It’s official, home offices are here to stay! Having a comfortable home office is essential to your productivity. Most people are finding that working from home has made them more productive; there are fewer distractions, less noise, comfortable clothes and no commuting stress! Others are scrambling to make their home office both practical and comfortable.
There are many elements to take into consideration; from lighting to furniture to the door. You don’t necessarily have to bust out the hammer and saw to transform your home office into the office of your dreams.
HomeAdvisor estimates that a home office renovation costs around $15,000, or roughly $100 per square foot, assuming that most home offices are around 100-200 square feet. Yikes! You can make a few aesthetic changes to totally transform the look and feel of your home office for much less.
These home office remodel tips can help create the optimal work from home space without breaking the bank.
Plan
The first thing you need is a plan. Here are some questions to help get your gears going.
- What do you need to be comfortable in your office?
- What aesthetic will inspire you to work?
- What colors do you find stimulating?
- What is something luxurious you wish you had in your office?
- What can you repurpose from other rooms in your home?
Lighting
Two of the biggest complaints of working from a home office are eye strain and backlighting issues while on video conferences.
Investing in a good set of blackout curtains can allow you more control over glare and other lighting issues in your home office.
The American Optometric Association reports that over half of office workers who regularly use computers suffer from eye strain. Eye strain is not just caused by staring at a screen, the lighting in your workspace may contribute.
A new light fixture and eye friendly light bulbs are a very inexpensive way to transform the look and feel of your home office.
Work Life Separation
When working from a home office, it can be difficult to separate life and work when both activities occupy the same space. Having a separate workspace will help you stay focused when you’re on the clock, and rest when it’s quittin’ time. Creating boundaries between work and life is always a challenge. This is particularly harder when working from home, especially if your family is home too.
Using double barn doors to create a work enclave in your home allows you to close up shop at the end of the day. Out of sight, out of mind! Depending on the size of the room you are trying to divy up, a contractor can build a few feet of drywall and add some double doors in much less time and for way less money than adding an addition to your home.
If you already have a dedicated office space, consider investing in a door that provides you with better acoustic insulation, especially if you spend a lot of time on conference calls. Your co-workers will appreciate less background noise, especially if you have lively children running around!
Make a Break Room
Going all the way to your kitchen can totally sidetrack your focus. Why not create a little coffee and snack station in your home office! All you need is an outlet, a mini fridge and a coffee maker of your choice. Create a little bus tub so you don’t have ANY excuse to break your concentration.
Sound Proofing
Aside from getting a new solid core door, there are a few other home office remodel tips you can use to create some acoustic insulation. Sound waves travel through air; the solution to a noisy space is to incorporate sound dampening objects to help absorb sound waves.
The good news is that sound proofing your room can still be aesthetically pleasing. Something as simple as adding rugs can help absorb noise. Hanging artistic tapestries on your wall can also help.
Bookshelves will absorb sound to some degree. You can increase their potential by lining the back of the bookshelves with sound absorbing acoustic panels.
If you have single pane windows, you definitely want to replace them with double panes. If you already have double pane windows and street noise is still distracting, you can purchase window inserts. Window inserts are acrylic panels with patented silicone compression tubing to create a tight seal and air space between the insert and your window, dampening outside noise.
Guest Room Conversion
Did you have to convert your guest room into a home office? Now that people are traveling again, you may still want the option to host in your home! A Murphy bed integrated with built-in shelves and desks is the perfect, small footprint solution.
Builtin’s can also help you maximize your space by using all of that vertical space. As a bonus; all of that infrastructure helps with soundproofing!
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