Setting the Boundaries: How to Master Home Office Design for a Healthy Work-Life Balance

As the world continues to battle an unprecedented crisis, working from home is no longer a luxury for many employees, but is now deemed a necessity. Remote working was already on the rise before it became a requirement - but with world leaders putting temporary laws in place, these figures have continued to rise.

While remote working does come with plenty of perks - saved time for one - in order for it to be effective, you need to make sure you have the right environment. Designing a space that’s primed for efficiency while allowing you to keep your personal and professional lives separate is no easy feat.

Here, our friends from Trendy Floors are exploring various elements of home office design, helping you to find the ultimate work-life balance by designing a space that suits your 9-5 and leaves your social life on the other side of the door.

Say goodbye to personal clutter

One of the biggest challenges to working from home is allowing your personal life to seep over into your working life - or vice versa. Whether this is answering emails on your smartphone on an evening or working on your grocery list during working hours, if you’re serious about keeping the two separate, you need to set some boundaries.

Start by decluttering your work area, removing distractions and anything else that isn’t actually helping you to carry out your job. With your surfaces clear and your personal phone tucked away until break time, you can keep a clear divide between your social life and work life - helping you stay focused during working hours and able to switch off once your computer shuts down for the day.

Pay attention to the foundations

With your decluttering done, it’s time to turn your attention to the aspects of the space that can impact its overall design: the walls and floors. Whether you’re working from your kitchen table or you’re fortunate enough to have a designated office room, there are small changes that you can make to have a big impact on the way you work.

In an office for example, you can hang calendars and white boards to give you space to document important meetings and brainstorm ideas. Other rooms might be a little trickier, as they already have a purpose to serve. But there’s no reason why the fridge and some magnets can’t be used as a notice board or to spell out reminders.

In terms of flooring, this is something you might only consider updating if you’re going to be working from home for the long term - but if you’re keen to set some boundaries between work and day-to-day life, you could consider a different flooring option for your office than you would for the rest of the home. For easy-to clean choices, you could consider something like laminate LVT click flooring or a neutral tiled option. This way, you can still ensure the room is visually appealing, but you also get practicality thrown in.

Find furniture that works for you

If you’re working remotely, even for a short period of time, you’ll soon come to realise how much you relied on your office furniture, so if this is a situation you think you’ll be in for any longer than a few weeks, it’s well worth considering investing in some furniture that can support you.

From ensuring your screen is at eye level to finding a chair that offers maximum back support, you’ll want to have furniture that will allow you to do your job well, and not be left with back pain or eye problems as a result of working from home. While it might be tempting to lounge around on an armchair or try to work from your sofa, this is not a good way to help you stay focused, nor is it conducive to maintaining a healthy posture.

So, from what you sit on to the position of your screens and the availability of lighting, it’s highly recommended that you find furniture options that can aid your productivity as you work from home - and save those comfy and cosy seats for out of hours.

Add helpful accessories that won’t distract

When it comes to adding the finishing touches, you’ll want to be bringing things to your office that actually add some sort of benefit - remember, you’ve just spent valuable time decluttering, so you don’t want to find yourself back in the same situation you started in.

In an effort to improve the air quality of your office - especially if it’s a small room without windows - plants can be a great addition. It’s also thought that plants can have a positive impact on mental health, making them ideal in a working environment.

While trinkets and memorabilia might help you feel right at home, you could find yourself distracted by holiday snaps or your favourite magazines, so it’s probably best to leave these for another area in the home where you can enjoy them once the working day is done.

Whether you find yourself working from home out of necessity or this is your long term plan, why not design a space that’s not only primed for productivity but helps you strike the ideal work-life balance? With these easy tips, now you know how to set design boundaries that allow you to do just that.