These days working from home is the norm, which means having a home office is more important now than ever. I will show you how to design a home office that is not only beautiful, but functional. I’m not going to show you the perfectly edited version. I’m going to show you the real life version … because whose office looks like the pages of a magazine on a daily basis?
When we designed our house, my husband needed a designated room for working because he works remote. He’s a computer programmer and needs all the things that go along with that job – big monitors, laptops, and oh so many cords. The room isn’t huge, but it does have a nice view and we wanted to make sure he could take advantage of that.
We decided to face his desk towards the side wall so he could easily look out the windows facing the mountains. He also needed a wall behind him that looked good as that wall is behind him in all his video calls. My son took the photo and edited it and we just had it printed on a large canvas. For around $75 this is a great backdrop for all those meetings.
We love the look of built-in’s but they can be very expensive. My husband is handy, but he isn’t a furniture builder so this is a mix of purchased and custom. The base cabinets are kitchen cabinets/drawer units. Just like in my kitchen design, I love drawers. You can organize things so much easier in drawers. The shelving on top is custom made (by the hubs) using furniture grade plywood and the tops are furniture grade plywood as well (birch plywood). We matched the paint color to the premade base cabinets (from Prime Cabinetry). Buying the base cabinets was very cost effective saving lots of money as opposed to building them custom.
I love having open shelving for all our books and showcasing sentimental items. I know the trend is not showing the binding of a book but to me that is not at all practical. I need to see the titles as we read these books and pass them along to friends. Having the shelving go to the ceiling makes sense for a clean custom look.
We added sconces after the fact so these are not hardwired. The cord is hidden using a cord cover and plugged in under the desk.
The desk is custom made because it needed to be deeper than a standard desk. My husband likes lots of desk space for his extra large monitor and keyboard.
We used glass doors so I could see if he’s on the phone (so I don’t disturb him) and also to let in light. I LOVE light!
Printers are an essential part to an office, but they are bulky and ugly. Our printer is also a copier and there’s no way around the bulkiness and ugliness. Putting this faux tree in front sort of camouflages it. Ideally it would go in a closet but we don’t have any available closets to put it in.
Our little seating area is sized appropriately for the room. I enjoy coming in here for midday chats so extra seating is a must. It also brings in softness to an otherwise hard room. Soft muted toned carpet and art on the walls makes the space feel warm and cozy. My kids provided the artwork and the rug is from HomeGoods. I love finding rugs at HomeGoods because I like to see rugs in person rather than buying them online. And the price is always right. 🙂
Hopefully this helps you design a home office you want to work in. It’s a space where you spend a lot of time so you want it to be beautiful. You don’t need to spend a lot of money, just get creative! … And get back to work. 🙂