Now that many more of us are working from home more or less permanently, we’re starting to rethink how our houses might work better for us.
If you’re in the lucky situation where you’re thinking about building your own home, and want to make the most of the opportunity to get this right, then planning the spaces to be flexible is probably the best answer. Even if you’re not (yet), we’ve put together five great ideas and tips that might help as you’re planning your home office space – specially if it needs to fulfil more than one purpose.
Movement
Humans don’t tend to operate at their best when sat in one place for too long – make sure you have space to move. Schedule time for exercise if possible – we’ve even seen people keep exercise bikes in their home office, or a yoga mat for stretching. It can be better for you mentally to move somewhere else in the house, or even to get some fresh air if you can.
Quiet
A key thing to plan when you are building your own home is to ensure that you specify acoustic insulation in walls between rooms and floors. It’s surprising how much difference it can make if external distractions are minimised by having peace and quiet in the room you’re working in. And of course if your child needs to use the space for music practice, you still benefit!
Lighting
Think carefully about the lighting you have around your desk. For those online work meetings, make sure that your face can be clearly seen and that you don’t have your back to a window. Consider diffused lighting and dimmable task lighting – not just a light in the middle of the room. That way the home office can easily become a bedroom and vice versa.
A hidden bed
Investigate products such as the StudyBed https://www.studybed.co.uk/ – this is such a clever idea! We’ve seen (and not been very impressed with) sofa beds and fold-up beds. The study bed takes a different approach and combines a proper bed with a desk – and the great thing is that you can leave your work on the desk (within reason) when it folds away out of sight. If your office has to double up as a guest bedroom, this would be a great thing to include.
Wiring
If you’re planning to use a room as a home office it will probably not have enough sockets. Again, when designing from scratch make sure you consider this. It might also be worth getting an electrician to add some sockets to an existing room, rather than using untidy extension cables. And why not make sure that the sockets have USB charging ports as well while you’re at it.
Building flexibility into your home office/classroom/playroom from the ground up makes a lot of sense. Why not talk to us for more ideas on a home that’s perfectly suited to you?