5 Min Read
Over the past few months, many professionals have grown accustomed to working at least partially from home. Given the uncertainty of the future, now may be the time to ensure you’ve created the optimal office space at your house.
Whether working remotely in Alachua County is temporary or part of your long-term professional plan, having a home office is beneficial in numerous ways. Without leaving your home, you can slip inside a space tailored perfectly for your needs and get done whatever you need to when you need to.
Creating a Custom Home Office
Built-in home offices can be as simple or complex as you desire. Whether you’re creating a home office on a budget or constructing a new, fully outfitted space suitable for accomplishing all your professional responsibilities, the first step is figuring out your goals and designing a plan for your optimal environment (and even private!). Here are several home office ideas to consider in the process:
1. Design an Ergonomic Workspace
Most people who’ve been working from home have tried the couch, the bed, or the kitchen table and found them lacking. It’s too easy to fall asleep in bed, the kitchen table encourages excess snacking, and it’s oh-so-easy to binge-watch HGTV from the couch. Worse still, none of these places are ergonomically designed for work, so many workers are reporting more back and neck pain from sitting in weird positions. So, when designing your work from home space, consider custom office ideas like a standing desk designed for optimum ergonomics and activity while you work. You can even design custom desks that switch from standing to sitting positions. Choose a high-quality, supportive office chair to promote good posture. With some traditional offices adjusting to more work-from-home situations, you might be able to find high-end, ergonomic office furniture Gainesville offices are selling for discounted prices.
2. Create Real or Perceived Privacy
It can be challenging to mentally switch between “home mode” and “work mode” when you’re working remotely from your house in Gainesville. Having a physical barrier to separate your workspace from other areas is optimal. Ideally, you should put your home office in a room with a door that shuts and locks. If it will be incorporated into another room—such as your bedroom or a media room—a mobile partition or hanging curtain can give you the semblance of privacy you need to get into the right headspace when it’s time to work.
3. Find Optimal Lighting
Exposure to natural light throughout the day positively impacts your mental and physical health. If you’re designing a home office, make sure it includes a window or two, or even a skylight, so you can bring natural light into the room. If natural light sources are limited in the space you’ve designated for your home office, use a desk lamp or other softly glowing light to prevent eye strain and keep you productive while you’re on the clock.
4. Construct a Suitable Background
When designing a custom home workspace, it’s common to focus on what you want to put on your desk and what you want to be looking at. However, since it’s also common for professionals working remotely to use video-conferencing tools for meetings with colleagues and clients, you should also give some thought to what is behind you so it’s not distracting when you’re on video calls. This is especially important if you’re incorporating the workspace into a common area with high traffic. You can put the desk facing out, so callers see a blank wall, bookcase, or another simple yet classy backdrop.
5. Add a Whiteboard
Sometimes you need a large, physical space for writing outlines, developing content, story-boarding, or marking a list of goals. For that purpose, consider including a whiteboard in your custom home office as an additional tool. If there’s no room for something that large in your workspace, you can instead use paint to create a chalkboard on a door, which is equally useful for mapping out ideas and keeping your thoughts organized. Further, it gives you the excuse you need to stand up and stretch your legs while working at the whiteboard or painted chalkboard area you've created.
6. Maximize Charging Capacity
Custom offices at home often incorporate a variety of equipment, including your dual monitor, scanner, copier, router, Amazon Echo, smart accessories, and whatever specialty items are required for your job. Keep this in mind as you’re designing your home office and selecting where to locate power sources and how many to include. Top-notch charging accessories—such as the Anker PowerCore Fusion or a tower wall charger—are also useful for keeping your myriad of devices operating throughout the day.
7. Be Inventive with Space
Not everyone has the capability of constructing a room addition onto their home to serve as a home office. That doesn’t mean you have to forgo the concept entirely. You can reconfigure or retrofit an existing spot in your home to encompass your workstation. A few ideas include setting up a small workstation in your kitchen, living room, attic, bedroom, sunroom, or utility room. You can even set up shop on a wide stair landing, an unused closet, or the space under your stairs. The only issue with placing your workspace in a common area is you may be subjected to activity or interruptions from other family members, so consider how capable you are of multitasking and invest in quality noise-canceling headphones.
8. Incorporate Custom Office Cabinets
Whether you are remodeling a small space in your existing home layout to serve as your dedicated “office in house” or you’re planning on a full custom home addition for that purpose, the great thing about home office remodel ideas is that you can customize them to fit your work style and needs. For example, if you are setting up a small office space in a nook, the living room, or even the kitchen, you can have custom office cabinets created to securely lock away your work when you’re not using it. This keeps work and home life separate and safe from kids and pets when you’re not working. It also makes transitioning from work to relaxation a breeze; and with great design, nobody needs to know the dining room is also your office! Custom office cabinets can be built and situated for ease of use and designed so they look great within whatever room you’re using. What’s more, if you’re planning on living in your home while having further home remodeling work done, locking cabinets for your office supplies keeps all your items safe from the dust and chaos that can come with living through a remodeling project.
9. Decorate with What You Have
If you’re building a new home office on a budget, don’t stress. You can be creative and economical with your furniture and décor choices. Instead of purchasing a new desk, lay a board across two filing cabinets. A multi-level shoe shelf can be used to store papers, books, and other small supplies. When hotels and professional offices renovate, they also are looking to get rid of furniture and supplies, which could mean discounts for you. If you’re going shopping for a desk, table, cabinets, or other furniture, make sure you first get measurements so you don’t purchase items that won’t fit in the space.
10. Home Office Design to Inspire
Your dedicated home office space design should inspire you! So, choose decor, a fresh coat of paint, art, and plants that bring you joy and get you in a creative, focused mood. If calm, cool neutrals keep you focused, try those. If you need a lot of bright, saturated colors to get your creative juices flowing, design with that in mind!
Building a Custom Home Office in Alachua County
Having a home office of some sort is quickly becoming more of a requirement than a luxury in Alachua County. Whether you’re remodeling an existing space to serve as your workspace or constructing a new room addition for that purpose, Robinson Renovation and Custom Homes can guide you through exploring options for built-in furniture and other features to optimize the space. We know the importance of creating a workstation or office that is tailored to your professional needs and preferences and we make that our top priority throughout both the design and construction.
