home office design tips

The past few years of working from home culture have transformed how we look at home offices. Once a neglected, sterile space used only sparingly, home offices are now a worthwhile addition thanks to the increase of people working from home part or full-time. The trickiest part about designing a home office is trying to figure out how to marry style and function. You need the space to serve your work needs first and foremost, but you don’t want to return to the days of barren and bleak. Enter our experts at Behind Closed Doors Custom Closets & Cabinetry! Not only can we provide storage solutions for your home office, but we also can guide you through what items you should purchase for fun and which you should purchase for function!

For Looks: Lighting

Give in to style when picking out your office lighting—from desk lamps to ceiling lights to sconces and beyond. Figure out if you want a chandelier, flush mount, and/or sconces as the focal lighting first. Then add in lamps for the desk and side tables. Tip: use an attractive floor lamp to brighten a dark corner of the office.

For Function: Shelving

First things first, decide if open shelving or cabinets are going to work better for your working from home needs. While we love the look of custom built-ins with open shelves, they don’t lend themselves well to file folders, bulky printers and other office eyesores. So if you need that space to store them, you might want to put them behind closed doors. If you don’t have a ton of office eyesores, you can hide them behind cabinet doors on the bottom of a shelving system and still do open shelving on top styled better to your tastes!

For Looks: Desk

Since you’ll inevitably be installing built-in shelving or cabinets, your desk doesn’t have to function as your main storage area. So feel free to choose something solely for looks! Think of the desk as the pièce de résistance of the home office.

For Function: Desk Chair

While we fully support going all in for looks with the desk, the desk chair is another story. You’ll want to choose something that’s supportive and comfortable first and foremost. After all, it is something you’ll sit in for long periods of time. Think about whether the chair will promote good posture and avoid chairs that collapse your back or make it easy to hunch. Trust us, your back will thank you!

Learn more about our home office storage solutions on our Services page!