Our Office at Home – The Perfect Hideaway Office and Desk For Me!
At Dunham Fitted Furniture, requests to create an office at home have increased. Whether running a business from your home or simply to house the burgeoning family paperwork, provide a work station for the children to complete homework at the PC or laptop, or a student desk, the need for an organised, dedicated space seems to be on the rise.
This photo was taken before the bookcasing was built in on the right – see photo below.
Working from home remains a popular choice for many. For the self employed, like ourselves, it is often a given that it is almost impossible not to take work home, if not work full-time from home. For others, working from home comes with the advantages saving on rising travel costs, flexibility around childcare or just to be able to work in a peaceful, relaxing environment.
The Guardian recently posted 5 golden rules for working from home, mainly I think, sensible advice:
- Make a sacred space – a pleasant sanctuary away from distractions, in effect, an office at home.
- Go on a digital diet – I read this as “Put Facebook/Spider Solitaire down”!
- Schedule your day (just one coffee with friends then…)
- Arrange some human contact (Oh great! One more coffee with friends!)
- Use the flexibility – flexibility of how and when you work is a gift to you and your employer .
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/shortcuts/2013/feb/26/working-from-home-five-golden-rules
Ta Da! With bookcasing. The hideaway home office is tucked away discretely behind the tall doors on the left. Internal photo is below.
It can be tricky to find a dedicated space for your office at home, and not everyone may have or want to use what may be an reception room or spare bedroom. We decided to put ours, not hidden away in the attic but in the heart of our home, a central hub for all comings and goings at centain times of the day, but peaceful, relaxing and rather crucially warm, during most of the day. It is also situated where it can also be cunningly (well not that cunningly!) disguised as an elegant alcove cupboard. Ahh the element of surprise when the doors are folded back!
Despite being tremendously busy, Peter, my resident cabinet maker, part-time boss and generally lovely husband, found some time a little while ago to make and fit our hideaway home office. Situated in an alcove next to the fireplace (yummy wood burner for chilly days with no guilt about heating the whole house), it is hidden behind folding cupboard doors. This not only allows a streamline uncluttered space but means that all references are out of sight out of mind when I’m not working. No glowing, beckoning desktop or correspondence calling me away from family life.
Admittedly not always this tidy in our hideaway home office!
Happily Peter has made specifically the office for me with a desk at a height to suit those not quite as long in the leg as they would have quite liked. It houses my world of work, general home diary and finance, as well as random clobber I like to surround myself with, and all those things Peter doesn’t!!
It’s a dedicated space to house all the IT ‘stuff’ required for life in 21st Century, including the bulky printer (no more banging my knees!) and printer paper of many sorts. A slide out extension for keyboards or laptops creates extra space and a charging station to charge the aforementioned items as well as phones, cameras, the stuff of 21st century life. Shelves hold reference books and magazines as well as the heaps of paperwork that despite all the technology I am totally unable to part with (call me old school!). There is also little drawers for those strange bits and bobs that find there way into the house, stationery, stamps, business cards, and an endless supply of pens which then go onto wander throughout the house, wherever I go (- I know my weaknesses!).
Being a girl (well give or take a year or too!) that likes a view, I confess that I was skeptical about sitting for long periods of time without window to gaze out of and generally daydream. However I was so wrong to be a Doubting Thomas. My hideaway work station helps me find my zone, my focus, and stick with it. I confess I have pinned some favourite things around it, a couple of photos of friends and family that always make me smile, a treasured memory of a fab holiday in the shape of small folded map of ski pistes, a collection of bizarrely shaped paper clips including dogs, bicycles, hearts, (which if you’re incredibly lucky, you could receive attached to a quotation!). I also have my very favourite (and much hinted about birthday present) pigeon lamp by Thorsten Van Elten http://www.thorstenvanelten.com/, which omits a soft, gentle relaxing light.
It’s a great opportunity to personalise a little space and make it entirely your world. I am, admittedly a little territorial about my workspace and may be known to hover over interlopers in a not all together attractive fashion!!
I hope that you’ve maybe picked up a little inspiration, or some design ideas for your home office or workstation, be it a simple desk or something more complex. If you would like to make an enquiry about Dunham Fitted Furniture creating something similar for you, then please don’t hesitate to contact us on info@dunhamfittedfurniture.co.uk, we’ll be happy to hear from you!
