Getting a home office workspace in shape requires planning. In order to work your best, you need to be comfortable, professional, and above all in the right mood to do your very best. The obvious factors are your chair, your desk, your technology, but what about the rest of it? For those who have left the cubicles and “open office” forms of workspace, the freedom to create your own space with signature style sounds exhilarating, but can also be confusing. Here’s some tips and tricks to get you started on making a space of your own.
Space, the First Frontier
Think about what you’re going to to be doing with your surfaces and the flat workspace that you’re going to need. Maybe you can get by with putting your office in a closet and break out a folding table for when you need to lay things out, but having space “on tap” means a work flow with less interruptions. Think about how your office space is to be used, too. Are you working alone at your desk most of the time? Do you expect to meet with clients in your office? Do you need space for special equipment like a drafting table, large monitors, or a worktable? Canada’s Occupational Safety and Health offers tips on working space requirements for everything from a single workstation or executive offices to get you started.
Put Your Money Where Your…
Ergonomic task seating is of prime importance to your comfort and health. Guidelines from the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration give the lowdown on what makes an office chair a safe, healthy choice. Ergonomic design means that workspace furnishings are made to maximize comfort for workers, while minimizing the risk of stress or injury. Four areas of the chair are of particular importance.
- Base: According to OSHA, the base should not have fewer than five legs and use casters appropriate to the flooring material. This reduces the risk of tipping over, and makes it easier to push the chair back from the work surface.
- Seat: The chair should be adjustable in terms of height with a “waterfall” style seat edge. Your knees in seated position should be slightly higher than the edge of the chair so as not to hinder circulation. You may also want to consider a footrest if you can’t find a chair that works for your height.
- Armrests: Arm supports need to be wide enough apart so that you can get in and out of the chair easily, but at the same time positioned so that you can rest your elbows and forearms with your upper arms close to your body.
- Backrest: The backrest should follow the natural curve of your spine and provide support for your lower back – also called lumbar support.
Ideally, you should test out a chair in person before buying it to see if it conforms to these specifications. Comfort is something very individualistic, and sometimes that awesome chair your friend swears by can be a torment instead of a comfortable addition to your space.
Shine Some Light
Lighting isn’t really something a lot of people think about when designing a workspace, but it is vitally important. HGTV says that proper lighting can reduce eyestrain and headaches, but can also set a tone to your workspace. Recessed lighting is one option, but isn’t really a good idea for task lighting. You may find that pendant or hanging lamps are a great option for task lighting, especially when adjustable with a rheostat or even adjustable in height. Pendants also free up valuable desk and floor space, and reduce clutter. Lumens can give you some great examples of hanging lamps or even whole lookbooks that showcase the uses of pendant lighting, in all types of styles.
Color Your World
Now that you’re free from such “adventurous” colors like beige and white with grey, why not go big and use color to enhance your space and express your personality? Color for a room doesn’t have to stop with the walls. Why not a turquoise desk, or a wall full of colorful art? Carpeting, flooring, even furniture can be as colorful and personal as you wish. There’s even a paint to let you turn your walls and other surfaces in to whiteboards of any color.
Start with a few signature pieces and build your space around them. If you found a great desk at a vintage shop, or have a rug you’ve always wanted to build a space around, go ahead and get it in there. As a final tip, it makes sense to start small, work with swatches of fabrics and color, make use of sample sizes of paints. Organize instead of just throwing together a mishmash of cool stuff so that you end up with a professional, well-planned space instead of something that resembles a garage sale.
