Create Your Home Office
For your home office, give yourself a nice backdrop and orient your workplace facing the traffic. Go high with your cabinets, add cable management and keep your space functional for your needs.Remote work has forced us into the nooks and crannies of our homes. Before 2020, few people had exclusive areas devoted to work, someplace quiet where calls can be taken and backgrounds for video conferences that are somewhere beyond embarrassing.
At ARHTX we do a lot of office creation for both commercial and residential. I’d like to focus on residential here and share some of the tips we have for best use of space.
All you need is a corner. We have made dozens of home offices in a corner of a house. A nook off the kitchen, a bend in a hall, an area on a stairway landing, under the stairs, as a separated portion of a dining room or some other under-utilized space. All you need is one wall or even two that make an ‘L’ shape.
Orientation is key. The way you face in that designated space is important. Always orient yourself towards the traffic, not with your back to a busy or open space. Placing your desk so that your back is to the wall means that you have a pre-determined backdrop for your video conferencing, and you know what’s going on in the room. No surprises creep up behind you.
Keep your space functional. Stick to the basics. Desk in front, one wall or two behind you of what you need. Printer storage. Supplies storage. Files. Shelving for books. Drawers for needed items. Make sure to include enough cabinets. Cabinets provide storage versatility.
Go up. No, you may not be able to easily reach it, but go as high as you can with your cabinet space. There are lots of items that you access only once a month or even once a quarter, like printer ink or paper or supplies inventory. Going up gives you lots of extra space for very little extra money.
Organize for cable management. It’s easy to hide all those monitor, laptop, computer, printer, mouse, internet, and whatever other tools you use for work, but you have to think ahead. Placing your electrical in the right spots and creating access through the desktop and in cabinets can hide that tangle of wires.
Decorate. Make room for things that tell your story. Memorabilia, recognitions, photos and books come together to create a visual persona that goes beyond words. Everyone loves to see a great video conferencing backdrop. And they provide a real conversation point and icebreaker for first time meetups.
Planning is your important first step to getting the most out of your space—big or small. There’s so much satisfaction in developing the concept with all of your own needs and your own workplace challenges in mind. Have fun with it and stay as simple and practical as you can.