While working from home, I usually prefer to maintain professionalism to some extent.
I always make sure my home office looks warm, cozy, comfortable, and professional at the same time.
In this article, we will be providing some important ideas on creating a professional home office.
Read on to learn about the significance of a professional home office and some tips for creating it.
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Importance of a Professional Home Office
A professional home office setup is significant for a day-to-day worker.
Making the desk reflect your personality and professionalism will balance your work life.
Here are some of the importance of a professional home office you can go through:
1. Increases the Level of Productivity
Once you start working in a professionally structured workspace, you will get more of an office vibe.
As a result, you will feel more productive and self-driven toward your job.
The appearance of a professional office at your home will develop a positive attitude towards your job.
In addition, professionalism always gives a good impression. It also contributes to successful interpersonal communications and interactions.
2. Increases Work Satisfaction
A professional workspace will ensure a comfortable and stress-free working environment.
Working in a clean and neat office will boost productivity. As a result, productivity leads you to satisfaction.
Your business image will also grow immensely once the satisfaction spreads widely.
A professional home office inspires you to work harder and makes you feel lively.
3. Professional Home Office Reduces Stress
A professional home office needs to be well-organized and clutter-free.
Working in a setting that is free of clutter greatly reduces stress.
A messy space not only lets down the personal comfort of a person but also gives a bad impression and reflects a different personality.
A person believing in professionalism ensures no visual clutter around the workspace while working.
Read on to discover the reasons why your desk is always messy.
4. It Provides a Good Impression
When it comes to a professional home office setup, everyone is going to love it. It is usually believed that the first impression is the last one.
A Professionally set home office will provide a great view to the eyes of the onlookers.
You can develop great interpersonal relationships with your friends and clients.
You might have a client meeting at your home office. Your home office should not be messy or chaotic, as this will turn off any possible new clients.
As a result, your clients can get a professional impression from your tidy, well-organized home office.
10 Effective Tips to Create a Professional Home Office
A lot of people nowadays choose to work from home.
With the increasing internet use and innovative devices, people tend to switch to traditional working methods.
However, working from home can also come with quite a few distractions.
Therefore, giving the home office room a professional touch can create an office-like atmosphere for the workers.
Here are the top 10 effective tips for creating a professional home office;
1. Invest in a Good Furniture
Furniture is indeed the heart of any office. Setting up wonderful furniture changes the entire look of an office.
If you want your home office to look professional, choose the furniture accordingly.
Selecting the right furniture can be challenging most of the time. You have to make sure the furniture is comfortable and good-looking at the same time.
The basic home office furniture includes a desk with drawers, filing cabinets, bookshelves, and an ergonomic office chair.
Moreover, you can also add a long credenza if you have too many things to store.
Since you are building a home office, too few can be too many. Therefore, there is no use in adding any extra furniture like sofas or tables.
| Must-Have | Nice-to-Have |
|---|---|
| Work Desk/Workstation | Sofa |
| Chairs | Bookshelves |
| Storage units and drawers | Storage racks |
The most important thing is to ensure comfort and professionalism together.
Continue reading to discover some tips and tricks to arrange furniture in a small home office.
2. Add Some Green Plants
Green plants and some flowers always brighten up your home office room.
A little shade of green probably does not harm the interiors.
Plants like spider plants and dracaena are suitable indoors and are best known for their air filtration ability.
Moreover, green plants tend to splash a great dash of color that increases happiness and reduce unnecessary stress.
Green plants improve indoor air quality and provide a sense of happiness. Moreover, you must choose a plant that requires less attention and is easy to maintain.
Here are some indoor plants that are suitable for your home office.
| Plants | Benefits |
|---|---|
| Cast Iron Plant | They are slow-growing plants that are perfect for decoration on work desks. |
| Dracaena | Bes air-purifying houseplant that helps to increase concentration |
| Bromeliad | They are great at removing toxic chemicals and pollutants from the air. |
| Spider Plant | a low-maintenance plant that helps cleanse indoor air and does well in low light |
| Pink Syngonium | Almost every Syngonium species is suitable for homes. They help cleanse air and add decor. |
| Snake Plant | They effectively cleanse benzene and trichloroethylene from the air and great low-light plants. |
| Peace Lily | A low-maintenance house plant that promotes home decor and restful sleep. |
| Lucky Bamboo | It is great at cleaning the air |
3. Let the Natural Light Come In
Natural light is highly responsible for affecting the look of your home office.
Working feels fresh and easier once you have a natural light passing in.
Make sure to place your desk and chair nearby the window. Natural light always feels better.
Moreover, natural light helps generate vitamin D, which helps enhance mood and attention.
It increases your productivity at work and dramatically improves your appearance on video chats, particularly if you’re facing a window.
However, do not work directly facing bright sunlight as it may damage your electric devices and increases glare.
Additionally, if there is not enough natural light in your home office, consider employing the best task lighting to fill in the gaps.
You can use a low-glare, adjustable desk lamp or wall-mounted task light with at least 450 lumens to lighten your home office.
Here are some best desk lights for your home office.
| Products | Features | Product Image |
|---|---|---|
| Ottlite Wellness Series | An award-winning Glow LED Desk Lamp with CRI 97 and 5000K temperature designed to reduce eyestrain by 51% |  |
| BenQ e-Reading Desk Lamp | A perfect task lighting desk lamp that can be adjusted to ambient lighting and from warm to cool. |  |
| Dyson Lightcycle Morph | A 3-point revolve motion light that connects to your smartphone—adjusted to ambient lighting whenever needed. |  |
| LEDGLE LED Desk Lamp | A smart desktop LED lamp that combines direct and indirect light output perfect for workspaces. |  |
Related Article: How to choose the best desk lights for your home office?
4. Maintain Regular Cleanliness and Organize Things
Maintaining cleanliness is very important to give your home office a professional look.
Many things are inside a home office, including furniture, equipment, and other accessories.
A clean office space looks tidy, clean, and professional at the same time. On the other hand, a messy and unorganized office does not look tempting.
You can utilize a filing cabinet and place it next to your work desk to store the documents.
To keep your desk neat and organized, you can also have desk organizers with compartments for various products, such as pens, sticky notes, notebooks, and other office supplies.
While cleaning your home office, take care of all the surfaces. You can use wipes, sprays, or sanitizers for cleaning purposes.
Read more to discover effective minimalist desk set up ideas.
5. Maintain the Working Hours
Working from home allows you to have your schedule for completing all the tasks.
However, it is important to set the work hours if you want to maintain professionalism.
Making your home office look professional is not enough. It is important to make sure that your job also showcases professionalism.
After you start working according to a schedule or a routine, it becomes easier for you to switch to “work mode.”
In addition, maintaining a work-life balance also becomes possible if you maintain the working hours of your office.
The Pomodoro technique helps in focus management and maximizing productivity.
Check out some popular Pomodoro techniques below;
| Pomodoro based Apps | Features |
|---|---|
| Glan | Create a to-do list and complete Pomodoro sessions with chosen break timings |
| FocusList | Pomodoro timer with stats to see a calendar view of your past activities. |
| Be Focused | Pomodoro timer with customization options: task management, the ability to set break and work session durations, goal tracking, pie chart reporting, and 3D touch |
| Clockwork Tomato | Customize timers, sounds, colors, style, and behavior with more than 50 options |
6. Choose the Right Wall Color
Colors are of great importance when it comes to a beautiful interior.
If you look forward to creating a professional-looking workspace, choose the wall colors wisely.
Different colors tend to trigger other emotions and feelings in a person.
Do not consider choosing colors that have a darker shade, including red, maroon, or a darker shade of green.
These colors are pretty intense and can give an overwhelming feeling. Light pastel colors often showcase elegance and command attention.
You can follow a simple 60-30-10 rule to find the perfect balance of colors for your home office.
| Color | Specification |
|---|---|
| 60 | 60% of your room will have the same color, primarily neutral tones like beige, cream, pastel, white, or aqua blue. |
| 30 | 30% of the shade should create a contrast to otherwise dominating wall colors. It would come from upholstery, drawers, and decorations. |
| 10 | 10% of the color should create visual interest, such as accent color. |
Moreover, you can also choose a different color for the focal or accent wall, such as the wall behind the workstation, to make it stand out from the rest of the walls.
Related Article: 10 Stunning Home Office Accent Wall Ideas
7. Add Some Decor Items
Styling your home office with different decorative items can give a professional touch.
If you want to maintain professionalism, avoid more vibrant colors.
Adding art pieces to the walls is the best way to decorate your home office. Including art showcases a better personality and style.
Moreover, you can also use some decorative items related to stationery, including World Maps, Clocks with different wall zones, and a Big round Globe. Graphic images can also provide a beautiful look.
In addition, you can also put beautiful flower vases, candles, mugs, cups, and family photos on your work desk.
8. Select the Best Location for Your Home Office
While working from home, many people choose not to create a particular location and keep shifting places.
However, selecting a proper location for setting up your home office is important.
It is absolutely important to know what you need for your home office. If you require quite a big space, you must have a separate room to build your home office.
However, if you can adjust well to a small space, you can set up your home office in the corner of the living room or bedroom.
But make sure to have your desk facing away from the bed. You can use the furniture to define the two different zones.
Before deciding on the location for your home office, consider the layout and traffic zones.
You should provide enough area to stroll around the room while making enough for a desk, chair, equipment, and storage shelves.
9. Take Care of the Ergonomics
Caring for the furniture is very significant in building a professional home office.
You must take care of ergonomics and choose the equipment to help you work comfortably.
For instance, your regular desk or chair may not be appropriate and suitable to keep inside your home office.
When choosing a home office desk, ensure it is the right sized and deep enough for the computer screen to sit arm’s length away.
Moreover, the desk must be high enough for your legs to fit comfortably underneath.
At the same time, your office chair must have proper back support.
Also, it is important that your feet lay flat on the floor. If it doesn’t, you can also consider using a footrest.
Aside from that, you can purchase ergonomic desk accessories such as a laptop stand, an ergonomic keyboard and mouse, a dual monitor arrangement, and soundproofing items.
You can also review some items to help your workspace look more professional and ergonomic.
| Ergonomic Furniture and Equipment | Benefits |
|---|---|
| Height-adjustable standing desk | Provides comfortable arm stretching with a comfortable and healthy sight distance while working. |
| Ergonomic Office Chair | For comfortable sitting |
| Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard | Provides exceptional comfort while typing |
| Ergonomic Mouse | Great for natural hand and wrist posture |
| Cable Holder | For managing messy and tangled wires |
| Cute Humidifier | Helps improve indoor air quality and moisturizes your skin |
| Ergonomic Laptop Stand | To place laptops in correct position |
| Noise cancelling wireless headphones | To maintain balanced sound for creating peaceful working environment |
| Ergonomic Footrest | For comfortable sitting position |
10. Keep the Office Space Private
Always avoid your home office from being a communal family space. A home office should be completely your Private Space.
Making your home office peaceful and quiet should be your topmost priority. It is important to separate your personal life from your professional life.
You may find it difficult to have your home office space all for yourself, especially if you have children.
As a result, your work life can be disturbed. Therefore, it is important to keep an eye on them.
You can use a room divider or have a private door if having a separate office is not an option for you.
You can also buy a shoji screen or room divider to block out distractions at home.
Read more to discover the trendy door ideas for your home office.
Final Verdict
Designing a professional home office with a little mix of personal touch looks appealing.
Moreover, tasks become much easier once you own a designated working space for yourself.
A dedicated space will help you quickly access your essentials and separate the job from your personal life.
Owning a professional home office will make you more inclined toward your jobs and helps to increase your productivity.
