home office furniture austin

Bringing Office Design Home

The home office is now a fixture in most homes. It’s a standard on floor plans. Whether starting your own business or telecommuting, 25 million call the office “home” at least part of the week. Just over 2 million self employed people work from home. And that number is on the rise.

Entrepreneur Magazine asked designers and architects for their take on the trends driving the home office sector. For the most part they are not just clearing off the kitchen table and making do…they are creating their own workstyle with functional personalized design.

As far as design, used office furnishings are a great springboard for your creativity. The home office environment is an opportunity to relax your style, yet still be functional. I think it should be in keeping with the over all décor of your home, but not skimp on the amenities needed for your workstyle. Be sure to include integrated technology, teleconferening and an impeccable chair. Here are just a few rules of thumb for a productive home office:

LESS IS MORE: Keep it tidy. Incorporate areas to store your work out of sight when you are done. Establish a reliable digital backup system to cut down on paper files. Integrate keyed closed drawer storage for your printer, paper files and laptop. This will keep your desk clear when you are not working. Keeping it to essentials will uncomplicate working from home.

MULTI-LAYERED + MULTIPURPOSE: Don’t be shy about creating your office in a multipurpose room. There have been a lot of home offices tucked in guest rooms and kitchen spaces. But the greatroom concept is an open pallet for disguising a home office. It does require some careful space planning. A wall of built in shelving disguised with paneled walls that open to reveal a functional office by day, and close to become a functional entertainment space by evening complete with a wet bar. Transitional furnishings are not new to office design or conference room design, where things can be stored out of sight when the room is not in use or broken down into smaller conversational areas. This can easily translate to a home great room environment. So think outside the box. A great room office might require some depersonalization if you use it frequently for client meetings.

CUSTOM FURNISHINGS: If you can envision it, someone can build it…or better yet retrofit it. So go ahead and buy a used desk and some chairs and reinvent them to fit your style. This might be an opportunity to make it more multi-functional than it might have been in its previous life. Most of the time you are limited in a corporate environment, but your home office can break a few rules. You can deconstruct a used desk and reinvent it to fit your space and create a built-in floating desk surface. If you desire a fitness component, to your desk, you could retrofit it into a home gym. If you can imagine it, it can certainly find a way into your home office.

SHED QUARTERS: Tiny Houses are a whole other option for home workstyle. You can make them into anything you desire. A detached office space in the garden will also keep your work life separate from your home life, especially if you desire a designated meeting space or more privacy for the type of work you do. They come in all shapes and sizes and are efficient and easy to adapt to the style of your home or not, depending on your workstyle. Authors, writers and creative types that like to spread things out would welcome this type of space.

Working from home has come of age in the age of technology. It’s a wireless world and work can happen anywhere, anytime. It might as well be perfectly styled on the home front. Used office furniture can be a blank slate for your wildest dreams, and you’ll need some good ergonomic seating. Space plan well, get connected with the right technology and your dream job will be well on the path to success.

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DSC02242-437852-edited.jpgMEET JULIE SHEAFFER: Julie can provide you with answers and furnishing choices to fit your green office needs. Her combined product expertise and application knowledge can help you create an environment that will meet and exceed your aesthetic and functional needs. Julie can help you find the right furniture for your home office, Contact Julie at 888-910-3769 x129 or julie@officefurniturenow.com.