Designing a Home Office: Part 3

Hello everyone and welcome back to my website. It’s lovely to have you all here! Today’s post is going to be about designing a home office. It will be part 3 of a 12-part series! This series has been getting lots of attention and I’m super grateful for that! If you’re loving these posts I encourage you to hit that follow button to make sure you get notified of when the rest come out! My past 2 posts have talked about things like choosing a designated area for your home office and how to stay productive while working at home. In today’s post, we’re going to talk about some of the furniture that might be required for a home office.

Furniture Required

Well, first things first you need a desk that offers you what you need. you need to think about what functions you need your desk to be able to handle. For my desk, I need lots of space but compactness as well. I have lots of shelving, so I decided a desk with lots of shelving wasn’t necessary. But a large working space for multiple projects on the go was necessary. I went with the Malm desk from Ikea with the pullout feature. It cost about $230 after taxes and buying my dad dinner for helping me put it together.

I chose the colour white for my furniture. I’m in a basement and even though I have decent lighting I still felt that choosing white would keep the room light, airy and more spacious than going with the darker colours. The desk’s pull-out feature is moveable so I can change sides as I change floorplans. It also features a small shelf way at the back specifically for organizing your cords and power bars. This comes in really handy when you have young children.

Chair

For my desk, I used to have a gaming chair that I loved because it was pink and white and super cute. It also had a footrest for long days or days that were full of more lectures than participative work. Well, as cute as this gaming chair was, it was a cheap piece of garbage that barely lasted me six months. Before exam week in the second semester, it had completely broken on me. The moral of the story here is that a computer chair is crucial. Even if you have a standing desk. and a Chair that’s ergonomically correct for your office is more important than a chair that looks cute and goes with your furniture. Thankfully we had extra chairs in the house.

Ergonomics

I ended up getting a proper computer chair along with extra support to make the chair more ergonomically sound. For me, this includes 2 different kinds of seat cushions. I also have a neck pillow, a back pad with lumbar support, and armrest pads to kind of raise the height of my armrests. I also have this thing that is like an extended mouse pad. On days that my shoulder is hurting, I use this to bring the mouse that much closer to my body and sit more comfortably. I am also short so even though my chair is at the lowest seat setting, I still need some support for my feet throughout the day to help my knees reach that suggested 90-degree angle.

I had a large plastic footrest from Fellows. Which is a very reputable office brand. It worked great before getting the MALM desk. I’ve also added some storage underneath the desk. As well as a printer underneath my desk. Then suddenly the larger footrest was a little less ergonomic. I bought another one from Amazon that’s perfect for me. I bought one that’s like a cushion and it’s curved as well so my free can fit comfortably on it while feeling like I have a bit of arch support too.

So those are my considerations for the very basic furniture you should ideally start off with. I’ll put links to all the items I spoke about at the end of the post in case anyone’s interested in checking them out for themselves.

Office Storage

Another huge thing necessary for all home offices is storage capability. There are built-in shelving units in my basement and I can’t get rid of them. But I can make great use of these. I have also purchased some extra furniture for downstairs to make it more suitable. Including a storage solution from Ikea. I purchased the KALLAX 12 space solution, and I have it horizontally in my living room with my tv for entertainment and brief distraction on top of it. This is where a lot of my other office things are stored.

Bins

I have a junk bin because who doesn’t have a bin specifically for all their junk electronics? Like spare items, spare cords and power banks, batteries etc? I also have 2 bins specifically for blogging and business props. I also have a bin for all my crucial legal files. (These have now been transferred into an actual filing cabinet.) I have a stockpile of notebooks and notepads that I used during the school year. I have one bin where I keep mailing stuff. Well, mainly things that need to be mailed back to amazon for a return. This has now been turned into a seasonal bin for my daughter’s hats and other winter items.

Another bin houses all my workout equipment and Fitbit accessories. I have 2 bins dedicated to crafty things for my daughter and activities for us to do. She has a bin for all of her colouring utensils like crayons markers and gel pens and she also has a bin full of colouring books and notebooks. I have one bin that I keep my ergonomic items in when I’m not actively using them.

Textbooks

One bin that houses all my textbooks. I have my first-year textbooks in here and a couple of extras I have picked up along the way. I keep them on hand for reference material and for when I’m tutoring other students. The textbooks for this semester are in a drawer under my desk for easy access. Speaking of the storage under my desk, I have 2 cute little rally carts from Ikea. (I have downsized my office items again and have given one of the two to Elayna for her bedroom.) I purchased two of the LENNART units. One houses things I use daily, and the other housing things I only access once every week to a month or so.

Seating Area

I also have a futon that I utilize during the workday as well. Sometimes is nice for the body and your mind to work in a little bit of a different area. I don’t really like working on the computer upstairs in my house unless I’m 100% alone. So, I utilize my futon sometimes. I would imagine, depending on the business someone is running from home, that this might be used as client seating.

I also have a long ottoman that also gets used as a coffee table or ergonomic support when using the futon. The ottoman houses blankets. Because you gotta have something cozy! I have a filing box under my desk because I have no room for an actual filing cabinet. (This has changed and I have madeeee room for a filing cabinet.) Which breaks my heart.) I want a filing cabinet so badly and would benefit from it greatly to better organize my entire life lol.

I’m pretty sure this is it for today ladies and gents. Thank you all for stopping by and if you’d like to see some of the other things I post go ahead and check out my Instagram account. And don’t forget to hit that follow button on your way out! And if you’re interested in any of the products I have mentioned scroll down further for the links!