4 Tips for Decorating Your Home Office

With more than 1.54 million people working from home for their main job, a notion Forbes has coined as the ‘working from home army’, a home office may not only be a practical choice but a necessary one. Thus, creating a space within your home that nourishes productivity and efficiency is essential.

At Zoom-Room, we are experts at creating products that maximise space without sacrificing on design, both of which cater to clients' individual needs and design aesthetic - regardless of the size of their space.

With this being said, we have created a list of the top tips for decorating a permanent home office, to help you create a space that will enhance work productivity and seamlessly fit with the rest of home interiors.

1. Elevate Your Thinking

Make sure you allow enough space to work comfortably. Ask yourself, will you be able to move around easily in your home office.

With this in mind, even the smallest space can be designed, decorated and organised with sufficient space. The trick is to think up. Utilising vertical square footage by incorporating floating shelves or installing cabinets is a fruitful way of maximising the room in your office, without sacrificing on essential floor space.

It is often the case that bespoke furniture facilitates space maximisation. Built-in shelving and desks allow you to position everything exactly where you need it, and in accordance with existing features of the room.

Although more expensive than off-the-shelf options, custom furniture is worth the investment if you use the space every day. It can also be the best option for a multifunctional space, such as a guest room. For example, our Zoom-Room desks are an extremely practical design feature within a contemporary home office, intertwining form and function together to accommodate everyone's individual needs. Throughout times like these we truly begin to realize the importance of a multifunctional space. The custom made desks can facilitate work during usual office hours, whilst transforming into a comfortable bed at the push of a button when guests come to stay.

2. Incorporate Light

It’s very easy to underestimate the effects of the surrounding environment on your ability to work.

Natural light is the primary ingredient of a successful interior space – especially a home office. Views to the outside have been shown to improve everything from productivity to our sleep-wake cycle and well-being.

Good lighting is critical for any home office space. Choose a location with some natural light and a view if possible. However, it is important to position your desk to face the windows or in a location where your computer screen will not be affected. You can also enhance natural light by including a mirror and by keeping most of your walls a light color.

Alternatively, inspire creativity with statement lighting. Overhead ceiling lights typically provide good general lighting to facilitate work productivity. Open-top floor lamps placed in the corners of your room are also fruitful ways of installing additional light without being too overbearing to keep the right ambiance for the home office setting.

3. Cut cord clutter

Clutter is at its most distracting in the home office area.

In our digital age, one of the absolute worst things about offices is all the technical clutter that accumulates overtime. While your typical workstation may accommodate computers, printers and various cables, your home office location may be feeling extremely chaotic.

When setting up your home office, it's important for you to take some steps in combating cord clutter. As a temporary measure, you can organise your work station by cutting a hole in the back of a box. Your router and other necessary tech can live in there with cords fed out the back. Mount a power strip underneath or on the back of your desk. Use cable ties and command hooks to wrangle any cords that get plugged into that power strip and feed them along the back of furniture where they’re out of sight. You’ll be amazed at the way simply removing the eyesore of cords will make your office feel clean and bright.

Our Zoom-Room murphy bed desks ensure that less attractive support components are out of sight. Towards the back of the Zoom-Room murphy bed desks, there's room for a 22" monitor, your keyboard and mouse, plus small shelves to organize all of your office needs. We even provide a power strip, USB ports and cellphone/tablet stand. Fold your Murphy Desk back up and it all disappears! With bespoke units, you can also specify how many power points you want and where cables need to go, so ensure you factor in lighting, computers, printer, TV, music system and charging points.

4. Make yourself at home

Creating an aesthetically pleasing home office design is extremely important.. Once regarded as a luxury, a home office space is now a must-have as more and more of us work flexibly – or in recent times solely at home.

Indeed, your home office is an extension of your house or apartment. Therefore, it should be decorated according to your own personal style and decor. Although, the great part about working from home is that you can decide how you want your home office to look and feel.

Important note: to keep consistency within your home, decorate with the same themes you’ve used in your house and incorporate items you love.

At Zoom Room, you can select from an extensive range of home-office cabinets that integrate all the comfort and character of the rest of the home. Our professional furniture makers have introduced everything from decorative wood furnishings to sleek modular desks in bright laminates - for those who prefer a contemporary design. With the same style options available for furnishings, finishes and accessories in the rest of the house increasingly finding their way into home office design, we believe your focus on work should not supersede your personal style.