Home office design is one of our favorite topics since so many of us are working from home now or have a 2nd office at home and we’ll be exploring that this week with you – and today, I’ll be giving you 5 home office design tips to think about before you begin designing your home office and a few swoonworthy inspirational photos of gorgeous home office designs, like the one above, designed by Kelly Wearstler, to get our home office series off on the right foot…
What a genius idea of Jennifer Reynolds Design in Atlanta to style this home office she created, here, with Louboutins.
#Love!
Without further ado, here are our top 5 tips to consider before you begin to design your own home office, or the home office of a client.
First, is the chair. If you or your client is going to be working from home, consider if the chair you want to use fits , if it adjusts to fit anyone else who may also be using it, if its arms need to fit underneath the desk and if the arms are at a comfortable height if the person using the desk will be typing on a keyboard. Here’s a little graphic I created for you to PIN, that demonstrates this.
Secondly, is wire management. It’s important, especially in new construction, to think carefully about wire management before you buy your desk or finalize your floor plan. Today, with wireless keyboards, computers and printers, this has become less of an issue, but if you or your client still has wires to contend with, you will want to consider placement solutions and floor outlets that allow you to hide or store your wires in elegant ways.
One of the best easy wire managements solutions I’ve seen, that can be added to the back of any desk, is this one for 9.00 available from Room and Board, here. These are self adhesive strips with Velcro allowing for cord release. What do you think?
Many of the beautiful pictures you might see in magazines of home office designs have been styled, as you can see below from this one of Joe Ruggiero’s beautiful new home office collection, and have had wires removed for a prettier picture, but in real life, interior designers will always help you carefully consider wire management and provide solutions for you that also help prevent trips and falls.
Third is lighting. If you will be using your home office for serious work most of the day, good task lighting that adjusts and dims will be important but if your home office desk gets plenty of natural light, and is not used in the evening, a beautiful lamp, as in this home office designed by Barbara Barry, will work.
#Swoon!
Fourth is file storage. It’s important to consider what kind of storage you’ll need in your home office before you begin the design process. Some people have all their files online, and scan every document. If this is you or your client, you may not need any file storage at all, and just a pretty surface, while others are paper people, and need their files close at hand.
This home office, shown below, designed by Kelly Wearstler, shows how beautiful bookcases used behind a desk, could also, on the bottom, conceal files. An elegant solution like this can easily be customized for you by an interior designer so you can have exactly the type of file system you need.
Notice how Kelly also artfully concealed the cord from the task lamp on the desk, most likely by having the desk custom designed and having the cord run down inside a leg to an outlet in the floor, under the carpet, directly beneath one of the legs. This is why good space planning with a professional interior designer is so important.
Lastly, consider the impact of color, not only for the obvious reasons, but also from a branding perspective. If you or your clients are seen online, on video, from your/their your home office, you may want to consider how the background behind your desk, and the colors, interact with your/their brand. This is a relatively new design consideration for home offices, but one that will become increasingly important to all those conducting business via Instagram Hangouts on Air, Skype or other methods of video communication from home.
I think designer Mary McDonald’s office background below, instantly connects to her brand, do you?
I was excited to hear that Mary will be at #HPMkt in the fall, too. Her first collection under Jay Reardon’s direction, for Guy Chaddock at the Spring 2014 Market, was a standout.
Her Josephine Bookcase, for Chaddock, pictured below, would be perfection for a home office of distinction. What do you think? Do you love this, too?
Seeing Mary’s gorgeously detailed JOSEPHINE cabinet, in situ, makes a difference I think, as shown below with some of her other pieces from this same collection. Those base cabinets could be customized and enclosed, for files.
And, lastly, what’s a home office without a beautiful tray, to hold the objects that add beauty and meaning to your life, like travel mementos, children’s photographs, fresh flowers and treasured gifts? This tray, with its Eiffel tower bibelot was found on Arianna Belle’s wonderful blog, all about organization, here.
Leslie Hendrix Wood has a thing for fresh flowers and Paris, as you may have noticed, here.
What home office design tips are important to you? What did we miss? Let us know in the comments!
for
Leslie Hendrix Wood
Founder
Editor In Chief
HADLEY COURT
Decorator, Chancellor Interiors
Midland, Texas
Gracious Living. Timeless Design. Family Traditions.
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