Many people are theorizing that in some industries, work-from-home options are here to stay. These cool home office ideas can help you create a productive and stylish workspace to get you through this unique time and beyond!
Shape Up with a Standing Desk
(Pictured Above: Hanover Power Lift Standing Desk)
When it comes to cool home office ideas, it’s hard to beat the allure of standing desks. And as we continue to find more and more links between sitting too much and major health problems, they’ll likely continue to grow in popularity. But standing desks aren’t just good for your health, they can also boost productivity, help improve your mood, and increase your energy levels throughout the day.
If you decide to go with a standing desk for your home office, you have plenty of seating options to choose from. While adjustable barstools and standing desk chairs can work great when the standing desk is raised, you can still rely on traditional office chairs when the desk is lowered.
Because one of the biggest perks of the standing desk is the flexibility it presents, we recommend fully taking advantage of that adaptability. Make sure your office space accommodates both sitting and standing, so you can move seamlessly between the two. If you’re feeling especially motivated, you could even get a balancing board to keep your blood moving while you’re standing or an exercise ball for better posture while your desk is at the sitting position. Especially if you’re working 8 or more hours a day, your body will thank you for the variety.
Give Yourself the Gift of a Gallery Wall
One of our favorite home office ideas involves taking advantage of a gallery wall. In practice, a gallery wall is a collection of items hung in grouping like you might find in an art gallery or museum. These items can include anything from paintings and photographs to other types of personal treasures and trinkets.
Do you find yourself in virtual meetings all day? Gallery walls work especially well in home offices, as they can provide a stylish background to your daily Zoom calls. Plus, gallery walls are a great way to showcase your unique style and personality, serve as a focal point for the room, and infuse your workspace with some mood-boosting adornments.
Need some help getting started? First, choose a theme and a color scheme. Luckily, the color scheme and the gallery wall theme can be as loose as you want it to be. You’ll just want to make sure you consider the color, the size, and the content of each item you include on the gallery wall.
In terms of wall art placement, don’t be afraid to play with different levels. To get a good idea of how it will look before drilling holes in the wall, we recommend cutting out paper to reflect the sizes of everything you’re going to add to the wall, and hanging them up accordingly to get a better idea of the arrangement.
Liven Things Up with Lighting
(Pictured Above: Riley Writing Desk with Drawer & Phillip Task Lamp)
In an ideal world, all our home offices would have an abundance of natural light flowing in from outside. Unfortunately, not all of us have that luxury. When it comes to cool home office ideas, we recommend trying out these lighting tips to make your office feel bright, airy, and conducive to work.
If you do have a window in your office, you can take advantage of natural light by placing a mirror directly across from the window. This will reflect the natural light into the office. If you don’t have any natural light, that doesn’t mean you’re destined to work in a glorified cave. From table lamps and floor lamps to overhead lighting, there are plenty of ways to bring light into your home office. We recommend choosing some indirect, ambient light sources in addition to task lighting for certain types of assignments.
If you’re in a lot of virtual meetings, try to arrange your desk so any windows are in front of you. You should also try to use LED lightbulbs, as they tend to have a soft, warm glow that can help your appearance. Additionally, try arranging some lighting directly in front of you, 45-degrees to the left, and 45-degrees to the right. Desk lamps with adjustable heads can be especially helpful for this, as you can rearrange the lamps for different tasks throughout the day.
Maintain Multiple Workstations
If your job requires a wide range of different types of tasks to do throughout the day, it might make sense to give yourself a few different workstation options. That doesn’t mean you need to spend thousands on home office furniture. Instead, cater different areas of your home to different tasks so you can have some variety throughout the day.
If you’re a teacher working from home, for example, your standing desk might be the best option for teaching courses, while your one-on-one conferences with students could take place on the couch with a lift-top coffee table. For grading, you might want to sit at the desk, or if you have kids of your own, it might make more sense to do your grading at the dining table while they work on their homework, so you can answer any questions that come up.
Keep function top-of-mind when considering where to do different activities and remember that variety can help keep your days from feeling too overwhelming.
Ready to design your home office? In addition to these cool home office ideas, we have an array of affordable and stylish home office furniture for sale at our Star Furniture & Mattress stores across Texas. In the meantime, check out our interior design blog where we cover topics like our complete guide to home office design and our small home office ideas for shared spaces.