Most neutral colors – such as brown and grey – are also acceptable options, but many do not want to overhaul a room just for it to be relatively boring in terms of looks.
If you don’t have the time or expertise to handle this first renovation yourself, then consider enlisting a handyman service. Edward’s Enterprises is one example of a handyman service that focuses primarily on home office maintenance and repair, including new paint jobs and touch-ups.
Eliminate Distractions from Visibility
One of the biggest challenges when working from home is the level of distraction that permeates daily life. While it may be impossible to truly rule out every potential nuisance when working from home, proper home office design can minimize a wide variety of attention-grabbing distractions.
For example, if you are working from home on a computer, then it is generally a good idea to ensure that your computer screen is placed in an area where other elements – such as televisions and windows overlooking traffic – are not within your peripheral vision. By reducing or eliminating their visibility, your mind will be able to more effectively focus on the task in front of you.
Improve Lighting Options
Arguably one of the more crucial elements of not just a work space, but any space in general, the lighting aspects of a room can impact both its look and feel. In order to be productive during the day, an adequate amount of lighting is necessary. Designing your home office to accommodate lower-level lighting (when working on a computer) while also providing enough light to brighten up the space and make it usable during evening hours is crucial.
Some people invest by installing new windows or widening existing ones for additional natural light. If you do this, a good idea is to also buy some shutter blinds from somewhere like West Pier Shutters so that if the sun is too bright and glaring on your screens during the day, you can close the blinds to keep it out. They will also provide you with some privacy during the evenings. Proper lighting fixtures – from desk lamps to overhead fixtures – can improve visibility as well. For advice on how to better accentuate the lighting in your home office, click here.
Focus on Organization
In order to get things done and make the room seem sensible, a certain amount of organization is necessary. From keeping track of important files to ensuring desk space is optimized for day-to-day work, organization simply cannot be overlooked. For any home office, there are hundreds of options to consider. Some involve maximizing the amount of usable space (through elements such as shelving) and others make more use of existing space (via file-in cabinets and stacked organizers).
By keeping everything in your home office situated and organized properly, you’ll find that the room simply looks better (which impacts work performance). Additionally, being able to find what you need when you need it can have an additional impact on productivity.
Make the Room Comfortable
Everybody needs a break from work. Especially for those who spend long hours in their home offices, the occasional rest from computer work or intense concentration can make a huge difference in productivity. Because of this, ensuring a variety of comfortable spaces are available is essential.
Besides ergonomic desk chairs, you may also want to invest in a small sofa and chairs. Not only will it give the office a more intimate feel, but can provide a break in the monotony of office work.
Transforming your home office into a space that both looks and feels better is imperative for those who spend lots of time inside of it. By mastering the elements of color, lighting and organization while reducing distractions and improving comfort, each work day will feel like less of a chore and more of a reward.
