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Home Office Design Ideas for Productive and Energizing Layouts

A small workspace against a blue wall, lit by a floor lamp and featuring a number of art prints

Working from a drafty attic or a dark corner of the living room is often a rite of passage for new entrepreneurs. Of course, it’s a sacrifice you gladly make to do the work you love doing.

Now, the makeshift home office is a collective experience. The global pandemic forever changed the way many of us work. With remote work here to stay, inefficent and non-ergonomic setups are no longer sustainable.

And, unappealing home office spaces could actually be doingharmto your business—not to mention your well-being.

Why home office design matters

Wide shot of a living room with a dedicated workspace. A large piece of colorful art adorns the wall
Unsplash

There’splenty of researchto support that a thoughtful approach to home office design canincrease productivityand happiness. Investing in your home office space is therefore an investment in yourself—and your business.

Clever space-saving storage solutions, layouts that maximize productivity and improve flow, and office décor choices that improve air quality and happiness can vastly improve the efficiency of your space.

From minimalist to eclectic, there are plenty of ideas to suit your aesthetic as well as creative solutions for even the trickiest spaces. And, you don’t need specialized skills or big budgets to make it happen. Let’s dive into some home office design ideas for entrepreneurs and remote workers.

6 DIY home office design ideas for every budget

  1. Assess your needs, budget, and space constraints
  2. Get design inspiration and create a mood board
  3. Create a layout of the space before you even touch a hammer
  4. Decide on the details—everything from color scheme to air quality
  5. Invest in smart storage and connected tech
  6. Inject happiness and inspiration

1. Assess your needs, budget, and space constraints

An empty room with wood florrs and white walls looks through a doorway into a similar empty room
Unsplash

Before you start dreaming of accent wall colors and built-in bookcases, take stock of the facts. You only have so much space, time, money, and other resources to make this dream happen.

Ask yourself:

  • What is my space availability and what are the constraints (architectural details, etc.)?
  • How much money do I have to spend on this project?
  • What are the specific needs or must-haves? What’s essential to run my business (versus what’s just nice to have)?
  • What skills do I possess? Can I DIY my home office design or will I need professional help?

Where will your home office live?

Choose a room in your home that can accommodate every aspect of your business, allowing all tech, supplies, and equipment to be close at hand.

Professional designers generally work with minimum dimensions of 60 inches (150 centimeters) by 84 inches (210 centimeters) when designing a workspace. Your desired location may not meet these minimums, but it’s important that you consider how you’ll move in the space: Is there enough space to slide out the chair? Can you comfortably complete your daily tasks?

If you’re a maker and your home office is also your production space, you may need even more room. Consider alternate spaces in and around the home: heated garages, finished basements, hobby sheds, coach houses, or an underused formal dining room. Can you take over the guest bedroom and add a Murphy bed to make it a multi-functional space?

A view of the inside of a workspace that's built into an outdoor shed
A climate controlled shed or garage could be converted into a home office.Modern-Shed/HOUZZ

Living in a bachelor apartment or have roommates? Small spaces can also accommodate a dedicated home office. Think closets, nooks, multipurpose rooms with room dividers, or clever fold-away furniture.

A cute office space is built into a closet
An unused closet could be transformed into a stylish office space that hides away when you’re not working.West Elm
An office space is built into a nook under an open staircase
A small home office can be tucked into an available nook, like under the stairs.Unsplash

When determining placement in the home, ask if you’ll be using the space for meetings or greeting customers. In this case choose an area on the main floor, close to the entrance.

Lastly, your home office location should be optimized to eliminate distractions. The kitchen is a typical hub of activity and can be convenient for parents whowork from home, but can also hamper productivity. Conversely the workspace can distract from family time once you’ve “clocked out.” If possible, carve out a dedicated space to provide distinction between life and work.

Working within a budget

There are many smart ways to stretch a design budget, from shopping thrift or DIYing (we’ll get to those ideas later), but it’s important to understand what you’re working with upfront. When determining your home office design budget, consider:

  • 油漆,paint supplies, and other construction materials
  • Professional costs, if applicable (e.g., electrician to add outlets or move fixtures)
  • Furniture, storage, and décor accessories
  • Tech and ergonomic supports

While this article will focus on the do-it-yourself approach, you can also find professionals to help you with everything from designing a layout to installing bookshelves.

Sometimes working with a pro can actually save you money by leveraging labor contacts and getting industry discounts on materials. Search for professionals in your area using a tool likeHOUZZor ask around for local referrals.

Remember:Improvements to your home office space are legitimate business expenses and could be tax deductible. “Be sure to keep copies of receipts for all material purchases,” says tax expert Will Hillock. And be sure you can back them up, too. “As tempting as it may be, don’t try to claim a kitchen renovation or swimming pool installation.”

2. Get design inspiration and create a mood board

An eclectic living space with books, plants, a gallery wall against emerald green paint
Unsplash

If you’re not a designer or if home décor doesn’t come easy to you, there’s no shortage of inspiration across the web. Search décor publications likeHouse BeautifulorArchitectural Digestto find and clip inspiration for a new gallery wall or get tested desk chair recommendations. Or keep tabs on your favorite independent interior design creators on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest.

Collage of swatches and interior images form a mood board for designing a space
A digital mood board example using swatches, patterns, and product photos.Foyr

Your mood board can take many forms. You can choose to create one digitally where you collect home office design ideas from the web, color palettes or paint color swatches, and product photos. You can use a tool like Pinterest, Miro, or Canva to collect images and create your board.

Screengrab of a Pinterest board featuring home office design ideas
Pinterest
Screengrab of a Houzz inspiration board featuring home office ideas
HOUZZ

触觉的人,一个物理灵感板gather your home office ideas is another option. Use a bulletin board or a wall in your new office space to pin clippings from magazines, souvenirs from a trip to New York or Tokyo, hardware store paint samples, fabric swatches, and other items that will inspire the space.

Close up of an eclectic, busy workspace with bins of pencils and a yellow task lamp
A physical mood board helps you visualize colors, patterns, and design ideas within the space.Jonathan Gooch Photography/HOUZZ
Flat lay of botanicals and swatches in a variety of green tones
Get inspiration for everywhere—from nature, art, and textures.Marks & Spencer/HOUZZ

Your inspiration or mood board can contain both aspirational images as well as actual items within your budget. Your board will help you stay focused as you search for décor items and plan your layout.

3. Create a layout of the space before you even touch a hammer

An interior designer can work with you to establish a layout that meets your needs. But with modern technology—or simply a pen, paper, and a measuring tape—you can easily create a DIY home office layout at little to no cost. There are plenty of online tools and apps that can help plan the space in either 2D or 3D:

A simple floorplan for a home office design
Ballard Designs
3D floor plan of an office space
Room Sketcher

When considering how to lay out a home office, you may want to designate spaces for different tasks—separate areas for thinking, meeting, working, order packing, production—to help with focus and flow and to avoid clutter.

If Feng Shui—the ancient Chinese system that examines how energy connects people with space—is important to you, use its guiding principles to help choose a location, design the space, and arrange the objects. The philosophy says that proper arrangement of a space can affect wealth, success, and happiness.

A diagram illustration showing two feng shui positions for home office furniture placement
Diagram showing two desk positions for optimal room Feng Shui.Greatist/Cath McIntyre

你的布局或素描还应该考虑任何战俘er or other tech needs or limitations. The position of switches, outlets, and overhead lighting may inform the position of certain furnishings.

Ask yourself:

  • Are there enough power outlets? Will the placement of the office furniture allow for access to them? Do I need power bars or cord management solutions?
  • Is my home’s internet service adequate for my consumption needs? Where will the router be located?

4. Decide on the details—everything from color scheme to air quality

A small workspace with wall art, a large plant, and a computer
Unsplash

Now, the fun part.

Deciding on the details involves bringing your mood board to life. An easy way to start is to anchor the design around one special piece (say a glam light fixture or a sleek Scandinavian-style desk) or focal point and coordinate everything else around it.

On choosing a color scheme

Maybe you’re partial to monochrome schemes, bold black and white, or soft pastels. It’s important to stick to what you love versus what’s trendy. But picking the right colors for your home office should extend beyond personal preference, too. Color canimpact productivity and energy levels(blue and green are good choices here, respectively).

If your work is tedious or physical, colors like orange and red can be energizing. Yellow is a great color for design types, as it stimulates creativity. Beware of each color’s negative attributes too—yellow, for example, can cause eye strain.

Close up of a hand sitting on a booklet of paint swatches in many colors
Unsplash

Furnishings and décor accents

Furniture and décor can be expensive if you don’t know where to look. You also don’t want to sacrifice quality on items that will be seeing lots of daily wear. Big box stores like IKEA, however, are inexpensive one-stop shops for items like organizational baskets and plant pots.

Online furniture brands like Article offer higher end pieces such as accent chairs for a lower cost than some of the designer brands, as they have less overhead. If you splurge on a focal item for your room, you can accent it with a mix of lower cost pieces from Target.

A home office with dark blue walls, vertical bookshelves, bold art and a vintage desk
A conversation piece, like this vintage desk, can set the tone for the room.Decoist

Also consider finding unique secondhand or vintage pieces by browsing your local thrift or antique shops. You can get a rundown desk for a steal then give it a new life with a fresh coat of paint and upcycled hardware.

A home office with a mix of vintage and modern decor
This modern office design mashes up vintage pieces with modern accents like a brass table lamp and dark wallpaper.Little House of Four

Lighting is also a critical element to consider when setting up your home office. What are your lighting needs for different times of the day, including after the sun goes down? Overhead lighting or natural light may need to be compensated with a desk lamp or task lamp—especially if you’re working with detailed production.

Investing in healthy spaces

You’re going to be spending a lot of time in your new home office. That’s why it’s worth considering the impacts it will have on your health and well-being.

If there’s one place to splurge as you consider the details of your office design, it’s on an ergonomic setup for your office desk and chair. Be sure to adjust your seating and desk height to sit in the optimal position—back straight, feet flat, elbows 90 degrees—to avoid injury.

Regardless of the chair, prolonged sitting cancauseadverse health problems like fatigue, back tension, and reduced heart efficiency. A standing desk (or sit/stand combo desk) is a great alternative to a traditional desk.

A simple home office with an ergonomic chair and standing desk
Branch is one of many companies offering ergonomic solutions for modern home offices, including its desk chair and sit/stand table.Branch

Air quality is also a concern that should be addressed at the planning and building stages, from choosing healthy paints (low/no VOCs) to ensuring the space has adequate ventilation. “Green conditions” can improve cognitive performance and positively impact strategy and information usage, according to onestudy.

You can also consider air quality when choosing the décor and details of your home office. A portable HEPA air purifier or even a few houseplants can improve air in small spaces.NASA’s clean air studyfound that common houseplants can remove harmful toxins from the air, and recommends one plant to every 100 square feet of space. Varieties like the peace lily, english ivy, and varigated snake plant have extra air-cleaning qualities.

A cozy home office tucked into a corner against a window. A small dog sleeps on a window bench
A work area can still be a comfortable, healthy, and inspiring place.Unsplash

When you’re positioning houseplants around optimal natural light, consider the same for yourself. One study found that the amount of daylight exposure in the officecan impact sleep, activity levels, and quality of life.

5. Invest in smart storage and connected tech

Storage is an important consideration, especially in small, shared, or production spaces. Unless your business operates on adropshipping模型或你卖ervices or digital products, you’ll probably need to make room for product and shipping materials.

There are several ways to attack the problem:

  • Build up—make use of the vertical space with tall modular shelving, rows of floating shelves, or hanging baskets.
  • Buy accents and furnishings that double as storage (say, an ottoman with a removable seat/lid).
  • Purchase a slatted wall or peg system. For a DIY version, buy a piece of pegboard (available at most home building stores) and cut to fit a secondhand frame.
  • Try an open retail display to incorporate your products into the design of the room.
  • Designate a closet or other area of the home for separate storage.
  • Rent a storage unit outside of the home.
A home office featuring multiple white filing cabinets and an oversized bulletin board packed with inspirational images
简单的存储解决方案文件盒和小filing cabinets can tuck clutter away.Studio Monroe/HOUZZ
Interior featuring a bold red built-in bookcase and two bikes mounted on the wall
Multipurpose areas like open concept apartments require clever storage solutions to delineate spaces and eliminate clutter. Don’t have a lot of square footage? Build up.House Beautiful/Regan Baker Design
Tight shot of a workspace featuring a green pegboard holding multiple office supplies
Simple pegboard solutions can keep essential items close at hand, even if your desk doesn’t have drawers.Home Essentials Store

While much of your day to day is likely organized thanks to apps, there are several tactile home office design ideas to keep to-dos top of mind and inspire you to stay on track:

  • Replicate project management tools in an analog Kanban system and eliminate yet another open browser tab.
  • Try a large physical calendar for marking major events like sales,goals, or product launches.
  • Design a clear in/out system for mail, shipments, customer returns, paper invoices, etc.
  • In offices that double as production spaces, organize tools and materials creatively to keep them close at hand, and assign everything its own space.
An oversized 2023 paper wall calendar
Schoolhouse

Finally, consider your technology needs. Wireless internet and printers eliminate clutter and smart home products like Wi-Fi-enabled light bulbs and thermostats can keep your home office conditions managed automatically—one less thing to worry about.

6.Inject happiness and inspiration

Design your office with things that inspire you. What keeps you going? Is ityour kids, yourfavorite motivational quote, or thedrive toward your goal? Maybe it’s a prototype of your first product design. Represent that motivation visually in the space.

Motivational art prints are an inexpensive way to achieve this. Pair a print from your favorite designer with a basic IKEA frame or update an ornate vintage frame with colorful spray paint.

A home office featuring a large inspirational poster that reads
Schoolhouse
A large framed poster rests on a jute bench in a green room. It reads
橄榄等凸肚

Investing in yourself through thoughtful spaces

As an entrepreneur, you’re likely logging plenty of hours at your desk, and you’ve worked hard to build your business. There are clear benefits to improving your home office design—from mental health boost to improvements to productivity and workflow. Treat yourself with a space that inspires you to do what you do best.

Home office design FAQ

How can I make my home office more attractive?

There are many home office ideas that you can easily try to make your home office more attractive. Inexpensive ideas include: painting an accent wall with a pop of color, adding houseplants, integrating decorative vertical storage, and anchoring the room with a bold accent rug.

What are the top 3 things needed to design a home office?

For a typical office, ergonomic and functional furniture is generally the most important item. Your home office design should also include practical storage. Lastly, adequate overhead and/or task lighting is critical to avoid eye strain and property light your working area.

What else should be included in a home office?

fter taking care of critical items for productivity and flow, inject some joy and personality into your space with motivational art, plants, and color that make you happy. Connected home devices, adequate power sources, and cabling solutions are also helpful to consider when setting up a home office.

How can I make my home office more professional?

If you’re seeing clients or taking video calls, your space should reflect the image you want others to have of you and your brand or business. Eliminate clutter through smart storage, boldly represent your brand in the space (say, through signage or product), and make a clear delineation between your working and living spaces.

What type of desk should I use for my home office?

The desk you need for your home office is the one that best suits your needs. A sit/stand desk gives you plenty of options to alleviate back strain, which an old refinished vintage desk might suit your eclectic style. Be sure your desk is large enough to accommodate the items you need close at hand at all times, and that its height is suitable for your size.

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