Having a home office has always been my dream. Growing up I was the kid that does homework on the dining table. Owning a desk means owning a dedicated territory in the home where you do all your adult life planning. Not like kitchen and dining space which represents a social environment where you and your loved ones share and communicate, home office is private and shall be a place belongs to you where you can absolutely opens up to yourself. Whether it is an entire study room, or a quiet corner in the house, it shall have your identity. The color of the space shall calm you down and prepare you room and atmosphere for some reflection and growth. The decorations on the desk and the wall shall reflect your personality and your identity. Are you an art enthusiast who like collecting of contemporary art work? Are you a travel lover where you keep your travel journals nearby and like to browse through photos you took in the past? Decorating your home office is to personalize the space and get to know yourself along this journey.

With the pandemic, working from home has become the new norm for many adults during the quarantine time. Many of you might have had occasionally worked from home before, but how do we prepare ourselves a more desirable home office that is not mundane and full of energy?

Like you, my friend, I have been asked to work from home for more than 4 weeks now. Most of the time I’m sitting in front of my desk, stuck with a cold computer without the professional social setting where sometimes a quick kitchen chit-chatting can light up your long workday. Surely not getting disrupted can increase productivity but it can also be hard to find the motivation to get to work when you simply don’t even get properly dressed anymore before you turn on your computer and work.

I decided to take a weekend to invest in my home office space decorations and make it more fun and inspiring. A properly designed home office can juice up your creativity and prepare you a better mood for starting out your day. Here is what I did.

Plan What You Need

Since I already have a loft space that I am using as an office space, I have no need of buying more furniture except for a MUJI body fit cushion that has been on my wish list for a while. The main goal of my home office makeover is to light up the space using colors and wall decorations and apply cable management strategies to make the desk space less clustered. I am a firm believer of the fact the your environment reflects your mind state and can impact your behavior. If you don’t have proper furniture, you may want to invest in a work desk and a comfortable task chair first. I’ve seen some Youtuber telling people that they can use alternative space as work surface or you can even use your laptop on the bed. My suggestion as an architect is that you want to make sure your work surface is not higher than 29 inches above the floor. If you find yourself have back pain working at a dining table, the reason is the table is not designed for work tasks. My principal of prioritize your expense items is below.

  1. Choose functional furniture, do not save on the investment of a task chair.
  2. Proper lighting
  3. Digital devices and Cable Management
  4. Decorations
  5. Upgrades of furniture and gadgets if your budget allows

Functional Furniture

People have different tastes on furniture. If you are someone like Saul Goodman who like a $7000 Cocobolo desk, then you may want to match your home office with exotic tropical decorations. For most people, it is much rational to choose a desk with good storage space, timeless design which does not cost a fortune. I like IKEA desks because you can buy desk legs to assemble with different desk tops. If you are on a tight budget or into DIY fashion, I would highly recommend IKEA than Office Depot or Staples.

Since I have extra budget to upgrade furniture, I bought a MUJI body fit cushion. The reason is I wanted to have an alternative space to under the roof skylight as a reading/lounging nook. The MUJI commercial of this cushion or bean bag really caught my eyes 3 years ago when I first saw it. People may criticize it for being overprice but as a designer, it looks better than your typical Wayfair beanbag or even more expensive LoveSac.

I am really happy with the investment. To create the reading nook, I bought a pair of Industrial pipe bookends and placed some of my reading list items across from the body fit cushion. This is what my chilling Sunday looks like.

Proper Lighting

If your home office has a window then natural light is always the first choice of lighting. Natural light can impact our mood and behavior in a positive way that artificial light cannot. My loft space has a skylight but it is not near the desk area. The overhead ceiling light is not bright enough for computer work and often casts shadows. Therefore getting a desk lamp would be good for proper task lighting. Knowing that my small IKEA LINNMON / ALEX table is just wide enough – 4 ft long to host a dual monitor with a PC tower, I found this compact desk lamp with the swing arm and clamp-on design a good space-saving choice. The style also satisfied my desire with its minimal design and adjustable swing arm. Sometimes I fantasize owning an antique bankers lamp which you see at most of the public libraries but for a small home office, the minimal design of this Modern Architect Table Lamp maximizes the desk space while provides more directional light for your focused task.

Digital Devices and Cable Management

As someone who is a tech geek, I have a dual monitor and desktop PC set up for years. They are by no means the fastest products out there but they still serve the purpose. I would highly suggest a bigger monitor (dual 24in monitors or one 34in monitor) if your budget allows as they help you focus better if you can read the screen better.

To put my OCD mind at east, I decided to invest in accessories for cable management to de-clutter my desk space. I am tied of seeing a power strip hanging on the floor with cords twisted underneath the desk. With the help some damage-free hanging strips, I glued the power strip to the back of the drawers and tucked most cables in a white Cord Concealer behind the desk. My desk has never been this organized without the look of the cables.

As we all experience the anxiety of adapting to the working from home routine, waking up to another “Groundhog Day”, little changes like hiding your cords or tidying up the desk when you finish a long day’s work can prepare you for a fresh start on the next day.

Wall Decos

Because I do not have access to daylight, I found not having greenery scenery can also contribute to the accumulating anxiety of working from home. Simply adding a floor standing plant can improve the vitality of the room and also relax your eyes. I opted to get this Succulent Canvas Art for my blank wall. Besides changing the color of the wall paint, hanging art on the wall is one of the most effective ways of adding your identity to space. It is also less disruptive approach than applying paint if you are living in a rental apartment.

Another fun thing I added to my office is a grid memo board to remind me of my goals and sweet moments of life. I found this gold wire grid panels that you can clip photos and post cards onto to frame your own inspiration board. It helps us to be more appreciative of what we own and reminds us the bright future we can look forward to. I chose gold as an accent color to warm up black and white theme at the desk area. You can also use the “Pinterest Ready” peg board to organize your wall and hang shelves and tools.

I’m looking forward to write down inspirational notes from what I read and clip onto the memo board and start curate more design thoughts. In our daily designer life, we call this a “Mood Board”. A board of collages of text and graphics to visually represent the concept behind a design.

How about creating a Mood Board for your creative home office to showcase your work?