How to Turn Any Space into a Home Office

by shawnachilders

Because my family of 4 (5, counting Lucy our yellow lab) lives in a small home (~1000sq ft), doing this whole ‘indefinitely working from home’ thing necessitated the need for a home office.

Since we don’t have a lot of room to spare and we needed an area away from the screaming tantrums of a 2 year old and 5 year old we turned the back half of our 1 car garage into a makeshift home office. And, I gotta say, it turned out a lot better than I expected.

You can turn any space into a home office with a little intention and creativity. Whether it’s a corner in your kitchen or even part of a closet, the secret is in making the space serve a specific purpose, i.e. this is where I do this kind of work, or this where I store this kind of item. Having clearly defined boundaries is key.

3 Main Points – How To Turn any Space into a Home Office:

  1. define the physical space: map out perimeter
  2. create a conducive work area: desk, chair, lighting, airflow
  3. make it comfortable and inspiring to work in: plants, artwork, decor

Below are a few of my favorite, simple items that can also help turn any space into a home office:

RUG

First I put down our old living room rug to cover up the concrete and warm up the back half of the garage a bit. It helped define the perimeter of which section was the “home office”.

This is one of our favorite rugs in the house! It’s been so durable and hasn’t fallen apart like other rag rugs I’ve gotten in the past.
This rug is currently in our living room and it is amazing! SO easy to clean and it really lights up the room. I like bright colors, can you tell??

BOOK SHELVES

Next, I used bookcases to create a room-like barrier through the middle of the garage, separating the work space from the… well, garage space where we have our bikes on the wall and store most of our tools in this super handy industrial rolling shelf with bins.

We opted for open back book shelves for the middle of the room to still allow tons of light through.
These Ikea Kallax shelves area also great when used as room dividers!

WORK DESK

I placed the computer desk facing the garage door and so that by sitting at the desk, you could look out the side window. I’m a huge light person, so getting as much light as possible in this space is ideal for my productive work.

When working in small spaces, utilizing vertical height is a must!

PLANTS

And light… is also great for: PLANTS! Those of you who know me, know that I looooove houseplants. They have such an amazing way of warming up a room and making it feel more homey. Must be all of the extra amazing oxygen they produce! We added a couple plant stands with plants and threw some ivys up on the bookshelves.

Again, using vertical space, even for plants!

WALL DECOR

In any space, art and wall decor is a key element in making it feel complete. Rooms without any decor on the walls just feel sterile and uninviting. Put up a few of your favorite kinds of art or decor to help make your impromtu work space more inspiring.

Putting green onto the walls in a small space makes it feel more open and alive!

And, if you’d like any tips on how to keep your work flow and home office organized an on task, check out my last blog post A Guide to Organizing your Work-at-Home Flow!

– Home Organizing / Household Flow / Organizing a Small Business / Virtual Organizing / / / / / / /