Furnishing your home office: a colourful study.

Tips on furnishing your home office and small workspaces

You will need a suitable workspace within your own four walls if you want to work partly or completely from home. Your home office should not only be equipped with all the things you need for your daily tasks, but it should also be quiet and somewhere you can concentrate on your work. However, not everyone has space in their home for a study. Find out how you can set up your home office and integrate it as easy as possible into your home, even if you don't have a lot of space.

Furniture for a home office: workspaces can be visually separated from other areas of your home.

Setting up your home office: basic rules for having a workplace at home

In order to be able to concentrate and work effectively from home you should set up your own workplace in your home. There are some basic rules for your home office that you can follow regardless of whether you have a specific room or just a small space:

Quiet workspace: find a workspace where you can work quietly. It should be free of noise and distractions. Noise-cancelling headphones can help you to concentrate if your environment is rather noisy or if you are working with other people in a home office.
No distractions: make it clear to other household members that they should respect your workplace and not disturb you unnecessarily during working hours. This is especially important if you do not have your own study.
Stay Concentrated: don't have your smartphone near you and don't set up your home office right next to your television or games console.
Separate workspace: try to set up your home office in a way that establishes a clear barrier between your work and private life. If you do not have a separate room, you can use shelves or room dividers to help separate your workspace from the rest of the room.
Keep a tidy desk: keep your private workplace tidy. Desk calendars or notebooks can help you keep track of everything. Store documents and office supplies in folders, organisers or drawers when not in use.
Only use a couple of decorations: a few decorative things or potted plants create a more inviting environment, which will help you to feel positive while working from home. However, make sure to not use too many decorations as it can create the sense of a messy or disorganised working environment.
Ideal room temperature: for a healthy working environment a room temperature of around 20 °C is recommended. This will help to save energy and costs, while allowing you to work productively. It is important to air the room at least three times a day.

Setting up your home office: a woman working in her study at home.

Setting up your own workspace in your study at home

The best working environment for home office is a separate room. Setting up your workspace at home has many advantages for your work-life balance. Having a seperate room will help you to establish a clear work-life balance, which will help you to seperate private life from work life. This can then help you to concentrate better and thus work more effectively. You should defintely take advantage of this opportunity by converting a spare room in your home into a study. You can then use it as your home office.

If you already have a study, then all you will need to do is set up your workspace, for example with your laptop and any equipment, that has been provided by your employer. Once you have set everything up you are ready to get started and you can work from home. Other rooms in your home which are not often used such as a guest room or a playroom could be converted into a study, which will provide you with your own room to do your work in. Make sure to keep the following tips listed below in mind:

Decide on how you would like to design and furnish your own personal workspace at home. If you are looking to create a permanent home office, then comfort and practicability are the two most important things you should keep in mind.
When you are decorating your study, it is best to choose a bright colour that will help to create a relaxing atmosphere. Natural materials with a toned-down coloured wall design will help to create an inviting and cosy atmosphere, which will help you to concentrate and feel motivated. It is also a good idea to use a set colour scheme, but make sure to avoid garish wall colours and designs as these can be quite distracting.
If you have daily videoconferences, it is a good idea to have a neutral and tidy background. You can use decorative items to decorate your home office, but make sure it still looks professional.

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Did you know that ...

You can also set up a home office in other areas of your home such as under a sloping ceiling or in the hall. However, it is important to remember that you will need to have enough space for your office furniture as well as enough room to move around. Check whether you will have enough light and space if you are planning on working in one of these areas in your home.

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How to furnish your home office if you don’t have a lot of space

If you don’t have a study in your home, then you may need to get creative when using one of the other rooms in your home. This is something to consider if you want to set up your workspace in the living room, kitchen or bedroom:

Setting up a home office in a small environment: a woman working at her computer in her living room.

Get creative by making as much use of the space as you have. Ideally, your desk has drawers or offers enough space underneath for a small chest of draws. Wall shelves can also provide additional storage space without taking up much room.
Separate working and living areas with room dividers or large potted plants. You can use wall colours or carpets to divide a room into sections, which will help you separate your home office from the rest of the room.

If you don’t want to use room dividers and if you are planning on working from home for an extended period it is a good idea to try and match your chosen office furniture to your interior design. By doing so you can cleverly integrate your workspace into the rest of your home so that it doesn't stand out or look odd.
If you don’t have a lot of space to furnish your home office, you should avoid bulky office furniture. Instead, choose smaller pieces of furniture or lighter colours to make the room look more spacious.
You can use cable ties to help keep all your cables looking tidy and to help stop them from becoming tangled up. This way, your workspace will look nice and tidy and the cables will not become a nuisance after work.
It is recommended not to set up your home office in your bedroom as this room should be somewhere that is used for relaxing and getting some rest. However, if you don’t have any other options and you need to set up your home office in your bedroom, then it is advisable to set it up in such a way that you can tidy everything away after work.

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Tip:

Who pays for your home office furniture and appliances? If your employer requires you to work from home the answer to this question is rather simple. In this case, the company is obliged to provide you with the necessary tools so that you can work from home such as a company laptop - regardless of whether you work in the office or from home.

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Electronics and software needed to work from home

Your laptop or PC will need to work perfectly and also have software installed on it to protect your work from viruses and hackers. The helpful list below will give you an overview of what you will need if you are going to be working from home:

Laptop/PC

For most office jobs you will be provided with a PC or laptop by your employer as this is one of the most important work tools for an office job. The most practical option is a laptop as you can then take it with you and work from home or in the office. A docking station can be used to connect a laptop to the rest of the other devices on your desk.

Telephone/smartphone

Having a separate telephone or smartphone is a good idea for business calls. Alternatively, virtual telephone or landline systems for internet telephony are also available and for this you will only need a laptop/PC and possibly a headset.

Necessary software for office work

Programs that you need for daily work tasks should be pre-installed on your laptop/PC by your employer's IT department.

Office suite with programmes for writing, presentations and for making spreadsheets:
E-mail-programme
Software for online meetings
Specific software needed for certain work tasks (e.g. design programmes, etc.)

Security software, encryption and for backing up files and data

Professional antivirus software
VPN access (virtual private network) for an encrypted internet connection, if applicable
Hard disk encryption, if necessary
Access to your workplace’s SharePoint and intranet
Access to cloud services for backing up data and projects

Optional home office work equipment:

Headset for phone calls or videoconferences
Easy to use mouse and keyboard
1 or 2 extra monitors depending on your work tasks.

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Don't forget...

System and programme updates can be quite often carried out remotely by your employer’s IT department. This is an additional step in protecting your laptop and work against viruses and hackers. If such a service isn’t available in your workplace, it is important that you regularly carry out all updates for your operating system, antivirus software and any required software you need for work.

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Comfortable and practical office furniture for your home office

If you only work from home on an occasional basis you could always just use your dining room table. However, if you are planning on working either regularly or even full-time from home then it is a good idea to set up a workspace in your home:

Furniture for your home office: a man is talking on the telephone whilst working from home.

Desk with enough space
Rotatable, individually adjustable office chair
Lighting (floor or desk lamp)
Office supplies incl. storage (notepads, pens, etc.)
Storage space for documents

It is also advisable to pay attention to ergonomics when working in home office. This means that your home office should be adapted to your personal needs, for example, to avoid headaches, back pain or posture problems.

The following basic requirements apply if you would like to set up an ergonomic workplace in your home:

Your workplace should have as much natural light as possible. The natural light should come from the side to avoid shadows or being blinded by the light.
In addition to daylight, you also need adequate lighting to be able to work. It’s a good idea to use desk or floor lamps.
The desk should have a matt surface that it does not reflect light.
You should have adequate space on your desk so that you can work comfortably. The minimum size needed is 80x60cm, but 160x80cm is optimal and ideally you should be able to adjust the height of your desk.
The office chair should be adjustable to suit your personal needs. At least the seat height should be adjustable, ideally the seat depth, the backrest and the armrests can also be adjusted separately.
The monitor’s screen should have a diagonal screen size of at least 17 inches. Your computer screen should be on a low brightness setting.

Conclusion: setting up a workspace in your home even when you don’t have a lot of space

You don’t necessairly need to have your own study in order to be able to work comfrotably from home. Even if you don't have a lot of space, you can always use clever tricks to set up your home office in such a way that it fits in well with the rest of your home. By doing so you will be able to work more effectively without any distractions. It is always important to seperate your worklife from your private life even when you are working from home.

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