With so many employees not going back to a full-time office environment, now is a great time to think about what you can do inside your home to make it a perfect ‘working from home’ environment. Therefore, should you need to work from home, you can make sure you create a home office space that is both comfortable and stylish and meets all of your working needs. There are many ways you can adapt your existing space. Little tweaks such as bringing in room dividers, or more adventurous stand alone garden offices, or smaller garden pods can all be bought or created to fit your size and budget.
Create an ideas book
Every employer wants their staff to be happy, safe and comfortable when working from home. Once you have a rough budget, it might be worth asking your boss if they would contribute to some of the renovation costs! Create an Ideas book and start compiling your favourite pictures of home office spaces, textiles, houses, commercial office spaces, homes, garden offices ……… This is such a useful tool and it’s really fun browsing the internet and magazines. Here’s a few websites/portals that we love; The Spruce, Houzz, Homify and Pinterest. Some of the ideas may be out of your price range, but there are many inventive ways we can adapt your ideas to fit your space and budget.
Looking at existing space and how you can adapt to create a home office
Room dividers
Simple and affordable and perfect if you are working in a corner of your living and just want everything hidden at night. We’ve seen some really smart looking panel room dividers at Wayfair.co.uk, or you could get them made bespoke to fit your measurements. Bookcases are another great way of keeping your workspace away from your living space.
Create a new room
If you have a large living room or kitchen you could always steal an area and create a new study. Having a separate home office setup is the ideal way to work from home. You have your working environment away from the distractions of home life and when engaging in the office zoom meeting you can rest assured that you won’t be disturbed or embarrassed by a partner, child, or pet running under your feet, to try not to be seen on the video camera!
Constructing a new room can be easy, cost-effective, and doesn’t take long to build. Now that we are changing the way we work, building a home office using the current space is becoming very popular amongst our clients.
Landings/under staircase/eaves/basements
You can build a small home office space just about anywhere. We have seen and created fantastic workspaces using the space under stairs, landings, and eave space. If you have an old basement then tanking it out can be another option.
The Garden office
Probably the ideal solution to working from home is to have a separate working space away from your house, but still within your grounds. We love the garden office, there is something really exciting about building your own private space in your garden. It can be multi-functional, it saves you money on commuting, it is tax-deductible, affordable to run, and adds value to your home. You can also have meetups with your colleagues or invite them along to work alongside you in your new garden home office, while abiding by the social distancing rules.
It also gets you away from the hustle and bustle of family life, and if and when you return to working in a commercial office, that wonderful space you have built-in your garden can become another room for you and your family to enjoy.
Conclusion
With thousands of staff now having to work from home indefinitely, there are many options where you can adapt your home into a workable home office and it doesn’t have to be expensive. If you would like to speak to us about creating a home office space please don’t hesitate to get in touch.