Should modern home office furniture be any different than what you would expect to find in a general business office? What do you really need in a home office that is different from any other type of office? A desk, chair, space for a computer, printer, etc., and space for files and shelves: is that enough?
Much of the answer lies in the size of the room available to use as a home office, part in your use of the office, and the rest in your personal design preferences. Some people prefer modern furniture with lots of steel, glass, and plastic, while others prefer solid wood.
There’s a world of difference between these different options, so let’s discuss the best use of space first. That seems to be the main problem with many people who have a home office. How significant this issue is and how you fix it will largely depend on whether your home office is used as your own personal space, to run a small home-based business, or if it is your primary workplace when you work for a corporation.
Making the most of home office space
If we start with the assumption that your office is small, then what we discussed can also be applied to larger offices. A good way to make the most of a small space is to combine a desk and a tall piece of furniture made up of shelves, shelves, drawers and cupboards. The cabinets and shelves can be used for storage of paper, a printer and other office accessories.
You can save space for filing cabinets by incorporating deep drawers into your desk or tall cabinet equipped with file rails. By incorporating a peninsula desk you can also save on desk space. Not necessarily your desk area itself, but the home office floor area required to incorporate your desk.
Peninsula desks and associated desks on either side of the common peninsula unit are good ways to design home office furniture to accommodate more than one person. You can also save needed space by using a combo printer that incorporates a printer, copier, and scanner. That will leave plenty of room for a fax machine if you need one, although many people who work from home use their computers to send and receive faxes.
Modern furniture and decoration for home and office
If you’re decorating your home office in addition to furnishing it, the sensible thing to do is to choose the style of furniture first. You can then make a decision on the color of your wall and floor coverings. If you like dark oak, you’ll need a lighter overall decor shade to highlight your home office furniture.
If you prefer a more ultra-modern style of furniture, with pale wood tones framing shiny metal and glass structures, then more colorful decorative elements may be more appropriate. However, most people who work from home prefer solid wood furniture for its feel and strength. It is easier to incorporate all the elements of an office using wood as a structural material than metal and glass.
Keep your office bright, but not flashy
What is more important is the brightness and use of light in a home office. Whether you use wood furniture or not, your walls should be pale rather than dark, and hardwood floors should be accented with colorful rugs. In fact, you can use accent rugs as a base for your furniture.
If you keep your woodwork white: the doors, windows and baseboards, then you can introduce color accents in your curtains or lampshades. A home office should be a quiet place to work, and not overly exciting with bright reds and yellows. That’s fine for a dining room with all its chatter, but not for an office.
The most common combination for modern home office furniture is a medium-tone wood, such as cherry, maple, or oak, and a light-colored hardwood floor. Add to that white or pale gray millwork, medium shade walls, and richly colored drapes and rugs, and you should have an office you feel comfortable working in.
Modern furniture, as most people understand the term, is generally not suitable for offices. The perfect solution would be to be able to design your own home office furniture and have it built for you. Then you can pretty much style your furniture around your existing decor if that suits you better.