Working from home became a necessity for many during the pandemic, and after things reopened, many decided to continue doing so instead of returning to the office. It can be challenging mentally checking out of work at the end of the day when leaving the office only entails you walking away from the computer.
It can be tempting to just chill on the couch in sweatpants and call that your home office, but giving yourself a designated workspace can help with your productivity and give you a place that you can walk away from at the end of the day.
10 Ways to Upgrade Your Home Office Space
To help you design and upgrade your home office space to maximize your efficiency, we have put together our favorite unique ways you can upgrade it.
1. Invest in comfortable furniture.
There are a few different types of office furniture that it would be worthwhile to invest in.
The Office Chair
Your home office needs to be comfortable for you to work in. If you are stuck in a rigid, uncomfortable chair all day, it is going to impact your productivity and physical health. First, invest in a comfortable, ergonomic chair to help reduce the strain on your back and neck while you are working.
Make sure you look for a chair that will also help keep your spine aligned currently as well. These chairs can be spendy, but they are worth it because they can improve your life working from home.
Instead of a chair, you can also try an exercise ball instead, which is good at helping reduce pressure on your shoulders and back.
Try an Adjustable Desk
If you are someone who wants to be able to seamlessly go between sitting comfortably at your desk while you work and standing, an adjustable desk is a worthwhile upgrade for your home office. There are many health benefits that you can gain from alternating between sitting and standing, so it is a good choice for your physical health and possibly your mental health if sitting all day becomes monotonous for you.
2. Add some privacy screens.
If your home office is not in another room of your home, but you still have a corner sectioned off to work in, adding some privacy screens around your workspace can make it feel like your office is separate from the rest of the house. It will also give you a little bit of privacy if others are home during your workday and can potentially look at your work over your shoulder.
3. Turn a garden shed into an office.
If you do not have space inside the house or just want to give yourself a little bit of space when you are working, you can convert a little garden shed into a private home office. Just make sure it is properly insulated to maintain the temperature.
If you want to get creative with your insulation, you can install faux stone on the interior or exterior to both insulate it and make the garden office unique and beautiful. You can even set one up that has a small restroom in it, so you do not need to go back to the house when you need to use it.
4. Upcycle jars for organizing pens.
If you have a lot of pens and other writing utensils, you can transform some old jars into unique pen holders. These can be painted, drawn on, or you can even wrap some fabric and ribbons around the jars. You can even print out photos and wrap them around the jars, decorating your desk with your loved ones. This is a great chance for you to add a little personal touch to your home office.
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5. Make a Vintage Wardrobe Desk
If you have somewhat limited space in your home but need something slightly separate for your home office, a fun and creative idea for your home office is to transform a vintage wardrobe into an office you can tuck away at the end of the day. You just need to build some shelves and a desk into it.
This can be as elaborate as you need it to be, but why not have fun with it? Then, at the end of the day, you just need to move your chair and close the wardrobe. If you work with sensitive information, this can also be good for security purposes because you can install a lock on the doors to keep anyone else in your household from coming in.
A vintage secretary desk is also a great space saver. You will not need to add a bunch of DIY shelves to the secretary to make it work for you since it comes with shelves and drawers already.
6. Frost the windows in your office.
You want the natural light of your windows, but you can see your neighbors running around outside, or there is a lot of traffic driving by that is distracting.
To help you with that, you can get a frosted glass window spray to give you natural light without having to see out the window clearly.
7. Create a fun background for video calls.
The backgrounds and blur effects that many video call platforms offer can be fun, but they also have a bad habit of cutting parts of a person out of the frame and making random things behind them appear and disappear. Instead of using one of the generated backgrounds, you can put together a fun background behind you when you are on a call. The people on your calls would love to see a little bit of your personality, not some randomly generated background.
You can paint or wallpaper the area behind your seat in a unique color or pattern to jazz up the wall. This is another place where you could install faux stone or brick to give your background some depth and texture. Plus, it is definitely something unique that will catch the eye, and since it is a DIY project, you can even get some bragging rights about it when others comment on how nice it looks.
Hang up some unique artwork or photos on the wall behind you. You can also display your degrees or personal achievement certifications in frames behind you.
Hang up some shelves in your background, and you can arrange books or fun knick-knacks on them. Adding some greenery to your background by hanging plants, using taller potted plants, putting smaller potted plants on shelves, or even little bouquets on shelves.
If you have cats, you can even set up a cat tree behind your desk so your coworkers can see your cats during calls — showing off your fuzzy friends can be a welcome addition to many video meetings.
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8. Create a DIY chalkboard calendar.
Chalkboard paint is a great way to design a calendar that you can update monthly, and it is fun and unique. To help you make straight lines on your chalkboard, you can get small strips of wood to put on the wall before painting so that you will not have to draw the lines every month when you redo the numbers on the board.
In addition to using chalkboard paint for a calendar, you can paint more of the wall in chalkboard paint to allow you to use it to scribble down notes on the wall when needed.
9. Design a peg board wall for organization.
Having a pegboard wall above your desk is great for crafters, but it can be helpful for pretty much any type of work. You can add and arrange shelves as needed, allowing you to customize your space, and you will not need to bust out the tools when you need to move things around or add new things to the walls.
10. Add a DIY hidden coffee bar.
If you need a steady supply of coffee throughout the day, why not add a little hidden coffee bar to your home office? If you have a cabinet or shelving unit in your home office, you can easily upgrade it by loading it up with all of your coffee essentials and then hiding it all behind a door.
If you love using a creamer that requires refrigeration, you can get a small mini fridge and hide it behind the cabinet as well. You can even add some snacks to it, which will let you keep going through the day without needing to run to the kitchen.