Get their look: Minimalist home office

Minimalist home officecredit

We’ve chosen a minimalist home office for this week’s Get their look post. It’s the best environment to think, plan and concentrate. A bright window with an interesting, ever-changing outlook to give the brain a rest when required – or perhaps provide inspiration if you’re lucky enough to have a great view. It’s got a cool, vintage industrial feel. It’s not over cluttered – a mixture of functional electrics and storage – along with decorative touches such as the big letter A and a jug of fresh flowers.

  1. Trestle table
  2. Ruark Audio DAB radio
  3. Case Robin Day 675 Chair
  4. Vintage metal ‘A’
  5. Yellow retro dial telephone
  6. Grey metal box file

How to get the minimalist home office look | H is for Home

Design ideas for a stylish home office

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Courtney Adamo's home officecredit

Working from home is living the dream for many people. You can crawl out of bed, put the coffee machine on, and be at your desk in less than five minutes. It really is perfect for anyone who would rather not suffer the daily commute or office politics. It’s also great if you like to work flexible hours because you can pop out to the supermarket or walk the dog whenever you feel like it.

The only disadvantage of working from home, apart from the fact that home and work boundaries can sometimes become rather blurred, is that you do need to have a space set aside where you can work in peace. If you’re lucky enough to live in a spacious dwelling, all is good, but if space is at a premium in your abode, you’re going to have to get a little bit creative. So what are your home office options?

Minimalist under-stairs officecredit

Workspace nooks

When you can’t afford to lose a room, your only option is to create a workspace in a corner of an existing room. This isn’t ideal as there’ll be a lot of distractions if you have other family members at home when you’re trying to work, but it’s better than working on the kitchen table.

Workspace nooks can be slotted in anywhere, but if you have some extra space under the stairs, this is the ideal place to fit a desk and chair. Build shelves and add a small desk lamp so you have a cosy little corner where you can work in peace. Alternatively, install a desk in the corner of a room and build a partition using bookshelves to screen it from view.

Attic office with Velux windowscredit

Attic offices

Attics make great home office spaces as long as they’re well insulated and you install windows for ventilation and light. Velux windows are perfectly designed for sloping roofs, but if installed at height, they can be difficult to open. One solution is to fit an electric window opener from Teal Products – that way you can continue working instead of looking for a chair to stand on to open the window.

Spare room being used as a home officecredit

Turn the spare room into an office space

Spare rooms make useful offices as long as you swap the traditional bed for a futon or sofa bed. You’ll also need to vacate the room if you have guests come to stay.

Garden officecredit

Build an office in the garden

If you’re the type of person who wants complete peace and quiet, building an office in the garden is the ideal solution. Wooden sheds can easily be converted into home offices with the right insulation and heating. If it isn’t too far from the main house it should be easy to install a telephone line. You might not need planning permission if the structure isn’t very large, but do check before you build.

Working from home is good for the environment and your sanity, but you’ll need to be disciplined as it is very easy to waste time watching TV or tackling household chores instead of working!

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5 space-saving tips & techniques for the small office

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Hammock hung in a small home office

image credit: Gals n’ Guys

Whether you’ve converted the laundry room at home into a professional environment or rent a small office elsewhere, it’s essential to make the most of every foot and inch. Arranging the furniture in your new office in a way that helps encourage communication between you and your employees can help everyone work more efficiently, also trying new spaces for a short period can help you visualize what you need. If you feel like you want to try out this experience, you can always opt for short term office space for small businesses in Chicago to get a feel of a new workspace. It’s always good to try out any new changes. There are many things you can do to make even the tiniest room organised and fully functional, so take a look at these clever space-saving tips and techniques.

Purpose-built storage units with red doorsimage credit: Mike Mozart

  1. Hire a storage unit

If you’ve got a lot to do and very little space to do it in, hiring a storage unit for business purposes could be ideal. These safe, secure facilities are not only a great place to keep furniture, electrical goods and stock but they’re also suitable for keeping large filing cabinets and other bulky items which can take up a lot of room. Believe it or not, many small UK firms even operate partially or completely out of a storage unit, so there’s plenty that can be done with this bit of extra space.

Nick Keppol's minimalist home officeimage credit: Nick Keppol

  1. Embrace the minimalist look

Squeezing too many things into a small room can look cluttered, disorganised and untidy, so when arranging your office think carefully about what you need and what you don’t need. Embrace the minimalist look by getting rid of anything that looks ugly or out of place and invest in an array of space-saving furniture such as corner computer desks, mobile cabinets (which can be stored underneath desks) and chairs with hidden storage.

Contemporary home office with clear desk and chairimage credit: Found Associates

  1. Choose your technology carefully

If possible, you should also opt for technology that doesn’t take up much room such as lightweight laptops and tablets rather than heavy desktop PCs as the latter require a large surface area to work properly. PCs also tend to make a lot of noise and give out plenty of heat which might make a small room uncomfortably warm and stuffy, so bear this in mind when purchasing IT equipment.

On a similar note, it’s also worth getting hold of a double-duty flat screen that can double up as a TV and a computer monitor. A large screen is ideal for work and play and will allow you to flip between a spreadsheet and your favourite TV programme.

 small home office with large collection of orange and white storage boxesimage credit: Juliette Byrne

  1. Use as much wall space as possible

When it comes to storage, it’s also essential to think vertically and use as much wall space as you possibly can without turning the room into an eyesore. Tall bookcases, for instance, won’t take up much floor space but they’ll give you plenty of room to store important files, documents, literature and paperwork. Shelves are also easy to put up above desks and such like and will help keep things a little more organised.

home office with black-painted chalk board wallimage credit: John Donkin

  1. Chalkboard

If you don’t have a spare meeting room or floor space to place a presentation flip board – fear not. Simply cover one wall in chalkboard paint and you’ve got yourself a doodle pad and focal point that won’t take up any extra room at all. It’s ideal for note making and if you ever have to explain something to a member of staff you can put your artistic talents to good use by drawing diagrams on the wall. Perfect!

It’s relatively easy to turn a small office into a practical dynamic environment, so why not give these handy tips a go?

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Monthly Mood Board: Creative Home Office

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creative home office mood board

They say that a tidy desk equals a tidy mind. A well-designed, practical home office would be Nirvana to me. I like everything just so and in its rightful place. Chance would be a fine thing! To wrongly quote a well-known song, “Wherever I lay my laptop…”. I like to sit in the warmest, sunniest, quietest room in the house – and that room can vary from day to day, sometimes hour to hour.

If we did ever get a proper home office, these are some of the things we’d like in it. Bright colours, a peg board (you wouldn’t believe how hard to get hold of they are!) for keeping everything up & off the desk and STORAGE, STORAGE, STORAGE!

  1. SNILLE visitor’s chair, green: £12, IKEA
  2. Pegboard – essential storage organiser: £30.84, Etsy
  3. Morton trestle table, oak: £299, MADE
  4. Anglepoise 1228 floor lamp, daffodil: £230, John Lewis
  5. A4 aluminium clipboard: £8.95, Muji
  6. Me coffee cup, small: £22, Lovethesign
  7. Woodland ditsy magazine file: £7, Paperchase
  8. Bisley desktop cabinet 5 drawer steel orange: £51.99, Ryman
  9. Tutti Frutti waste paper bin: £110, Andrea Stemmer
  10. Brennenstuhl 4-way extension socket with 2m cable – green: £11.41, Amazon