Working within your own four walls: as working from home becomes more common, the world of work is increasingly moving into our living spaces. The challenge is to create a creative workspace where you can be productive without distractions. We'll show you how to make the most of your space with ideas, interior tips, the right office furniture and special office accessories.
Setting up a study at home – here's how:
- Setting up a study – what matters
- Creating a workspace in the living room or bedroom
- Creating order and atmosphere with the right accessories
1. Setting up a study – what matters
A separate study gives you a physical separation between work and private life. There are no distractions while you work, and you can relax once the working day is over. Even so, there are a few things to bear in mind if you want to create the ideal working atmosphere.
The right light
Daylight is the best light, so place your desk close to the window. A desk lamp supports natural light and is useful for later hours at your desk.
Alongside daylight, a desk lamp provides even lighting across the work surface and reduces eye strain during longer periods of work. &Tradition focuses on models that combine functional lighting with a timeless design language and fit harmoniously into a home workspace. The Flowerpot lights in particular are among the brand's design classics and add a stylish accent to any desk.
When buying a lamp or bulb, look for the lumen rating (luminous flux). Experts recommend more than 600 lumens for desk lighting. Colour temperature matters too. The brighter and cooler the light, the more it supports concentration, while warm light is considered relaxing. Neutral white (around 3,300 to 5,300 kelvin) or daylight white (above 5,300 kelvin) bulbs are therefore the best choice for a home workspace.
The Italian lighting manufacturer Artemide offers the Tolomeo lamp with its flexible joints, swivel arm and rotating shade. It can be adjusted to your individual lighting needs and is also available with a table clamp. Absolut Lighting, Flos and Luceplan also make highly flexible desk lamps.
Positioning your desk correctly
How you position your desk depends on your computer and where the light comes from. Glare on the screen tires the eyes and leads to mistakes. The right seating position helps you avoid glare. Ideally, light should come from the side.
Ergonomic and comfortable office furniture
If you have enough space, you're spoilt for choice. Manufacturers such as The Hansen Family and Müller Möbelfabrikation produce modern, friendly pieces that create a bright, contemporary look – both together and combined with office furniture from other brands. Storage is always an issue: a desk becomes something special when it combines storage, a compact form and understated elegance.
Müller Möbelwerkstätten also offers storage in the form of drawers with the Plane secretary desk. The StudioDesk from Bluelounge is designed entirely around electronic devices: cables and connections for laptops, mobile phones and other devices disappear inside the desk, and an integrated power strip provides plenty of sockets.
If you spend a lot of time working from home, take this into account when setting up your office. Choose a height-adjustable desk so you can work either sitting or standing. At the touch of a button or manually, you can adjust the desk to your height and to your sitting or standing position.
Besides the desk, the choice of office chair is essential. Ideally, it should be individually adjustable, well padded and ergonomically shaped.
With the desk chair versions of its About A Chair collection, HAY offers particularly light, modern models that don't immediately make you think of the office – function, comfort and aesthetics in their simplest form. The same goes for the Pro 6 chairs from Flötotto. Thanks to their fine materials and exclusive look, the chairs in the ID Chair Concept and Aluminium Group collections are well suited to a study with executive-office quality.
Creating storage space
Shelving systems provide storage space. Their modular design lets you adapt them to your room and make the most of limited space for storing office supplies. Sliding-door cabinets and drawer units help you keep things visually tidy. An unusual bookcase adds a more relaxed touch to your office furnishings.
"Simply swap old grey files for colourful ones. Lined up in the c file shelf from linea1, they create a cheerful look." – Viktoria, interior expert
2. Creating a workspace in the living room or bedroom
With practical furniture, you can easily set up a space-saving workspace in the living room or bedroom. This is a good option if you don't have a separate room or only need your work area for personal use.
Secretary desks are particularly compact and offer storage space in drawers, pull-out surfaces and double bottoms. Some secretary desks can be folded away after work – for example, the Flatmate secretary desk from Müller Möbelwerkstätten, as well as the similar Flatframe and Flatbox. Once the work is done, you simply close the desk and your workspace "disappears" in no time. These compact, smooth solutions let you keep your work area to a small footprint without taking away the cosiness of your living space – or your chance to relax.
A simple alternative is a folding screen or room divider that easily separates your work corner from the living area. The advantage: books and papers can be left out after work without getting in the way.
Especially when your workspace is in the living room or bedroom, office supplies such as files, pens and electronic devices shouldn't spoil the look. So look for closed shelving, cable compartments and drawers for storing small items – ideally all within easy reach of your desk.
3. Creating order and atmosphere with the right accessories
A desk, chair and shelf are only the beginning. Office work comes with all kinds of small items. Instead of hiding them behind cupboard doors, the right office accessories can sometimes put pens and equipment nicely on display. With a wide range of storage boxes, elegant letter trays and unusual desk organisers, your essentials are always within reach. Pinboards or magnetic strips are ideal for important notes, keys and the like.
Tip: Studies suggest that plants in the workplace can boost productivity and concentration. So a plant or two shouldn't be missing from your home workspace either. Discover functional and beautiful plant pots in the Connox shop!
