How To Renovate

EP61 Creating a Home Office that Works

• Tash South • Season 1 • Episode 61

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Recently, a well-designed home office has become one of the most requested rooms in the renovation projects I work on. As more and more people are working from home a few days a week, or even permanently, creating a dedicated workspace that's comfortable and  functional, is essential for productivity and wellbeing.

The shift to remote work has revolutionised how we think about our homes—no longer relegated to spare corners or temporary setups, home offices have become essential rooms or dedicated areas deserving thoughtful design consideration.
 
 In this episode, I want to help you create an effective home office space. Whether renovating from scratch or adapting existing spaces, your workstation location significantly impacts your productivity. 

We’ll cover consideration of natural light, choosing the right location, planning storage and tech, soundproofing tips, styling inspiration, and even how to create a Zoom-worthy backdrop that doesn’t reveal your laundry pile!

So, whether you're dreaming of a light-filled workspace or need clever solutions for a compact corner, this episode is packed with practical advice to help you create a home office that inspires.

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Hi I'm your host, Tash South I'm an Interior Designer and Renovation Consultant.
Each episode of How To Renovate is short, but brimming with practical advice to help you manage your renovation project with confidence and success.

Grab some more renovation advice & free resources and become part of the South Place Studio Renovation Community at
https://www.southplacestudio.com/freebies

Everything I teach about renovation falls within my Five Pillar Process for A Successful Renovation, to learn more about the process, head to
https://www.southplacestudio.com/pillars


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Speaker 1:

Hello, hello everybody, and welcome back to the how to Renovate podcast. Today on the podcast, we are talking about home offices. So I'm going to be talking about creating a home office that works. So let me take you back, if I may, to 2020. So since then, home offices have become one of the most requested rooms in a home design. Whilst I've been working in renovations and I mean that's pretty obvious it's because so many people are working from home now for most of the week, if not all of the week, so they want their home offices to feel comfortable, to feel like a space they can concentrate in, to be a well-designed space, because they're spending most of their week in there, and so long gone are the days where it's just the box room or a little desk at the end of the bed where people are working from. When people are renovating, they want a proper working space that suits them, that works for them, that's got all the comforts and all the tech that they need, all set up so that they're ready to go, because, I mean, you're spending most of your day in there, so you want it to feel good. So let's get into the episode, everybody. Let's get talking about how we can design those home offices into our homes. Okay so, number one laying out or carving out a space for your home office zone. So obviously we're talking about renovations here, which generally means that people are doing a big renovation, kind of starting from scratch, and so they have the opportunity to lay out, to dedicate a space, to start from scratch and actually have a separate home office.

Speaker 1:

Now, I know that's not always possible for everybody. Perhaps you don't have a whole room that you can dedicate to a home office and you need to allocate a section or a desk in another room as your home office. But let's talk about first if you're laying out your floor plan and you have the opportunity to dedicate an entire room to a home office. So I would say things to consider when you're looking at your floor plan and you're deciding where to have your home office. Think about really carefully what your work is and how you need to work and how you need your office to function for you. If you do the type of work where you need a quiet room and a closed door, then a desk in the dining room or in the kitchen somewhere is not going to work for you. You need to find somewhere that you can plan a dedicated space for your work. So that's the first thing. And then, secondly, you need to think about where in the home would be good for you to work.

Speaker 1:

And so I say that because I have a home office, which is a small room. It's quite dark, it's placed in the house that doesn't get a lot of light, and for me, light is quite important. So I like to work where there's lots of light. It makes me feel more energetic, it makes me feel more inspired, and so, actually, if I had to redo things, I would probably put that office somewhere else. I got a lot more light. For example, our bedroom gets loads of light, but we're not in there most of the day. So actually, from a personal point of view, I would much rather swap out my lovely bright bedroom for a cozier space, a darker space where you go to at night to sleep and have my home office where I spend most of my day in this lovely light-filled room.

Speaker 1:

So, obviously, if you're renovating from scratch, you're doing a big reno you do have the opportunity to carve out a separate room that you can shut the door and that can be your home office, and then just carefully thinking about where in the floor plan, where in the home, you would prefer to work, what your work is. Do you need quiet? Do you need the private space? Do you prefer the light? So just think about all of those things when you're thinking about where to place your home office. I would say it's so important and so many more of us are working from home now that it's really important to choose somewhere that you can work well, that you can be productive. Or perhaps you don't have the opportunity, perhaps you're not renovating from scratch and you cannot dedicate a whole room. Then think really carefully about the best placement for your desk, where you can carve out a working zone within your home. Perhaps it's a desk tucked into an alcove, or maybe just a little nook in the hallway or somewhere under the stairs with some shelves above, and so just if you have a small area like that, just think about designing it really carefully so that it can be compact but it still can kind of have everything that you need to hand. You need some storage, you obviously need your tech in place, and so just think about carefully how you can plan that to just be in the best place for you in your home where you can work well, but also where it can be convenient for you and where you can concentrate and where you can be productive. And then moving on to number two, so let's talk about the storage and the tech.

Speaker 1:

So when you're renovating, you want to think really carefully as always, as with any room in the house about the storage. Think about everything you need to keep with you in terms of your work, everything you need to have close at hand, and then make sure that there's enough storage for that and suitable storage for that have close at hand, and then make sure that there's enough storage for that and suitable storage for that. And then it's always really lovely also to if you are dedicating a space or room to home office anyway, to make it feel really lovely. So I designed a client home office not too long ago, maybe a couple of years ago, and we went for this full-on library feel. So we put shelving all around the room where she's got all the books up, a beautiful piece of art centred on the one wall between the bookshelves, and then these gorgeous library lights above the artwork and above the shelves, and so just kind of going all in and making it feel like a proper grown-up workspace really really gave her this lovely feeling of actually going to work, even though she was working in her own home, but then also having that feeling of, at the end of the day, leaving that room, shutting the door and then actually being able to just literally close the door on that part of the day and then move on the rest of the day, the rest of the evening, which was relaxing and a totally different vibe. So I think if you have the opportunity to do that, that's such a lovely thing to do.

Speaker 1:

Then also for the tech and the electrics, you want to make sure especially if you're planning from Renault stage, you want to make sure that you've got your Wi-Fi points and your plug sockets and all the electrics and everything that you need to connect. You've got them all set up in the right places in the zone where you are going to have your home office. And then, number three, soundproofing and shared spaces. Now, if you have the opportunity again, if you're renovating from scratch, perhaps it's a good idea to think about soundproofing, perhaps some extra insulation in the walls, because if you're working from home and there are others working from home, or if you have children or other people that are in the home, then it really would be a good investment to have those.

Speaker 1:

If you need quiet for your work, if you need quiet for calls, if you do something like I did you probably just heard my neighbour's car alarm was going off and I've tried to pause recording and cut it out, but the sound has creeped in, and that just is the nature of working from home. And so I think if you can think about these things in advance, before they become a major annoyance for you, if you have the opportunity of doing that from the start, then I would say think about all these things carefully, make your list about all the things you would absolutely love to have in your home office, and then also things like rugs, curtains, anything soft, soft furnishing, even a bank of bookshelves filled with books. All of those things actually act as sound insulation or sound absorption, and so if you're finding your space a bit noisy, let's say, even now you could do these things. You could add a rug, he could add some curtains, something soft to absorb some of the sound. So there are things you can do, whether you're renovating from scratch and building a home office from scratch, or whether you're trying to adapt a space to suit your working from home. There's always something you can do to improve on it. And then number four the styling and what you want the space to feel like.

Speaker 1:

Now I find people have very different ideas of style for their home offices. Some want it to feel really relaxing. Some people love lighting a candle while they work. In fact I love doing that. If, especially if I'm working long hours or out of hours, let's say on the weekend or in the evenings, if I've got something I need to get done, I love making the experience a lot more enjoyable. I'll light a candle, I'll get some music on, and it just makes working feel a lot better. I find it's better for my creativity, but I just people have different working styles. So I think if you can kind of decorate and make your home office in a way that you love, then of course you'll want to spend more time in there. You'll be more productive, you'll get more work done rather than it just being a chore spending your time in your home office.

Speaker 1:

And then a big thing now are zoom backdrops, so you want whatever is behind you to look good, and so I find that's actually a big request from people now when I'm designing home offices, they want the desk. The desk always just used to be up against the wall or up against the window looking out, but now everyone's considering what is behind them as well, because we all spend a lot of our time on on screens now, on zoom calls, on recordings, like I'm doing now, and you want the background to look good. You don't always want it to be kind of the washing hanging out to dry or just, you know, the bed or a chair or something. You want something that looks good, something that you are looking at all the time when you're on calls as well, not only the people looking at you on the call. So you want it to be something that looks nice, that gives off a professional view, a professional atmosphere and also for privacy.

Speaker 1:

You don't want people to always look into your home. You could be on calls with various different people throughout the day, so you don't want people to always look into your home. You could be on calls with various different people throughout the day, so you don't want them all kind of peering into your home where you're working and your personal life stacked behind you. So that's been a huge request recently in home offices for me and a great little tip there if you do have your home office in your bedroom, I always find seeing someone's bed in the background of their Zoom call it just feels really personal and I think sometimes there's an easy way to deal with that. You can get a folding screen or perhaps you can curtain off with a beautiful velvet curtain or something, a section of the room. So there's always solutions that you can kind of make it feel more private, kind of keep your bedroom private but still have the area that feels like work, without exposing everything to everybody on your Zoom call. So you can go all out, like the library shelving I was telling you about earlier for my client. Or you could go really simple where you just have a shelf, a plant and a few stacked books. Both can look just as good.

Speaker 1:

But I think do spend some time on it. Think about what people are seeing when you're on those calls. If that is part of your work, if you're having to do calls or appear on recordings a lot, I think that is actually quite an important thing. So that brings us to the end of the episode. Everybody, I really hope that was helpful for you.

Speaker 1:

I know so many of us are working from home now. So whether you're in a lovely spare room and you've got a whole home office to yourself, or whether you're tucked in a little corner in your bedroom trying to hide the bed, then I hope that you've got some ideas from this episode today. You know it's a big part of our lives. I think our home offices now deserve just as much attention as any other room would be planning or designing in the home, because I think more and more people will be working from home and so we have to make those spaces work for us. Our environment, from where we work, where we learn, is so, so important as to how they make us feel. So spend the time, think about it. Don't just have your home office as an afterthought. Try and plan it well. Try and think about what you love, think about what makes you feel most productive and most energized and put it in there. And I will see you next week. I'll see you in the next episode. Everybody bye for now.

Speaker 1:

For more information on my five pillar process for successful renovation, you can go directly to southplacestudiocom forward slash pillars, where you'll find an introduction to the process which covers each of the pillars and what they cover. We also have a number of other free renovation resources. Go now to southplacestudiocom forward slash freebies. I have created some amazing freebies for you there. There is one on the process, like we just said, there is one on planning permission, there is one on kitchen design, there is another one on lighting planning. Go and check those out. There's so much free information there to help you with your renovation.