Home-Sweet-Home Office

When we were last together, no stay-at-home orders had yet been issued in the Commonwealth and schools were not yet shuttered, though they closed shortly after.

Slowly at first and then with rapid acceleration, millions and millions of people world-wide—if they are lucky enough to have a job and if they aren’t first responders—found themselves working from home.  This while homeschooling or providing childcare to younger children.

Such dramatic change in such a compressed amount of time against a backdrop of a global public health crisis and a teetering economy stresses us emotionally and psychologically.  But so can finding ourselves juggling new responsibilities and functions overlaid on top of each other in a space that wasn’t necessarily designed to accommodate work and school.

After this pandemic passes, many of us, both lay people and experts, believe that telecommuting and remote work opportunities—along with telemedicine, virtual learning, and more—will continue long after the pandemic, offering benefits to both businesses and employees, though not without challenges.

And one of those challenges is surely how teleworkers will carve comfortable, inspiring, and productive offices out of their existing homes.  Wireless devices allow us to move freely from place to place, and I have a friend who enjoys the flexibility of moving from a desk in her bedroom to her kitchen counter and even to her deck in temperate weather.  But others want or need more of a permanent niche away from the flow of family life in which they can be their most productive selves and possibly even welcome clients.

Here we offer a framework for beginning to imagine what your home office could be.  But be sure to look online at the thousands of inspiring designs.

The first consideration is function and its relationship to location.  If you will be working hours upon hours alone and need peace and quiet and a place to meet with partners or clients, your location needs will be very different from someone who fits work into family life and wants to be able to keep an eye on the kids.  Try not to be constrained by the current function of spaces in your house.  If you have always maintained a beautiful guest room for infrequent guests, perhaps the main function of that space needs to transition to office with, say, a Murphy bed for the occasional visitor.  Or if the kids no longer play in the playroom or your formal dining room is more of a time capsule than usable space, maybe that would be the ideal spot.  Though the cost would be greater, you might consider conditioning attic or garage space.  An area that affords natural light is a big plus if you can make it work.

Home offices are hybrids, so while they may need to signal “work space,” they should be visually compatible with the rest of your home, leaving behind all the worst aspects of the office cubicle.  Nowadays, there is no limit to the available styles of home office furnishings, whether your home is contemporary, traditional formal, or more cottage-y.  In fact, residential furnishings can easily serve office functions.

Think about your workflow, what you need within easy reach, and whether you are a stacker or a filer.  Then purchase or have furnishings built accordingly.  Try to avoid being seduced by office ensembles that may look great, but don’t match your needs.  Whatever you do, make certain that your chair is not only beautiful but ergonomically correct; so maybe your chair should actually be a balance ball.

Now is your opportunity to work in a space that is the color of your choice.   Color has a proven effect on mood, energy, productivity, and creativity.  Do a little research to discover whether calming tones like sea green and soft blues, rich neutrals, or bright pops of sunny or tropical colors help you get your creative juices flowing.

If your workspace ends up being windowless, you can certainly hang inspiring artwork over your desk.  But you might choose instead placing your desk so that you face the door.  Just be sure that the light doesn’t create a glare on our computer screen during the hours that your will be working, though window coverings can help with that.

Bright, but not harsh, light is necessary to prevent headaches and eyestrain, not to mention creating a space with an appealing ambiance.  Ensure overall brightness with overhead lighting and task lighting with a desk or floor lamp.  Visit a home improvement store where you can view bulbs with different temperatures, from cooler to warmer, including those that approximate daylight.  Like color, the quality of light plays a major role in motivation.

Remember to accessorize in a personal way that can be inappropriate in a corporate or business environment.  Cozy throw blankets and pillows have a place in your home office, as do inspiring art, photos, and other memorabilia.  But avoid visual clutter which can tax energy.  Use pretty household items to hold office necessities instead of purchasing manufactured versions.  One of my friends keeps staples, rubber bands, and paperclips in a set of white porcelain egg cups collected on a white tray to keep the look neat.  Her inbox is a pretty wire basket.

When it comes to the all-important technology for telecommuters, wireless gadgets and devices go a long way toward preventing techno-clutter.  But for equipment that does require cords, try to position them near outlets and then corral them in covers, tubing, under-desk wire organizers, or cord winders to keep them tidy and tamed.  If possible, fit your desk with a grommet, a hole with a plastic or metal cap through which you feed the cords to get them off the desktop.

One silver lining of this dreadful pandemic may be more flexible work contexts, a reduction in commute times, and lower fuel bills for a larger sector of the workforce.  With our tips, you can hopefully be more comfortable in this brave new world of telecommuting and insure that your backdrop is Skype, Zoom, and Google Meet-ready.

Virginia Beach native and JMU graduate, Chris Ettel, is founding partner of VB Homes. Ettel serves on the Tidewater Builders Association board of directors and is past chairman of the TBA Remodeler’s Council.