Interior Design for the Home Office
The home office is a topic that can easily start a heated discussion among almost any group of people. Opinions aside for now, home-based businesses have grown tremendously in number over the last decade, and with some careful planning there is no reason why a home office cannot be productive and successful.
Home offices and home-based businesses have unjustly faced a bad reputation in the past. Mental images of some one working in their pyjamas with dirty laundry and dishes piled high around them are gratefully fading from people's minds and being replaced with a more professional image.
Just like an ordinary office, your home office has to work for you and your clients. And the first step (which also happens to be the most important) is location.
Usually when this is said people's reactions are, "But I have no other space!" A little creativity, and possibly some rearranging, can likely prove you wrong. Let's face it: if there is one unused space in your home, it is probably the least practical space in your home.
The most important factors in choosing the location within your home for your office are:
A few further points to consider:
If you have children, no matter their ages, do not even think about locating your office in a nook off the playroom or in a relatively open space somewhere between the living room and kitchen. Even young children can quickly be taught to knock before entering your office, and to only enter with your permission. Distractions are the most common complaint of home-office workers, so pay extra attention to make them less likely, and less time-consuming.
If your office will allow visitors, try to locate yourself near a door. Not only is there a chance that your home may not be as tidy as you would wish, but you won't necessarily want every visitor to get an in depth look into your personal life. When I say near a door, it can be the front door, a secondary door located at the front or side of your home, or even the garage door if you have the luxury of a garage that does not resemble a neglected storage facility. When giving visitors your address, clearly state, "Please ring the doorbell at the door located next to the garage door." or the door that applies if it is not the principal door to your home. A simple way to minimize the number of people who may have to walk through your home is to use a space/room that backs onto or abuts the interior entry. There is a good chance that creating a door directly from the entry into your office will be a fairly simple alteration.
Depending on your profession, you should be looking at different spaces in your home. A translator, for instance, can easily turn a closet into an office! All you would have to do is remove all shelves and clothes rods, have outlets installed on the back wall of the closet, plaster & paint, slide a standard-sized desk (not an L-shape) in, hang some shelves above the desk to store supplies and books, and voila! You're all set. An artist, on the other hand, would not be able to transform a typical closet into a studio no matter how creative (s)he may be. A lot of people find this very hard to believe, but if your office is much larger than what you really need, it will be more prone to clutter and disorganization. Who can resist the idea of leaving a pile of folders on a chair to file later? If you don't have the extra space, you'll find yourself doing the filing promptly. At the same time, if your space is really too small you may find yourself trying to store certain items in other rooms of your home, and that is another way to quickly become disorganized.
Look for Part 2 of this series: Home Office: Interior Layout and Set-Up.
Karen S. Weiner is the owner and principal interior designer of Idealspace Design. Established in 1997, Idealspace Design offers a full range of interior design services to home - and business-owners alike. Serving Montreal (QC) and surrounding areas. http://www.idealspacedesign.com
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