People are often concerned with finding the right decor and design schemes for their living spaces, but now everyone wants to create a personalized home office. Professional remote opportunities jumped 360% between 2019 and 2021, proving that it’s a more popular home feature than ever.
Life is much more enjoyable when someone exchanges their commute for a personalized workspace, but they may not know where to start their design journey. These home office design tips will help designers and clients figure out exactly what they need for any work-from-home office.
Why Is Design for a Remote Office Essential?
How you decorate a work-from-home office space can do a lot to assist the person working there. A comforting, streamlined design helps decrease anxiety levels because the human brain enjoys order. Working from a space with too much clutter can reduce focus and make a person depressed and stressed.
Because more people are interested in working remotely, they’ll need design ideas that keep them on track and happy. These new clients might have unique challenges you may not have encountered before the at-home-work spike. As an architect or designer, you can help people thrive in their home offices by designing with these helpful style tips in mind.
Everyone Wants Comfortable Furniture
Traditional office jobs come with everything an employee needs to work. Cubicles and closed offices need to serve the purposes of anyone who occupies that space, which may change a few times per year. New hires don’t have a choice in their desk chair or any other office furniture, but working from home changes that.
Making people more comfortable is the first work-from-home impact on home office design. Clients may choose to work from a desk chair with cushioned armrests, an accent chair or even an inflated exercise ball. It depends on what their body needs to feel comfortable for an entire workday.
Most People Remove Distracting Decor
Sometimes decor can become too eye-catching. Walls covered in posters and messy bookshelves don’t create a professional background while on a video conference call with your boss. They can also pull your focus away from your work by being an eyesore.
Removing anything on the walls that could become a distraction or weaken the room’s design will improve every client’s focus and workday experiences. They’ll immediately have a more professional space for video calls by replacing outdated or messy wall features with picture frames, art or symmetrical shelving decor.
Productivity Has New Importance
It’s much easier to get distracted by things in your home. Architectural or design clients may feel less productive because it’s too tempting to work in front of the television or take frequent breaks for household chores.
Modern home office architecture must prioritize productivity within every design. Desks with enough storage space for pens, notepads and other work materials centralize everything someone could need during the workday.
Considering other things like minimalist rugs or cleared floors also leaves room for potential technological advancements that help people multitask without stepping away from their desks. Home robots now empty litterboxes, vacuum floors and clean pools without immediate supervision. Clients won’t have to worry about household chores while working if these machines can easily clean the office floor without getting stuck on plush rugs or around clutter.
Sound Proofing Is More Important
Optimized home office design plans now often include soundproofing the walls. Family members or neighbors with shared walls may make loud noises that distract clients while they’re in virtual meetings or completing tasks.
Wall panels can always be a consideration during planning meetings with clients. If they’d prefer not to cover their walls, they can also think about adding more upholstered surfaces and rugs to reduce sound pollution like echoing, which often disrupts focus.
People Are Upgrading Their Lighting
Traditional offices have fluorescent lighting across every ceiling. Home offices may only have a lamp or light bulbs built into a ceiling fan. Those might not illuminate the space well enough for video conferences or clients who struggle with their vision.
Lighting is an essential component of home office architecture. Floor lamps, opened curtains, string lights or a ring light could significantly affect how easily a client can work or appear in video calls. Discussing these options also provides design variety that allows everyone to create a space unique to their personality.
Cleaning Strategies Improve Everyone’s Mental Health
It’s trickier for people to balance their mental health when working from home. There’s no clear line between their work and personal lives. A commute would typically define those halves of a person’s routine and even prevent them from working from home after hours.
Clean home offices are an excellent tool to support someone’s mental health. Given that clutter harms your mental wellbeing by increasing stress and self-consciousness, every home workspace should make organization and cleanliness feel effortless.
Clients may enjoy a dedicated trash can in their home office so it’s easy to dispose of waste like food packaging or crumpled papers. Organizational design tools like rolling carts or peg boards also help people move belongings into places that better suit their needs, even if they change daily.
Indoor Plants Are More Popular
Many people can’t imagine their dream home office design without indoor plants. Plants add life to spaces and brighten them with bold petals and deep green hues. Research shows they also have a calming psychological effect because they represent daily growth and personal progress.
Depending on their gardening skills, clients may prefer living or faux plants. Either way, the flowers or foliage will add visual depth and texture to office spaces that lack character. People will also benefit from their calming presence during intense work days.
Multipurpose Furniture Is a Priority
Sometimes people live in homes that have an extra room. It’s easy to convert those spaces into an in-house office, but that isn’t always the case for every client. People often need to use their guest room or a living room corner as their daily workspace.
In that case, multipurpose furniture should become a design priority. A Murphy bed that folds into a wardrobe or shelving unit could be a valuable investment for guest room offices. Pull-out couches or desks that fold into the wall are other space-saving options. Choosing between multipurpose furniture pieces will be an essential part of any design process for clients who need to maximize the use of their space.
Learn About Changes in Home Office Design
People who need help with their home office architecture will look for experts who know how working from home has impacted home office design. Tips like using convertible furniture, prioritizing their mental health and even adjusting their lighting for better video conferencing abilities will significantly improve any client’s work-from-home life.
