5 Home Office-Small Office Design Ideas

More and more of us are spending time at WORK in our home offices (or away from home).  The lines are blurred between work and play and our office spaces need to support functionality AND comfort and even a bit of fun.  The guest post below highlights 5 uniquely designed office spaces.  One is sure to hit your personal ‘sweet spot’ of what you would want your office space to look and feel like.  Of particular interest to S Interior Design is The Pod, and the Rooftop Office.

Modern and Contemporary

If you prefer the minimal look and would like a crisp white office with a difference then add a splash of green and enjoy the twist!

All draws come with reversible fronts in a choice of colours and effects including striking lime green and traditional beech. Plus you can design your cube bookcases using the same interchangeable door fronts.

View the full range of office furniture and accessories at Viking from £49.99.

Comfy Cozy

If you like your home comforts and prefer to feel at home in your office then this traditional office décor may suit your style. Everything about this space says “comfort” from the dim lighting to quality wooden furniture.

The office looks busy yet homely and is perfect for those homeowners put-off by minimal and new-age designs. Avoid the clinical look and opt for a more cosy office look for the winter months.

Designed by Willman Interiors.

Warm and light

This room is bright, light and great for both desktop working and chilling in your break.

The plentiful storage space guarantees to keep your desk free from clutter and makes you want to work from home! Add quirky pieces and wall fixtures like inspiring pictures or quotes for encouragement too.

Keep bang on trend with designer pieces such as Verner Panton’s S Chair and add a touch of modern glamour to your warm interior design.

Designed by O’Hara Interiors.

The Pod

When your home is overcrowded with your partner, room-mates, kids and pets it’s sometimes nice to get away from it all to concentrate on work.

Thankfully, the Office Pod is here to help and advertises itself as a great way to “separate your office from the home; an easy to construct shelter that provides both style and functionality”. Although quite a tight fit, you will comfortably squeeze everything you need to work from home in one compact booth.

Read the full story.

Rooftop space

Although the English weather doesn’t usually permit it, the Royal Horticultural Society made a rooftop workplace perfect for the summer months.

Sponsored by RBS, the modern design from Patricia Fox was inspired by the abundance of underused roof space in London’s most popular business districts.

The ‘office garden’ has various sections depending on staff needs; hanging chairs for making calls and browsing the net, a “pick your own herbal tea bar” for thirsty office workers and a canopy complete with projection screen for conference calls and presentations.

Read more about Patricia’s designs here.

Advertisement

Multi-Function Rooms

In October I was contacted by a potential client with a unique design request.  She is an accomplished artist; a painter of wild life, nature and domestic animals. She worked out of a room in her home that while large in dimension, was cluttered, dark and unorganized.  Not so unique you might say.  Here are the other details that earn it the UNIQUE title:

In addition to serving as an art studio, the room was used as:

•  a home office
•  a guest room
• a place to do yoga
• a place to watch TV
  AND
• a place for her 5 cats to climb their unique indoor trees, socialize, relax and use the litter box

Here are some BEFORE pictures

Over sized roll top desk took up a lot of space

Unique cat tree climbers covered in tattered pastel carpet

Another desk surface and book case with cat boxes under neath

The design plan:
The client wanted to bring a tropical feel to the Arizona desert and create a visually clean and uncluttered space.  She loves natural, woven design elements.  The space needed to look and feel bright, open and airy while serving all of the functional needs and be cat friendly and easy to take care of.

1. New easy to care for flooring to replace the worn Berber carpeting-18″ tile in reddish brown was laid
2. Re-upholster the cat trees in a super durable and attractive fabric – Crypton fabric was used
3. Provide comfortable seating and guest sleeping option in an easy to care for , pet friendly fabric-A custom air mattress sleeper sofa was designed using two fabrics; the cushions have an indoor/outdoor tropical fabric and the main sofa is covered in a commercial grade vinyl that has a rattan pattern embossed on it
4. Storage and display for art supplies, books, magazines-a space plan was developed and all was purchased through IKEA or custom constructed.
5. Working surfaces to create artwork-a main desk with a light box is placed by the french doors to take advantage of natural light, and a secondary surface was constructed to spec to stand at and as a dual benefit house and hide the litter boxes
6. Area rugs to soften and define the zones-two sisal rugs (cats love sisal) were placed in the room
7. New window coverings to filter but not block the light-natural woven shades were installed

 AFTER PICTURES

The Cat's Can Climb and look out the window

Litter Box Storage & Cat Trees

The client is thrilled with the results.  We both believe that the redesigned space will result in even more beautiful paintings being created and serve as a wonderful room to relax in with and without her 4-legged family members.

6 Eco-Friendly Options 4 The Office

I am pleased to share a wonderful blog post from a guest blogger Angela Taylor a blogger and aspiring designer.   While there is a lot of information focusing on green/eco-friendly options for the home, this is a wonderful focused look at what we can do specifically for our home or small office spaces in that regard.  Take a read and implement some of the great ideas!

Bamboo Dry Erase

 

6 Simple Eco-Friendly Elements for a Visually Striking Home Office

Green products for an environmentally-friendly work environment

The home office combines your professional and personal life—so it should, rightly so, be a reflection of you. Unfortunately, the home office is usually an after-thought and designated to a corner in your kitchen or living room. If you’re concerned about the environment, there are green products that you can incorporate into your home office to make it more environmentally friendly and more visually appealing as well. Considering this home office will be where you spend the majority of your day, it would make sense to make it as comfortable, functional and attractive as possible.

Here are our 6 simple Eco-friendly product recommendations for a visually pleasing home office that you can get inspired in:

1. Eco-friendly wall décor: Green wall décor is offered in various patterns and textures—plus it’s better for your health than conventional wallpapers that can contain chemicals. Look into attractive wall décor and coverings like:

• Glass whiteboards—or glass dry erase boards provide a natural and safe surface for brainstorming
• Eco-friendly wallpaper— made from natural renewable bamboo, rice paper, flax, cork, arrowroot and a mish-mash of recycled papers
• Reed, cattail and paper weave murals—make beautiful wall décor with delicate dried leaves and natural grasses twisted together and making unique wall art
• Ceramic and mica photo frames—are constructed from natural sands in the soil and formed into a beautiful variety of colors and sizes

2. Recycled office furniture: You can find some really great eclectic pieces of second hand office furniture at your local thrift shop or Salvation Army. A lot of large companies also throw out their office furniture rather than repairing it during an upgrade so you can salvage some top quality ergonomic office chairs and desks and save it being thrown into a landfill site.

3. Eco materials for your home office: You can find an abundant of environmentally-friendly and recycled materials for your home office, for instance:

• Wheat board – for the walls (and it can double as a posting board) as well as floors
• You can buy 4GB bamboo flash drives as opposed to the plastic variety
• Moleskine notebooks (made of bamboo pulp) are waterproof with washable covers
• Sustainable timber – for your desk and storage units
• Recycled aluminum – again, for office desks, storage units and office chairs
• Recycled glass – ideal for walls and attractive office desk tops
• Recycled upholstery – great for throw pillows, stuffed bean bag chairs and desk chair coverings

4. Harness the power of sustainable energy: Look to natural resources with these really aesthetic pieces of office equipment:

• Solar-powered cell phone chargers
• Water-powered calculators
• Solar LED bottle light bulbs

5. Recycled or refurbished electronics: Akin to finding used office furniture from large corporations, you can often buy refurbished electronics for a fraction of the cost. Many large companies will host a used electronics sale when it is time to upgrade their computers, laptops, fax machines, photocopiers, printers and office telephones. You can feel good rescuing that refurbished laptop from a life in the scrap yard. Keep in mind that your home office electronics give off VOC emissions as well as other chemical vapors that pollute the air in your home. Try these additional energy-savings tips for a greener home office:

• Use a laptop instead of a desktop computer—laptops use less energy
• Unplug the printer, fax machine and computer when your day is over
• Plug multiple electronics into one power bar so that you can turn them all off with one switch
• Leave office equipment on timers so that everything automatically shuts down overnight
• Minimize the number of office electronics you use by purchasing all in one photocopier/printer/scanner/ fax models
• Use online fax and telephone
• And when you are finished with your home office electronics, donate them to local schools, shelters or for reuse where needed

6. Refillable/reusable office supplies: When you look for office supplies—such as pens, pencils, files and ink cartridges for your printer—seek out refillable and reusable varieties. And also:

• Look for recycled plastic products such as pens.
• Buy pens and printer cartridges with non-toxic inks like vegetable- or soy-based ink
• Buy multiple packs of pens, Post-it notes and staples to cut down your packaging waste
• Reuse all of your elastic bands, thumb tacks and paper clips
• Set up a recycling bin so you don’t throw used up items away