5 Tips for Decorating Your Home Office

Which are the aspects we need to consider before furnishing and arranging our home office?

Lately, the world of work has changed completely in many aspects, from the legal bonds between employer and employee to hours, places and ways people work. The aspects related to working hours and place, in particular, have been turned around by the coming of new technologies, which allow us to work anywhere anytime, without having to be in the same room at the same time with coworkers and collaborators: all one needs is a computer and a Internet connection.

For all these reasons, more and more employees and professionals nowadays choose to work from home, often collaborating with different companies. Working from home might look like paradise to commuters who travel every day and have to submit to strict hours and schedules. Though working from home offers many pros, it also has some cons. First of all, the risk of transforming the house into an office, with no separation between work and free time space, is around the corner. Moreover, boundaries between working time and personal or family time might become blurry.
Working from home, instead of making daily routine easier, might cause stress, lower productivity and create problems for one's personal life.

How to avoid all this? The first commandment is self-discipline, the ability to respect regular hours avoiding the distractions of home or family matters during working time. Another essential aspect is the working space: the best option, if possible, is to arrange the home office in a room furnished according to one's needs and activities. In case a whole room is not available, another option is to place a corner office in the living room or in the bedroom. Here are 5 tips to arrange and furnish a functional corner office with a low impact on the rest of the room.

1. Define the space

Walls and floors are the elements that can help define the working space. Painting or decorating the walls in a different colour will create a effect of an independent area, separated from the rest of the room. The same effect can be obtained or reinforced by placing a rug the same size of the working area.

2. Think about lighting

Daylight should never get directly to the PC monitor, as not to cause glares. Desk and chair are to be placed in front of the window or on the side. As for artificial lights, overhead lighting is not enough: a desk lamp is necessary to lighten the workstation and the keyboard.

3. Think about storage

Nothing can take productivity down like chaos. Looking for documents, notes, pens and business cards will take you 5 minutes at a time, but adding up it will result in whole hours wasted at the end of the day. When choosing furniture for a home office, it is necessary to think about the storage space one needs, such as shelves and compartments.

4. Hide cables and wires

Ugly and unsafe: that's what cables and wires look like. Keep cords hidden as much as possible for a safe and ship-shape working space.

5. Think about posture

How much time do we spend sitting at our desks? The chair we are sitting on is the best friend of our back health or its worst enemy. Do not save money on your office chair, consider it as an investment in your well-being. Plus, ergonomic chairs and stools nowadays are pretty stylish.