At some point, everyone wants to have a more convenient and easier work life. Which can ultimately drive people to wanting to work more fluidly, rather than chained to an office between the hours of 9 to 5 everyday. This can mean seeking a home office solution. And for many, with the space, this is a fairly straightforward change to make. One must only buy a desk and place it in the chosen spot. But, for those struggling it can be a much more involved process than that.
With that in mind, here are some of the best ways that you can go about adding a new home office as an added area in your home:
Repurpose
Obviously, the first consideration you will make when it comes to adding a home office is where it will be. The simplest solution is clearly to repurpose an already existing room. It’s cheaper, quicker and the most stress-free option available.
The best way to do this is to find the room in your home which is currently the most disused. It could be a spare room, the storage room beside the kitchen or it may even be a section of a room in use. Adding a desk to a corner of the dining room, for example, would not be too cumbersome. Once you have identified the room/space you want to transform, it is a simple case of repurposing it to your new needs.
In most cases, this simply means redecorating and adding the right equipment to the space. Good ways to decorate an office space in your home include:
- Get a good desk; bad desks make spending time in an office unbearable. So make sure it is something you enjoy sitting at.
- The same goes for chairs or whatever contemporary furniture you have in the room, you don’t want to develop a bad back!
- Make sure there is plenty of light to stop the room from looking dark and dank.
- Add a few houseplants to keep the place feeling alive.
- Make sure there’s plenty of shelving and storage solutions, you never know what you might need to put away in there!
- Rugs can transform a space, so find one which says something about your work.
Extend
The next option you may have if you have no room to repurpose for an office is to add one. An extension is obviously a timelier, more expensive and bigger project overall. But, it comes with the added bonus of increasing the size and eventual resale value of your home. Of course, a good two-story extension could cost you anywhere between $20-50,000 in itself. So it is an option which requires careful consideration before choosing lightly.
And it is important to note that, with this option, you won’t be able to have your office straight away. But, it could be a good long-term investment if working from home is something you plan to do a lot or permanently. And again, it can help in increasing your long-term financial gain from the property.
The pros and cons of a house extension can include:
- Pro: Saves the effort of selling/moving home.
- Con: Can reduce your outdoor space.
- Pro: You can stay in the same area.
- Con: It can be disruptive.
- Pro: Less stressful.
- Con: Planning permission may limit you.
Create a Garden Room
Of course, you may not want your new office to simply be an extension or change to your current home. You may wish to develop something which is a little bit separate from your home itself. This is where creating your very own garden office could be the way forward. It also gives you the excuse to use garden coffee tables and similar furniture to kit it out!
The biggest benefit for a garden office is that it separates work completely from your home life. Instead of simply working from a spare room, it will be more like leaving the house and entering a completely work-only space. Which should allow you to feel more productive and give you better room to concentrate. The benefit of this is you can also insure and have people in and out of the space, offering no further disruption to your home life in the long run.
And there you have it! The best options you have for creating your very own home office, no matter the space you may or may not have available!