Creating a home office

Once upon a time, home was home and work was work – two clearly separate realms distanced by time and space.  Computers and traffic jams changed all that. Today the journey from home-mode to work-mode is often no longer than a few seconds walk from the breakfast table to the spare room.

And even those who do go out to work seem to need an office at home too - work follows us home at the end of the day.  Maybe computers are to blame. With more than 75% of New Zealand homes now with at least one computer, they are surely the most visible sign of the blurring of the work/home boundary.

Of course there are great advantages in working from home. No commuting, no road rage, no office politics! But there are disadvantages too.  It can be difficult to create a distinct boundary between work and home. Anyone working from home will tell you that it's important to be able to shut the door on the office at the end of the day, but equally important is the ability to shut the door (physically and mentally) on home life at the start of the working day. It can be difficult to concentrate on ‘work-work' when you are confronted with house-work that needs doing every time you go into the kitchen to make a cup of tea.

Another big consideration when you are planning a work-from-home space is whether or not clients will be coming to you for meetings. While clients may appreciate that your low overheads result in lower charges to them, they probably won't appreciate having to sit on the spare bed  for meetings, or tripping over toys in the hall.

Ideally, a serious work from home office should be completely separate from the main house with it's own entrance; for example, a studio space built over the garage or a converted shed in the garden. Alternatively if you are building a new house, a designated office space with it's own entrance can be created, ideally located as far as possible from the noisy end of the house.

If you don't have the budget or the space to create a separate office space, a spare bedroom, basement, or attic is ideal, but even a small space on the landing, or the dead space under the stairs can be utilised. If you are forced to use a corner of the living room, consider using screens, or a sliding door so that it can be closed off at the end of the day.

If the office is incorporated into the living area consider the look and style of your furniture, lighting and storage so that it doesn't seem incongruous with the rest of the house. For example, a simple wooden table or an antique desk may look better than a high-tech office desk. If you're on a tight budget a door resting on trestle legs or on the top of filing cabinets makes a perfectly good desk.

Be sure that the table or desk  is the right height to accommodate your legs and the arms of the chair.

When it comes to choosing a chair ergonomics should always prevail over aesthetics. Although it might not quite fit the décor, a well-designed office chair that can be wheeled away  at the end of the day is preferable to something that looks nice, but costs you a fortune at the chiropractor. 

The maxim of organising your office space is simply this;

'A shortage of storage space will result in an excess of clutter.'

Don't make the mistake of thinking that your computer filing system will remove the need for physical storage, especially if you need a lot of reference material on hand. Magazines and brochures are best stored in open-sided files in a shelving system. The more you categorise, the easier it is to track material down later.

Here are a few storage tips.

• Decide what needs to be kept on hand and in sight and what can be stored away behind closed doors.
• Hide files in cupboards or on shelves behind translucent panelled screens.
• Hanging file systems avoid using up valuable floor space.
• Where storage is visible, use coloured storage boxes and files that keep everything uniform and have visual impact.
• Old metal filing cabinets can be transformed with a new coat of enamel spray paint.

And finally, think forward. Will you still be working in the same way in a year's time? Will you need more storage, more equipment, more phone lines or power points?

If you have teenagers who monopolise the phone or are constantly on the internet you should consider putting in a second phone line, or look into the advantages of wireless broadband connection to the Internet.  A wireless connection allows you to work with your laptop in any room without having to plug-in to a phone line.

On a nice day, you could even work in the garden. After all, isn't that what working from home is all about?

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