Home Office

4 Ways to Maximize Space In a Small Home Office: Ideas and Design Tricks

There is always a way to fit in a home office space. Have you seen a home office fitted into a closet? Did you know that using a mirror can help make a space feel larger?

Here are small home office ideas that will help you create a great space to work in.

1. Creative Locations For Your Home Office Space

If you have a small room in mind for your home office, then you can skip this part. Here are just some creative ways you can fit a home office into your home:

See if you can clear out a closet that you don’t really need. This might sound strange, but a closet is a pretty effective way of creating a home office. You can check out the post I wrote on how to do this here: Creating a Workspace at Home: Closet Office Ideas
The bedroom is not the best place to have a home office if you can avoid it. You want your bedroom to be a relaxing, stress free space. And this is hard to do with your work on a desk nearby. But there are some ways to get around this. For example you could create a DIY room divider (use curtains, or a bookshelf) to hide the home office space when you are done for the day. Have a look at my post here for more bedroom home office ideas: Bedroom Home Office Ideas, Tips, and Designs.
And for ideas on how to create a home office in the basement, have a look at my post here: Ideas for Turning a Basement Space Into a Home Office

2. Creating Desk Space

The desk is the first thing to tackle in a small home office. Depending on your home office layout, you might need a corner L shaped desk, a thin desk, or a fold up desk. You might get lucky and be able to buy the right size/shaped desk at somewhere like IKEA. Or you might need to get all DIY, and build your own desk to make the most use of your small space.

DIYing your own desk doesn’t have to be a complicated and grand endevour. You simply need the right sized table top, and a way to prop it up. Most hardware stores (like Home Depot) will cut a sheet of plywood to your custom measurements. An old door, nailing pallet boards, or reclaimed wood can also be used as a tabletop. An old surfboard also works.

For more ideas and pictures, have a look at my post here: DIY Desk Ideas

When it comes to the legs of the desk, you could go with hairpin legs from Amazon or desk legs from IKEA. You could also build your own out of 2x4s. Or how about getting two draw units, or small filing cabinets that you could use as a base for your desk.

3. Design Tricks to Make Your Home Office Space Feel Larger.

Color Choice: Painting and decorating your home office with light colors will make your home office feel larger. Go with white, mint, or light grey.

Then again if you want to create a cozy feeling home office, look for a dark color to decorate your space.

Color Style Guide: Black Home Office Ideas

Lighting: You’ll want to have your small home office space well lit. Try to have all of the corners in the room brightly lit, as this will make the space feel larger. A modern home office design will use recessed lights, as these are fitted into the ceiling hiding the light fixtures.

If you don’t plan on doing any remodeling, just make sure you have a bright desk lamp. If you are really limited on space, you can find desk lamps that clamp to the desk freeing up desktop space (you can get one in the Amazon window above).

And add some floor lamps if you have space, if not put another lamp on a shelf.

Mirror and Glossy Surfaces: See if you can hang up a mirror in your small home office. A mirror makes a space feel larger because not only does it create the illusion of more space, but the light bounces off of it making the room feel larger.

The same applies to using glossy surfaces. If you have cabinets, repaint them with glossy paint. Or if you are getting a desk, look for a top with a glossy surface. Or better yet, use glass – as this also makes a space feel larger.

One Large Decor Piece: In a home office, it is ideal to have a mini gallery wall of inspirational framed art and design pieces. But if you really want to make the room feel more spacious, it is best to hang up one large framed piece – as this creates a less cluttered and more streamlined look.

4. Storage Ideas For a Small Home Office

When it comes to storage for small rooms, you’ll want to make the most use of your walls. This means having shelving going all the way up the walls.

Some other creative ways of adding storage space to a small room include:

Hang a shelf above the door frame
Using over the door hangers and organizers. These can be put over the door to the room, or over any closet doors
Use the inside of your closet doors – screw in some hooks or railings

If you need to store anything out in the open, try and get good looking containers. This way your storage pieces also act as decor pieces in the room. Some examples of good looking storage containers include:

Wicker or wire baskets
Galvanized buckets
Wooden trays
A wicker hamper

For more home storage ideas, have a look at my post here: The Command Center: Home Office Organization and Storage Ideas.

Here are some other home office posts to get more ideas from:

image credits 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9

April 27, 2016 in Home Office, Small

A Bootstrapping Entrepreneur: DIY Desk Ideas

There is something very entrepreneurial and boot strapping-esq about building you own desk. It is also a good idea if you have a small home office space and need a very specific sized or shaped desk. Here is a list of DIY desk ideas, divided into 2 groups: ideas for the desk top, and ideas for the legs and base of the desk.

What To Use for the Desk Top

Here is a list of ideas on what can used for the countertop part of your desk:

An old door
Hardware stores such as Home Depot will cut a sheet of plywood to the size you need it
Connect pallet boards together
A surfboard
Old or offcuts from a kitchen or bathroom countertop (how about a marble desk?)
Reclaimed wood
Making a concrete top is as easy as building a wooden frame and filling it with concrete

What To Use for the Legs and Base

Get yourself a set of hairpin legs from Amazon
IKEA sells desk legs separately
Concrete hollow blocks
A stack of magazines
Two small filing cabinets at the right height can be used to put your desk top onto – seen in picture (3)
You could always clamp a desk top to a shelf, that way your legs (human legs) can fit under
Wooden crates just like in pictures (1) and (2) can be used as a desk base
Pallets cut to the right size (7)
Two short stools – as seen below
Plumbing piping is easy to assemble and customized to create a stand for a desk (8)
Two ladders opened up can support a piece of wood across them. Or check out the simple ladder DIY concept in picture (2). You get a desk and storage space. And if you want a DIY standing desk, all you have to do is put the desk on a higher rung.
Bedside tables

DIY desk using 2 stools – by Shanty 2 Chic

Space saving folding DIY desk – by Home Story

Go without any legs and have the desk attached to the wall, and have it flip up when it is not in use.
Or if you have two sidewalls, just like in picture (9), then railings can be attached to the walls to hold up the countertop
Simple L brackets can be used to create a long shelf that can be used as a desk space (4)
The same can be done with a wall shelving kit, seen in picture (6)

Here are some other home office posts for more ideas:

image credits 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9

April 20, 2016 in DIY, Home Office

Color Style Guide: Purple Home Office Ideas

This post goes over the different areas to consider when styling a home office in purple – from what shade of purple to go with to how much purple to use.

What Shade of Purple?

Do you want a cozy and luxury feeling space? Then go with a dark shade of purple. Or if you want to create a bright and spacious feeling home office, then go with a light purple paint color for the walls.

How Much Purple?

If you want a bold home office, then paint all of your walls purple, and even the ceiling. A step down from this is to paint only one wall purple (say the one behind or in front of the desk) and then paint all of the other walls a neutral color such as white, black or grey. This one purple wall will really stand out.

Another idea is to paint all of the walls white, light grey, or black, and then decorate the space with pops of purple. You only need a few pieces to really decorate the room purple (an area rug, purple cabinet doors, etc.)

Taking Out Other Colors

If you want to create a well designed home office space, then you’ll want to be pretty strict about your color palette. If you have colored pieces, such as a green trash can, a yellow storage container, or a red lamp, then you’ll want to take these pieces out.

This doesn’t mean you can’t add other colors to your purple home office. But you do need to choose carefully what pieces and what colors to add. I say stick to only adding 1-2 other colors otherwise you start taking away from the overall purple color scheme.

A good way to spice up a purple home office is to infuse it with natural materials. Like a wooden desk, wooden shelves, or a wooden chair. Or how about adding some plants to bring in some shades of green – or bring in some purple plants.

What Purple Pieces to Add

Above I mentioned that it doesn’t take much to style a home office purple. You’ll only need a few accent pieces to create a purple color scheme. Other pieces in the room can be a neutral color (white, grey, or black). Here are some ideas on what pieces in the home office can be used to create pops of purple in the space:

See if you can get a purple area rug
Hanging up a mirror will make the home office space feel larger, and this can be inside a purple frame
Or hang up inspirational pictures and photographs in purple frames. Or hang up a purple art piece in a black frame
The desk itself could have a purple top
The curtains can be purple
The cabinets or closet doors, could be given a makeover and painted purple (DIY Challenge: Give Your Closet Doors a Makeover)
The door to your home office could be painted purple
If you have a desk lamp, this could have a purple lampshade
The chair you use could also be purple

Here are some other home office posts to get more ideas from:

image credits 1/2/3/4/5/6

April 18, 2016 in Color Palettes, Home Office

Creating a Stylish Workspace: Modern Home Office Ideas

The best way to create a modern home office is to focus on the main areas and focal pieces of the space. This includes: the overall color scheme, the main furniture pieces (desk and chair), and the lighting.

Color Scheme

In the home office pictures in the mood board above, you can see that all of the home offices use a neutral color scheme – such as white or black. A dark grey could also work.

A good way to add color into a neutral home office space is to infuse it with natural materials. Try and infuse wooden pieces, such as a wooden desk or chair, or add some greenery by having potted plants around.

Another way to add color is to use colorful stationary, just like the home office in picture (5).
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Using Your Walls

Here are some ideas on how to use and style your walls in your home office:

Built in shelves will help maximize the space you have in your home office. If you put up cabinets, then opt for ones that don’t have handles (this creates a sleeker and more modern look) – just like in pictures (2) and (5).
Hang up some pictures or art pieces in matching black frames (3) to help you stay inspired while working

The Command Center: A Modern Desk and Modern Home Office Furniture

The main focal point in a home office is the desk. In the pictures above you can see that all of the home offices use a wooden desk, except one office that uses a white desk. To give yourself a lot of desk space, why not use a built in desk – just like in pictures (5) and (6). Built in units, whether it is for the desk or storage, is a modern design element and helps make the most of the space you have in your home office.

And check out the chairs in the pictures. Again, all are a neutral color – black, white, or grey. They all range in different styles – yet all compliment the modern desks in the space.

Modern Home Office Lighting

For general lighting around the home office use recessed ceiling lights. These are lights that are fitted inside of your ceiling, hidden away, create a sleek and modern look.

If you want to add more lighting for your desk, look at installing some hanging pendant lights (just like in picture (3)), or use a modern desk lamp (just like in picture (4) or the anglepoise lamp in picture (5)).

Decor Pieces

When it comes to decorating a modern home office, I say keep it simple. Some good options include creating a gallery wall. Or use good looking stationary and storage containers that will double as decor pieces – such as wicker baskets, wooden containers, or glass jars.

Invest your time and money in getting good looking pieces for everything mentioned above – the desk lamp, table, chair. These feature pieces will help create a modern style in your home office.

Here are some other home office posts to get more ideas from:

image credits 1/2/3/4/5/6