Your home is your castle, but that means more than just lording over what is done with the space and how you can live. With the right adjustments, you can make a significant improvement to your life as a whole. Making your space more productive and comfortable means that you will have the ultimate work from home space. What you do in this WFH space is entirely up to you. You could work far more comfortably on days you are working from home. You can take on a whole new career and benefit from a supportive, healthy environment that can help you achieve those goals.
You can even find it easier to tackle personal projects and even start up a business on the side. The reason why you need to make the adjustments to your home first is relatively simple: you are impacted by your environment.
A clean, comfortable, and supportive space is one that helps improve your mental and physical health. When you are mentally and physically well, you will automatically be more productive and may find that your creative problem-solving skills also improve – and that is just looking at WFH offices and spaces from a health perspective.
Done right, you should be able to stay organized, have everything you need on hand to work more efficiently and comfortably, and of course, be able to enjoy a healthier and calmer environment from which to work.
Whether remote work, hybrid work, or a career change is in your future, it is in your best interest to invest in your home today by following this guide to make your home into the ultimate work from home space:
Start with Your Available Space
The first step is, of course, to understand what options you have. In an ideal world, you would have your own office or a big space that you can convert into an open office environment within your home. Unfortunately, most of us aren’t so lucky, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t ways that you can update your space to make it more comfortable and productive to work from home.
Find Areas That Help You Work Productively
A good place to start is to simply try out different areas of the home. There are many different things to consider, from the temperature to the lighting to how comfortable you are in that space. Work in your bedroom, living room, kitchen, near windows, near plants, and so on. Understand what helps you focus and feel the best when you work, and then prioritize those areas when it comes to updating your WFH space.
Use Convertible Furniture to Maximize a Small Space
There are many ways that you can do more, even with small space. A great option is to start looking at convertible furniture. Some shelves can be pulled down to make a table or a desk. There are stools, couches, and tables that include storage space.
For Storage Think Vertically and Invisibly
The obvious storage options like filing cabinets and bookshelves are, of course, excellent options, but only when there is space for them. If you have limited space, add storage to every nook and cranny, and also vertically. You can keep your home looking more open and spacious with floating shelves, for example, and also by adding shelves or cupboards into corners so that they seamlessly blend into your home. Of course, just because you need this storage for your work or projects does not mean it is allowed to clutter your home, so finding storage opportunities in the home is a big part of making a successful work-from-home environment for yourself.
Be Aware of What You Will Use Your Space For
At the end of the day, what you intend to use the space for will directly impact the updates you make for it. This applies even if you have one room you will be using as an office and won’t be touching the rest of your property.
For example, if you will be working from home for your current job, then what you need will be vastly different than if you are working while studying or making a big career change. In the first example, storage and filing may be the primary goal; in others, having multiple spaces to work and study can help you stay focused and stay on target, without burning out from sitting in the same place day and night.
What you plan to do in the future should also be considered. For example, if you plan on making a career change into clinical mental health and are planning on using this office space as a destination for clients in the future, it’s a good idea to start planning with that in mind.
This doesn’t mean that you should set up your WFH space for clients just yet, but rather that a large desk, ample storage and filing options, and so on are going to be important. Of course, you don’t even need to buy all the storage now but planning on where it can go and how you can grow into the space can truly future-proof your investment now.
Growing into the space is one of the best ways to adapt your design to suit your needs as you go. For example, you may plan on a project or new career but might get derailed by a new idea along the way. Starting with the basics and then adding as you go can be an excellent way to adapt the space as necessary, but for the best results, you will want to have the ultimate canvas to work from:
Elements Designed to Help Your Productivity
Creating that ultimate canvas from where to start is all about understanding what helps us focus, feel calm, and feel productive.
Natural Elements
Nature offers massive benefits for our mental health, focus, and cognitive thinking. Natural elements like wood or stone can be a great place to start, but don’t forget to add life. Even fake plants can greatly improve your mood and help you feel grounded in your home. Don’t try to place plants where they will die, even the ones that are marketed as “unkillable” or “low light”, as a dead or dying plant can bring down the entire room.
A mix of real plants and high-quality fake plants can greatly improve the mood of your space, both as a home and as an office or study area.
Comfort and Support
The chairs you choose to work in, the desks you work at, and the spaces you work in should all put your health and body first. For example, working from home, especially if you are also working to start your own business or to pursue a degree, means spending a lot of time at a desk. You need that time to not hurt your body; otherwise, you could end up in pain and discomfort, and your productivity and even mental health will suffer.
Light
Bright, natural light is always going to be your best bet when it comes to improving your productivity. If your space isn’t naturally bright, then using the right lighting options and having both “daytime” and “nighttime” options is going to be important. For example, if you have a mix of white light lamps for daytime work and switch to more comfortable warm lighting at night, you can stay productive without impacting your sleep rhythms.
Color
Color theory is a great place to start but pay most attention to how you personally react and feel with certain color pallets. This way, you can choose the right color pallet for your working space and home in general.
Remember, It’s What Benefits You The Most
What your WFH space looks like and acts like will depend entirely on what it is you do and how you work. So don’t feel like you must get yourself a desk, even though you find it incredibly stressful and hard to focus whenever you are in one. The point about making your home perfect for working or studying is that you can customize it to suit your needs and preferences to a T.
Forget the carbon-copy Pinterest office. Forget what you should have. What do you need? So long as you start by focusing on your needs and then work to fill it all in with what you like, you should have a unique space that helps you achieve your dreams and goals.
Part of this will mean being honest with yourself. Always go for what would help you work better, over what is strictly nice to look at. This is how you will get the most value out of your WFH office investment and how you can maximize your space for living and working.
Don’t feel pressured to improve everything all at once, either. Many people won’t have the budget to overhaul their homes in the way you deserve, but they can make small updates here and there and continue to benefit from small boosts to your productivity and mental health along the way.
Think of your design as a journey. This journey can be a sprint, or it can be a marathon. So long as you find the right destination for you, you won’t go wrong.