Your home office is a great space for you to focus on your work without distractions. A functional and organised home office will make you feel more energetic and productive. So how about getting started with your own home office makeover? It doesn’t need to be complicated or expensive.
Here are some great tips and steps to follow to give your home office a fantastic makeover without breaking the bank.
Organise Your Existing Office
Before you start buying anything new, you’ll need to organise the old. Work through any old paperwork and equipment and decide whether you really need it and how or where it should be stored. Sort your paperwork into piles, one for trash and a few to be filed. If you don’t have any files or folders, add these to your makeover shopping list. The same goes for your equipment. Place any equipment you need into one area of the room and make piles for trash, donation or storage. I’m usually quite sceptical about storage, don’t just put things into storage because you’re afraid of throwing them out. Only keep equipment which you are genuinely going to use.
Find A Style Which Inspires Your Work
Next you’ll need to decide what type of work area you’d like to create. Have a look online for some ideas for furniture, storage and functional components which you’d like to include in your home office space. This will help you to create an end goal so that you have a clear idea of what you are working towards in your end product.
Keep in mind that you don’t need to buy everything new. You can probably reuse your old desk and chair, even if they just need a varnish or a fresh coat of paint. You can easily turn and old wooden desk into one which looks brand new by spending a day sanding and repainting it.
Decide How To Separate The Area Or Room
A home office or work space needs to be an area which is free from distractions. Ideally, it needs to be isolated from the rest of the house, such as a room with it’s own door. A lot of people don’t have a whole spare room which can be dedicated to an office, so think about how you could include a room divider, a book shelf or indoor plants to close the area off from the rest of the room.
Start With The Walls
Now comes the time to actually get to work on your makeover. You’ll want to do the larger items first, so the walls are a good place to start. Get these touched up or re-painted first, then work on any fixtures such as built in cupboards or shelves, then add the furniture and finally finish off with the decor.
Invest In More Compact Tech
If you tend to hold on to your tech related equipment quite long, you’ll probably have a lot of bulky and outdated things cluttering up your work space. An office makeover is the perfect opportunity to upgrade a few of these items to minimise their footprint. Get rid of out dated equipment like fax machines and replace desktop scanners and printers with all in one units. Ditch the old wired keyboard and mouse for wireless ones. You’ll be surprised at how much space you can save by simply switching to newer technology, it doesn’t even need to be the latest.
Make Sure That You Have Good Lighting
Lighting is one of the most important parts of a functional work space, you don’t want to be straining your eyes to read or see your keyboard. If your work space is not near large windows or you do a lot of work at night, then you’ll want to install a couple of lights in and around your work space. The best lights for a work space are overhead LED strips or integrated tubes which can be mounted to the underside of overhanging shelves or cupboards. If you don’t have either of these, then consider installing LED down-lights in the ceiling above the desk.
Get An Office Plant
Plants are a great way to decorate an office space. They’ll dampen sounds and purify the air around your work space. Find small, low maintenance, potted plants to put on your desk or a slightly larger one for the floor next to your desk. They also make great room dividers.
Keep Your Area Organised
Clutter doesn’t lend itself to a productive work environment. You’ll want to invest in a couple of home and office organisation products. These can include filing cabinets, storage boxes, monthly planners etc.. There are loads of ideas for home office organisation online, so start searching for some ideas.
Have you done your own home office makeover? What are some of the ways in which you made it into a more functional and organised space? Let us know in the comments section below.