Home Office Design Ideas

Once a rarity, the home office is a landmark of our evolving culture. Many of us today work at home, at least part of the time. Putting some time and effort into your home office design can boost your creativity and productivity.

Whether you need a full-time office to run your freelancing or real estate business...or an efficient corner to pay bills, answer emails and lay out the family schedules, these design ideas will help you plan and create spaces that stimulate productivity, enhance creativity and allow you to work in your pajamas.

Don't have a spare room? What about an underused attic or basement?
Use a stairway or bank of cabinets to divide the space so that storage area can be separated from working space.
Bring in natural light with skylights in attics and with below grade windows with exterior window wells for basements.
A light, neutral color palette can make a smaller space feel less cramped.
Small scale minimalist furnishings can also play up the distinctiveness of a "found" space.
Work Inspired Design Style!

When it comes to imparting your style to your home office design, look to the work you do for inspiration.

When I first met my husband, he was a young building contractor working out of a converted shed behind his house. Skylights flooded the painted clapboard room with natural light. A sheet of finished plywood on sawhorses made a perfect drafting table, while door blanks set on file cabinets provided lots of desk space. Antique tools from second-hand stores and framed photos of projects lined the walls.

His natural office design was professional, appropriate and charming.

Are you a caterer...a website designer...a landscape architect?

How about the converted mudroom behind your working kitchen? Hanging framed prints of clients' homepages above your desk? Letting client presentations and botanical reference books add to the ambiance of your design?

If you bring your work home a couple days each week, consider creating an office in a seldom used guest bedroom, one end of a large family room or a master bedroom alcove.

The secret here is to delineate the space with area rugs, spot lighting and furniture groupings for working meetings. Again, you can use a piece of furniture, like an entertainment center or hutch, to separate your home office in a shared space.

Finally, remember to keep the home in your home office Design. Extend the personality you've infused into your unique Interior Design style through to your home office.

Taking time with home office design will give you a soothing, harmonious working space where you can do your best and realize your highest potential.

Mother Nature provides the best design

Living with nature is always a stimulating experience. So it is better to allow the natural beauty to make some good design for the home office. If the offices have windows and openings, make it fully opened so that the office is fully brightened and airy. If there are not much windows or openings, use nature's wall papers or posters to bring the natural feeling and greenery into the office setup.

Why can't you try out some fresh flowers in the table top of your home office? It will not only make you pleasant and fresh, but it will give good fragrance as well. You can design the office by arranging nicely small green plants, which make the backdrop lush greenery and can provide fresh and pure oxygen content in the indoor. Adding to it you can think of a cute fountain to have nature's music in the home office.

Avoid all distractions

To have focus on your work, you should avoid all distractions from the other parts of the home. There can be many distractions like TV sounds, kid's playing noises or even smell of delicious foods arising out of kitchen. It is better to keep the home office in a place such that these disturbances and interruptions do not affect the working atmosphere.