Working from home or working at home is great if you have a nice place conducive for this purpose. The best is to have a dedicated space where everyone in the home can spend time doing some work. Whether it is homework, office work or just a place to read a book or even for a hobby, there should be some form of thinking behind this. Here are some ideas that will work very well.
Hide away
If your house has an attic or a basement, you can create a working space in these areas. It is, after all, the most peaceful place which is hidden away and far from the other parts of the house. A space like this becomes very conducive to get work done and is also a great place to get away and indulge in your hobbies every once a while too.
Remember the kids
While you get to indulge in your own working space, don’t forget about the kids. Your workspace might look almost the same as the one in your office but you need to build a lower one with specialized and ergonomic furniture for the children.
Encourage Learning
A working space for the kids would be perfect if it encourages learning. While not every child likes their home working space to reflect their classrooms, you need to have some form of inclination so that they know it is a place to learn and make new discoveries. As such, there should be furniture or fittings that cultivate sharing and discussions as well as to let them express themselves.
Double-decker ideas
This idea is quite common these days where a double-decker bed is converted into a working space on the lower level. This is perfect for the children who get their own workspace and enjoy better privacy too. Furthermore, it maximizes the bedroom and doubles it up for them to do their homework.
Personalize a corner
While your workspace is filled with tables and bookshelves, dedicate a space that is personal to you. This could be by the window (with lots of natural light) and comfortable too. You cannot be working on your office desk all day, so when you are taking a break to sip on the coffee or to have short leisure read, this corner could well do the job splendidly!
Working Room
If you have the luxury of space, dedicate a room only for working. This place should be renovated with the simplest (minimalist) of design with very minimal clutter. The idea of this room is that you bring whatever you need into the room and complete your work there. There should not be shelves or other distractions so that you remain focused.
Go Boardroom
This design is tricky but can be very effective especially when the kids are older. It can be one large table or a combination of many put together to foster more collaboration and discussion. When all members are seated, it cultivates closeness among the family members and a lot of sharing becomes possible.
Go with Sharp Colors
The working space need not be dull or boring. In fact, it must not be. Simplistic is one thing, dull is just totally a no-no. use sharp colors and attractive schemes especially when you have kids around the house. While white background might work, get the combination right with some rugs and even throws for leisure reading.
Use specialized furniture
The T-desk is perhaps one of the most interesting office fixtures around today. You get to maximize the space that you will be working on which gives you up to 4 working areas at least. That’s more than enough for a small nuclear family these days. What better way to enjoy family bonding time with everyone seated together and doing some work at the same time? And it looks neater too!
Island of Culture
Put together an island in the middle and you get a place to create a craft together as a family. The island doubles up with drawers at the bottom to keep all types of items. Such a space is great if you enjoy making art or craft together every once a while. Meanwhile, the side could be dedicated workstations for everyone.
Modernistic Workstations
Use modern motifs when you design your workstations. This is one ambiance which is designed to exude your personality. There is no need to create boundaries as everyone would use their own private and dedicated spaces. Great for homes that adopt a more modern and contemporary ambiance.
Classroom Motifs
If you have a special room for the kids (assuming you have 2 or more kids), then you can create a classroom-feel type of working room. It might not promote the temperament of the school but it should be designed to encourage the kids to love doing their school work or to do some additional reading after classes.
Mounted on walls
If you are limited in terms of space, this design might work wonders for you. First, the tables are mounted on the walls which mean you can use the corners. Secondly, you can create a co-working space type of ambiance and the height is up to your liking. This means it would be perfect if you have babies crawling around the house with your things remain out of reach.
Office along the way
If your home has limited spaces and you need to find space for working, you can create a parallel office along a walkway. This could be done without being too intrusive while maximizing the space you have around the property. Besides that, you do not need to find a dedicated workspace as the ‘office’ can be placed just about anywhere.
Double-up your furniture
If you have benches or built-in furniture in your workspace, use them for storage. Get a bit creative and use these spaces to help you store your files. Such storage spaces should keep things that you do not frequently use.
Convert unused rooms
One idea is to use a walk-in wardrobe and convert it into a home office. If you do not have such a use for the wardrobe, then using it for work might well do the trick. This design is quite unique but if you can pull that off, it should be quite nice as you have a private space that can include some relaxation furniture as well.
A family room for creativity
Your home office should have all that is required to fulfill the needs of everyone in the family. This means that they should be able to study here and carry out revision or someone could finish a painting, make crafts or collaborate with anyone else in and around the house.
Get organized
In your home office, make sure that you have enough and proper items that help organize things. What you want is the least obstruction when you are doing your work. Use smart storage systems so that you can store the files, documents and other items accordingly. This makes it look neater and more organized too.
Go Solo
If you are limited in terms of space and would like collaboration, then, a work and study table could do the trick. Such a setup is very simple with a one-table layout. In other words, everyone would be sharing the table where there is no privacy and secrets.
Chill and laid back
This might not work for everyone but you can create and ambiance which is more relaxed, laid back and chilled. The office can be white or pastel but you can pick the furniture which is more colorful without being too uniformed. A large table in the middle will give everyone space they need to work on but the surrounding furniture could help them relax a bit and just work on their laptops.
Go Conventional
If you are those no-nonsense type of office owner, you might just want to just do what has been tried and tested and you will not go wrong. Standard fittings like office chairs and tables and hanging lamps are just some of them and standard fittings for desktop computers at their rightful places. Typically, this might be a boring outlook but it is used by a majority of homes.
Unused locations
It is very common among double-storey homes to have a part which is unused like a landing between 2 sets of stairs. If you can, convert this space (provided its large enough) and turn it into a working space with fit-in cabinets and shelves.
Dedicated Workstations
While the family is all about sharing, the workstations should be divided. Each member should have their own table and chair, bookshelves, storage or drawers and other fittings. This way, everyone enjoys their own privacy and they can also customize their own workspaces too. Perfect when you are all working together or when working individually.
High Shelves
At first glance, you will think that this looks like a state library. While you get the workstations at the bottom of the shelves, the books can be stacked all the way to the top. The highest shelf could be used as a decorative space while the lower ones can be used for book storage. Typically, you can add in a small corner for reading with throws and pillows too.
Space and Futuristic
This would go with the more kindergarten and play-school ambiance perfect for the younger ones. You use space and futuristic motifs on the walls so that the kids know they are in for fun when they learn or when they do any school work. Typical wallpapers include movie characters, animated series and such.
Go Rustic
This idea will bring you back to basics. You will use a lot of whites in this room and then fill up the spaces with wooden trims. This can be the floor or the furniture. A combination of white and wooden layers would be perfect to give your workspace a more rustic and classic outlook.
Go Boring
Believe it or not, many designers would go for the boring look. A working space should, after all, exude work. You will go for pastel color scheme and standard chairs and tables so that everyone knows what they are in for. Nothing much to shout about in this but serves the purpose well enough anyway.
Flow from the kitchen
You can design and allocate your workspace to near or next to the kitchen. This means you need to follow the ambiance of the kitchen with your workspace. Perfect for those who like to do work with a cup of coffee all the time or those who need to be close to the kitchen as they like to commute there to get some food every once in a while.
Use the wall
Not all walls can be used for shelves or for decorative items. The wall can be mounted with a chalkboard which works for its function as well as for decoration purposes. A chalkboard wall can be quite unique which can promote fun and collaboration.
Startup office
If you have seen how a modern co-working space looks like, then this is what we are talking about. It looks every way like one of those tech startup companies with very loose and modern design. There really is no need for symmetrical designs and its up to how creative you want to be.