Creating a home office has been something most of us have had to consider over the past 18 months or so. It’s been the craziest time and that’s not been helped by most of us being completely unequipped for working from home. It didn’t take long until we felt like we had had enough of multitasking at the kitchen table alongside children who were trying to homeschool via busy zoom calls, and don’t get me started on how uncomfortable it is to spend hours at a time on a kitchen bench.
I, along with so many others decided that I needed to create a home office. If you’ve not yet joined on the bandwagon there are obviously a few different ways to approach this. You could change the use of a guest room from a bedroom to a home office or if that’s not a possibility then you could just create an area to work in in a spare room or even convert an area of your bedroom. I opted for the latter. I moved some furniture around so that I could fit in a small table for the printer and my laptop. It was a blessing to be able to escape the chaos happening downstairs.
A remortgage might be helpful to free up some money to do something more permanent. My brother was fortunate enough to have already been in the process of making his double garage into a single thus freeing up space to create a home office. An earlier build had seen half of this space converted into storage and a downstairs cloakroom. My sister-in-law is considering using some of her spacious garden to put an insulated garden room in her sizeable garden for her to work from. She’s based from home a lot so there is a real on-going benefit there.
Whatever you do to create the space for your home office you obviously want to make sure it benefits you going forward and adds value to your house. There have been many cases where families have decided that their house is just not meeting their needs any more. The Pandemic brought into stark reality when people had outgrown their homes. There was a need for siblings to have their own rooms, complete with a desk and laptop, and adults to have an office or two where adults could join virtual meetings and have some peace to concentrate.
Also think carefully about the future and what the office may potentially be used for too? Make sure it is versatile and practical so that you can easily changes its use if needed. Also try to ensure it is somewhere that brings joy. You’ll want to ‘want’ to spend time in it. Believe me, there is nothing worse than working in a place that sucks the creative juices out of you. Your surroundings need to inspire you! Ensure you include colour, luxury fabrics and furnishing and generally things that make you happy. You’ll need to get the lighting right too. Bright lights for when they are needed, as well as soft lighting, lamps and even fairy lights are my jam! Make a list with all of the things you want in it and go from there….