Tips for Home Office Interior Design: Make Your Workspace Yours

If you spend most of your working hours at home, a laptop at the kitchen table isn’t really good enough. Working from home is much easier if you have a dedicated workspace, and at Hopkins Homes, we’re finding more of our customers are actively looking for home offices and studies.

They also want their home offices to be inviting and appealing spaces. Because these little offices are actually part of our homes, we need them to look good and feel personal as well as being functional.

While many of our larger properties have dedicated studies, for those that don’t, here are our tips for setting up the perfect home office. Whether that’s in a new build home or an older property these tips will help you create a productive and comfortable workspace.

Plan Your Ideal Home Office

Home, hybrid and freelance working are becoming increasingly common: 44% of us spent at least some time working from home in 2023. Consequently, a lot of our new-build homes come with rooms that can easily be used as studies or home offices. However, in older properties or smaller spaces, you may need to get a bit creative: landings, spare bedrooms and even the space under the stairs can all make handy little home offices.

Consider Space, Light, and Storage Needs

The first thing to think about is space. Is there room for a desk, chair and other office essentials without you feeling cramped or claustrophobic? What do you need to carry out your work: do you use a multi-monitor set-up with printers and a desktop, or do you simply need space for a laptop and a cup of coffee?

Natural light can make any space feel more airy or comfortable, even if it’s small. Ideally, your home office has a window or skylight.

Storage helps to keep your workstation free from clutter, and we’ll look into this shortly. A wall for shelving is a definite bonus, especially in a bijou office space.

Furniture Essentials for Peak Productivity

Now you’ve chosen your space, the next step is to furnish it. At the very least, you’ll need a desk and chair. If you need a filing cabinet, you can get them in some fabulous colours and finishes these days.

Invest in an Ergonomic Chair and Desk for Optimal Comfort

Don’t be tempted to save money and effort by borrowing a kitchen chair: your back won’t thank you for cutting corners. A proper ergonomic desk chair will properly position your back and shoulders. Some people prefer to work at a standing desk: look out for electronic models that move between saved sitting and standing heights.

Light the Way to Focus and Comfort

In an ideal world, you’ll have a window in your office or workspace. If not, gentle ambient lighting with a desk lamp for task lighting creates a pleasant effect.

Embrace Natural Light and Task Lighting for Eye Health

Natural light makes a workspace healthier. It’s better for eye health, helps to prevent headaches and also cuts down on drowsiness (goodbye, post-lunch slump). A good LED desk lamp will help you focus easily on tasks, and make sure your monitor is comfortable to look at (clear but not harsh).

Choosing the Right Lamps and Maximising Natural Light Sources

A combination of diffused ambient light and task lighting is perfect for a home office. Try to locate your workstation in a room with a window. If you can’t (home workers in their bedroom dressing room, we hear you), think about swapping your door for a glass-panelled one that lets you “borrow” daylight from another room.

Boost Creativity with Inspiring Décor

You’ll probably be spending a lot of your working hours in your home office, so invest some time and thought into making it a nice space. After all, it’s part of your home, too.

Incorporate Artwork, Plants, and Personal Touches

This is one of the ways a home study is far superior to a shared office space: you get to put your stamp on it without any complaints or debates. Prints and photos can really brighten up a space, and plants are believed to be healthy additions to a workplace as well as attractive ones.

Using Colour and Lighting to Enhance Mood and Focus

Take personalisation a step further by painting your home office. We could talk about the best colours for productivity or calm; however, the best choice is the colour that makes you happy. If you don’t want to commit to paint, try colour-changing ambient lighting.

Organisation is Key to a Productive You

A cluttered workstation makes life harder, especially if you’re using a smaller space. A top tip we’ve had from home workers is to organise your cables. A cable tidy of some sort is a must-have for an uncluttered desk.

Declutter Your Workspace and Embrace Organisers

If you have the space, choose a desk with drawers or shelves so you have an easy space to keep things. Drawer organisers are real assets and look out for neat extra storage solutions such as monitor stands with drawers.

Boxes and baskets can make shelves look neater as well as organising items and paperwork, and a magnetic white board is far more aesthetic than having sticky notes all over the place.

Conquering Space Limitations

Maybe you’re tucking your desk under the stairs or you have the mezzanine earmarked as an attractive workstation. While some of us prefer to have our work set-up in a corner of a communal room like this, it can lead to space challenges.

Space-Saving Furniture

Look out for clever office furniture options, such as folding desks. Go upwards rather than outwards with shelves above your workstation, and wall-mount as much equipment as you can. If you have the headroom, kitchen-style floating cabinets take care of storage without taking up precious floor space.

Create a Healthy Work Environment

We’ve already looked at the importance of natural light, and a window will also give you much-needed ventilation. Proper ergonomic furniture protects your body during long hours at your desk. You can also use a footrest or a monitor stand to raise your screen, and there’s a great choice of ergonomic keyboards and mice.

Maintain Good Posture and Integrate Movement Breaks

As well as sitting comfortably, you also need to keep moving during the working day. It’s recommended that you take at least five minutes away from your desk every hour to move around and give your eyes a rest (set your phone or fitness tracker to give you prompts to move).

You’re now your own workplace health and safety inspector: you can even download the display screen checklist from the HSE (Health & Safety Executive) to make sure you’re working safely.

Key Takeaways

With a bit of planning, you can easily create the perfect workspace in your home. Think about space-saving solutions and ergonomic office furniture, as well as neat ways to slot in storage. You can also have some fun with this mini design project – think statement walls, funky house plants and colour-change lighting.

If you’re looking for a new build with a home office or study, talk to us at Hopkins Homes. As more and more people opt to work from home, we’re building this in.