So where is your office now?

Create the perfect home office in your bedroom with stylish wardrobe doors

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed many aspects of lives since 2020. One of these is remote working. Most restrictions are now lifted, and workers are being encouraged to go back to the office.

However,, there has been a greater proportion of people working from home since before the pandemic, and this trend is likely to continue. 

According to SAGE – the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies – working from home is an effective way to reduce exposure to Covid, because it limits face-to-face contact both with colleagues and on public transport. 

Many employees have also found that working from home brings various benefits, such as no commuting, better conditions for concentrated working, improved work/life balance, and reduced carbon footprint.

If you are in the position where your job enables you to continue to work from home for at least some of the time, perhaps it’s time to sort out a proper home office?

Of course the ideal scenario is to have a dedicated study, outbuilding, or spare bedroom where you can create permanent office space. But not everyone has that luxury, and so needs to make the best of shared space. For many of us that means using part of our bedroom as office space.

So in this article we look at five ways in which you can set up a practical home office space in your bedroom, and manage to achieve both functions in one room:

• Agree some ground rules.
• Create separate zones in your room.
• Maximise your storage space.
• Be able to shut work away.
• Make the rest of the room special.

Agree some ground rules

For your bedroom to really work as a home office, you need to agree some ground rules with whoever else uses the room. These will vary between individual situations, but some examples are:

• Agree working hours when the bedroom will be treated as an office rather than a bedroom.
• Find a system for signalling when you really don’t want to be disturbed, for example when on a phone call or Zoom session.
• Ensure that everyone leaves the room clean and tidy, and clutter doesn’t encroach from one use of the room to another.

Create separate zones in your room

If your room is large enough, try to have a bedroom zone and a working zone. For example in the image below, there is a small but distinct area by the window, that could be used as a work area and kept separate from the rest of the bedroom.

If you have a smaller bedroom, see if you can set up either a corner of the room or a section of wall to be clearly designated as the office area.

Maximise your storage space

Wherever you have your office space, try and include as much storage space as possible. Configure your space to meet your work needs, and then hide all the stuff behind some stylish wardrobe doors. 

To get some ideas, take a look at some of the bedroom storage solutions and home office furniture we can provide, including:

• Cupboards
• Drawers
• Shelves
• Bookcases
• Filing cabinets

Any of these configurations can be used with our wonderful ranges of hinged or sliding wardrobe doors, for a unique storage space that works for you.

Be able to shut work away

It’s important to be able to shut work away at the end of the day, and this is more difficult if you are using bedroom space for your home office. The more you can keep behind doors the better. In the example below, sliding wardrobe doors are used to conceal the work, and create a sense of separation between work and home life.

Make the rest of the room special

When setting up your home office, also pay attention to the non-office part of the bedroom. Anything you can do to make the room more special, beautiful and fun will help you to enjoy being in the room without thinking about work all the time.

Some potential ways to do this are;

• Bring nature indoors, for example flowers, plants and natural fabrics.
• Have vibrant colours around the room, for example bed linens and rugs, to brighten things up.

• Have open shelving displaying things that are special to you and represent your life and personality.

• Choose some meaningful artwork for the walls.

• Ensure you have good quality TV and/or music so that you can enjoy relaxing in the room.

So, if it looks like home working is going to be a permanent situation for you from now on, make sure you have the right space to make it work for you. Take a look through our galleries of bedroom pictures and home office ideas, andenjoy curating a new space that works for both business and pleasure.

Remember to check back here soon for more lifestyle tips from DIY Homefit.