What you need to build a home office
Your home office should be equipped with versatile, easy to store furniture that serves multiple purposes. Get a standing desk that doubles as a sitting desk, a foldable office chair, and a crisp, high-res monitor that won’t get tiresome to look at for hours on end. To create a productive atmosphere and reduce stress, toss in some plants and greenery, simple artwork, and sentimental trinkets that make it your own.
Sure, it’s nice to walk into a furnished office building with everything picked out for you.
Until the chair you’ve been given makes you stiffer than a corpse and the only fluorescent tube lighting casts a nauseating glow over everything in the room.
I need a stale coffee break already.
At home, you’re the boss of your space.
Get creative and piece together an office that suits you. I like to move around. Not just from sitting to standing, but also moving from my bedroom to the living room (if my roommates aren’t home) and even outside.
Having a few spots to work from keeps my mind refreshed and my creativity flowing. Beyond versatility, working from home slashes your daily commute to zero. And getting coffee and lunch becomes a no-brainer since your kitchen is ten steps away.
First, we’re going to highlight the essential furniture you need to get started. Then, we’ll talk about the lesser considered elements, like how to build an atmosphere where you work, the finer nuances you aren’t considering, and where to find inspiration.
Without putting a major dent in our wallets, let’s create an office and atmosphere that puts us in a deep flow state of focused work.
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Your Home Office Essential Items List
Home office furniture should be more than just a stand for your computer.
Everything should fit well in your space and either accent the room or be able to be stored away easily to create space when you aren’t working.
The Desk
The desk is the centerpiece of every office. But what if your centerpiece could move around? Hart makes a pleasantly versatile and remarkably affordable 2-tier Mobile Standing Desk.
Having two different platforms is clutch. You can play around with where to put your laptop or monitor, accommodate for a wireless keyboard and mouse, and still have room for your coffee mug, notebooks, and pens.
I really dig the ability to adjust the heights of either tier. I find myself using this way more often than I thought I would, and I’m constantly switching from sitting to standing depending on the mood or the day.
A Harvard Health article points out that if you go from sitting to suddenly standing full-time, you “run the risk of developing back, leg, or foot pain.” This same article also claims that sitting for long hours can increase your risk of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.
It’s nice to be able to strike a balance and adjust according to your body and your needs.
So you remember that time you converted your second bedroom into a home office and then started losing your mind? Now you can scoot your standing desk anywhere in the house when you need a change of scenery.
The Office Chair
Office chairs can run you over $1,000. That’s more expensive than my mattress and I spend as much time in bed.
While ergonomic design is a major factor to consider, sometimes having a chair that won’t crowd up your spare bedroom or living room is more important. The Knox+ Foldable Task Chair is well-priced, easy to put together, and folds completely in-half for simple storage.
While I like to work from various spots around my house, I keep a main desk in the corner of the living room. During the day, it’s a quiet, personal office. But at night and on the weekends, it becomes a high-traffic area with roommates and friends constantly walking by.
Being able to fold this chair down and store it under my desk is an intelligent feature I plan to use everyday.
A chair with a curved back and headrest also helps me keep better posture throughout the day since I have to be sitting upright to feel my back and head against the chair. If I don’t feel the chair against me, it’s a cue I need to sit up straighter.
There’s tons of chairs on the market for every price point so do your research and see which one will serve you best. One note, make sure to check that the arm rests are a similar height to your desk so you aren’t elevated above your desk or sitting too far below it.
Now you see it, now you don't. This foldable office chair fits nicely underneath your desk so you're not cluttering up the room with all that ergonomic firepower.
The Monitor
While you need a good desk to stand or sit at all day, the same goes for a good monitor since you’ll be looking at it for hours.
I’m the type of guy who would rather be frugal with his desk and chair and save a little extra on the side to splurge on a good monitor. And if you do editing or design work, this can make all the difference.
A good crisp and detailed monitor will help reduce any eyestrain you might pick up from long hours in front of the screen.
The graphics on this 24-inch Samsung monitor will roughly match that of a MacBook Pro. While it might be a bit of a luxury, not losing any resolution between looking at your laptop and monitor is a perk you will like getting used to. Trust me.
Crisp graphics and detail will make you lean forward and squint into your screen less and allow you to read things in lower light. So, if you’re cranking out a little late night work, you can turn down the brightness on a quality monitor and still see everything clearly.
Potato chips, mountain air, and this monitor: what do they all have in common? They're all crispy.
Create an Atmosphere in Your Space
Guys, an office doesn’t end with a desk, chair, and screen. Entering your office is entering a new mindset, and you can either end up despising or embracing it.
Of course, with any job out there, you run into tasks and projects that are just plain old work you have to truck through. Nothing fun about them. But a thoughtful office space can help you chug along, limiting distractions, and elevating your overall attitude toward work.
The devil is in the details. Adding things like natural sunlight (lots of that), plants, artwork, calming colors, and even sentimental trinkets will help your office feel personal and appealing. And depending on your at-home set up, you might need to go outside to find some golden sunlight to bask in.
Once you know the benefits of indoor plants, you realize they’re a total game changer. They can help you stay productive and relieve stress. It’s no wonder Apple’s Silicon Valley campus included 9,000 trees in its design and Amazon’s headquarters are strewn with thousands of plants from around the globe.
A 2010 study found that by implementing plants into the workspace, workers saw a 37% decrease in tension and anxiety and a 38% decrease in fatigue. Indoor plant life has become a mainstay for many large brands and one that you can easily embrace in your home office.
Picking up a couple desk plants at your local home goods store is cheap and effective. Aside from the scientific benefits of having leafy friends, they also add to the overall aesthetic and feel of your office. Think of plants as a counterbalance to all your shiny, tech gizmos.
Did you know how influential colors can be? A CDI article addressing the topic of colors in the workplace reveals how certain colors can evoke a desired response.
Having the right intensity of color is just as important as selecting the right calming colors.
Here’s some color picks to consider while designing a calming, focus-oriented space.
Blue is considered to be an intellectual color and represents logic and communication.
Yellow creates emotion and represents creativity, openness, and certainty.
Green is one of the easiest colors on the eyes and acts to establish balance in the workplace. This is why accenting your office with plants and greenery is so crucial to offsetting the sharp edges of desks and monitors and counterbalancing blacks, greys, and other less soothing colors.
Grey represents a sleek, modern feel and can elevate the seriousness and professionality of a space.
Let’s Produce
Did I spark any ideas? We’ve only scratched the surface.
To get inspiration for your home office, consider following accounts like @productivespaces and @dailysetuptech on Instagram. There’s people creating immaculate at-home setups tailored to their preferences and built to flow with the layout of their homes.
You’ve escaped the ghastly fluorescent lights and monotone colors of a corporate office. Now, it’s up to you to make your space cozy and productive.
To start, consider getting a versatile desk that allows for both standing or sitting like the Hart 2-tier Mobile Standing Desk.
So you remember that time you converted your second bedroom into a home office and then started losing your mind? Now you can scoot your standing desk anywhere in the house when you need a change of scenery.
Good luck building your perfect home office. The possibilities are endless.
FAQs
What are the work from home essentials?
Start with a desk, chair, and monitor and build out from there. A good pair of noise cancelling headphones can be a good investment along with accents like plants, art work, and sentimental trinkets.
How long should you stand at a standing desk?
Some research shows to get the benefits of standing at a desk, you should be in a standing position for 30 minutes out of an hour.
Does a standing desk actually help?
Standing at your desk mainly acts to minimize the negative effects of sitting for too long. Though, you can do a combination of standing and sitting to switch it up and see what feels best for you.
