Working from home isn’t as much of a rarity as it used to be. The internet allows people to stay connected to employers and clients without having to get out of their house. More and more people are enjoying the luxury of doing all of their work from the comfort of their own bedroom.
However, this has a profound effect on productivity. Without a proper office atmosphere, people tend to get lazy. Because of this, creating a home office would be the logical solution.
Minimalism is in right now and you might be wondering how to create your own personal minimalistic work haven.
Sparse details
As its name suggests, minimalism is all about doing the most with as little as possible. It’s kind of like turning a blank canvas into art in one or two strokes. If your home office is your own personal canvas, then you need to figure out what’s going in your brush stroke.
You should make everything match one aesthetic. Minimalism is all about sticking to one clean look that will grab your attention.
Every part of your office should share the sleek aesthetic. Your desk shouldn’t be too bulky, because that would draw too much attention to it and it would block the view of your other design choices. It should have just enough room for your laptop to fit, while also giving you some breathing room for your coffee cup and stacks of paper.
Your chair should be just as simple. You need something that is comfortable to sit on, but not too lavish in its design. An armchair would look out of place in your sleek and contemporary office. You don’t need a piece of furniture that lets you sit back and relax while you read a book, its job is to get you working.
Warm lighting
Every office needs good lighting. You want to be able to focus on your work without dozing off when you get tired. To achieve this, you need to keep your desk well lit.
In most offices, you’ll find a bunch of fluorescent lights that seemingly sap the energy out of anyone that spends even a single hour near them. One of the benefits of working at home is that you get to choose the type of lights that illuminate your home office.
You will want something that gives you tons of visibility while not sacrificing the minimalistic aesthetic. Overhead lights are a popular choice.
Having a simple, monochrome chandelier that hangs from a long string would go well with the rest of the design. On the other hand, a desk lamp isn’t out of the question either. After all, most of your work will be done on your desk, which means you don’t need too many other sources of light.
The type of light you pick needs to be appropriate. When the sun goes down, you want to feel energized by the lighting instead of having it just barely keep you up. To achieve this, you might want to invest in some warm light bulbs.
Incandescent lights are the most popular choices for a comfortable and welcoming atmosphere. However, they aren’t very efficient and their longevity isn’t anything to boast about.
LED lights would be a great alternative. They use a lot less electricity and they won’t malfunction after a few months of use. They come in a lot of colours and varieties, which means you don’t have to sacrifice the warmth of your lights.
Minimal wiring
If you’re like most people, you probably do most of your work on electronic devices. You won’t see many working individuals slaving away at a typewriter any time soon, even if they’re writers.
The centrepiece of your working space will be your laptop or desktop computer. They are extremely practical devices, without which your home office might not even exist. As with most electronic devices, you will have a lot of cables connecting to your home work station.
Just about everything will use at least one or two cables. If you have speakers, they will require an outlet and a connection to your work station. The modem will have to be wired into your station as well. This can prove to be an unpleasant sight. A bunch of cables will take away from the minimalistic look of your home office.
Luckily, there are ways to conceal or reduce the cables’ effects. You can start by finding wireless options for a lot of your accessories. If you don’t need the maximum amount of bandwidth provided by your internet, you could always switch to WIFI.
Just about every modern internet provider offers WIFI access via their modems. Speakers come in many varieties and they don’t necessarily require any wiring. Bluetooth and WIFI speakers can offer you the convenience of high-quality music while also being wireless.
Unfortunately, you can’t make everything wireless. You’re going to have a couple of unsightly wires here and there. Your laptop needs to be charged from an outlet, for example.
To minimize the effect of these cables, you can clump them together and create one big wire. This isn’t going to look all that bad and you can rest easy knowing that your office aesthetic won’t suffer for it.
Smooth, practical surfaces
It goes without saying that your furniture and surfaces won’t be decorated in a tacky way. Too many protruding elements would defeat the point of minimalistic design. However, there’s another point that needs to be addressed when picking furniture – how easy it is to clean.
Cleanliness is a key part of minimalism and the designs that are associated with it. Obviously, every kind of room needs to be clean and well-maintained, but this is especially true for this type of design.
Old-timey designs aren’t hampered by a bit of dust. Some might even argue that it doesn’t take away from the look at all. Minimalism is different in this regard. This kind of sleek look can’t be realized without it looking spotless at the same time.
One of the best things about minimalistic furniture is that it’s pretty easy to maintain. The surfaces are all flat and relatively featureless, which makes cleaning a breeze. Still, you can always go a step further.
The materials you pick should be as smooth as possible. If your desk is located next to a wall, you should make sure that it fits snuggly. This will minimize the amount of dust and particles that might accumulate below it.
The design and layout choices you make will strongly influence how much time you spend cleaning your home office. Minimizing this time is in your best interest. It’s there to help you be productive, not take away from your busy day.
Comfortable and useful design
When designing your home office, you’re going to want to recreate the feeling of a real office. Comfort is something your office can’t go without. You want to be able to do your work in a pleasant environment that helps you concentrate.
This is one of the premier advantages of working at home. You get all the productive benefits of an office, while also being able to relax and feel at home. However, it’s not as simple as turning your office into just another room. You need to be smart with how you add comfort.
There’s a fine line between feeling comfortable and getting too comfortable. If your office turns into another part of your home, you’ll find it difficult to focus on your work. Distractions are everywhere, especially when you work on your laptop. It’s crucial that you turn it into a real office.
When you decide to get to work, you need to motivate yourself to stay in the office for long periods of time. To do this, you need to make it a self-sustaining environment. This means that it should have everything you need in order to be productive. All your work-related stuff should be inside the room. You should aim to equip it with everything short of a bathroom.
Unfortunately, you can’t merge your kitchen with your home office. How do you get your coffee and food then? Making coffee could require a trip to your own kitchen, but even that isn’t necessarily true. There are some BluePod Coffee Machines that are compact enough to snuggly fit in your home office while not influencing the minimalistic look.
When it comes to food, you have two options. Either you make use of your own “lunch break” to go and eat in the kitchen, or you prepare food in advance and then eat it in your office. Most people prefer the former because it reduces the chance that you’ll have to clean any spills or messes. Whatever you choose, you’ll find that you won’t have any prob
Colour
The colour palette shouldn’t present much of a problem. With this type of home office design, you should try some basic colours and patterns. If you’re trying to concentrate, the last thing you need is a bright pattern with shapes that draw attention to it. Stick to a simple look and you’ll end up with the best possible results.
The most common colours for minimalistic designs are pretty predictable. You have white, off white, and cream. These colours give off a clean vibe which is something you should strive for.
Grays and blacks are also welcome additions, but you shouldn’t apply them in very large amounts. Go too far and you’re leaning more towards an aggressive contemporary look rather than strict minimalism.
Just because you’re aiming for a minimalistic office doesn’t mean it should be a featureless, white abyss. Small bits of colour here and there is what adds charm to your design.
Pick a colour or two that will stick out in your office. You can add them to any number of things. A colourful monochrome rug could do the trick. Having a purple rug with an interesting texture would really make the colour pop when compared to the rest of the room. Lamps are another interesting choice.
Your desk and walls should stay a monochromatic variation of grey or white because this will help make the colours you choose for everything else stand out.
Conclusion
Making an aesthetically pleasing home office isn’t all that difficult. With the right knowledge and materials, you can make your vision into a reality. With some of these ideas, you’ll be able to craft a unique office experience that will make working from home all that much easier.
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