With our current “Shelter in place” order, many of us are working from home and don’t have office space already established. KDP has designed a number of home office design spaces, from dedicated rooms to areas in a kitchen or other rooms.

Built-In Desk

This large built-in desk in Northbrook Stunner matches the surrounding kitchen cabinetry perfectly, provides a large comfortable work surface and ample cabinet storage, for a comfortable work space in a large kitchen. There are many other ways to create a useful office space. We are happy to share some tips with you to help you get comfortable and work as efficiently as possible.

Overall, recent trends have been moving away from large desk areas in kitchens to smaller areas for handling calendars and papers, to hidden “desk-type” storage within kitchen cabinetry. Whether you have a built-in desk already or you are making temporary space to work from home, consider these helpful hints:

  • Use a comfortable chair with arms if possible.
  • Raise your laptop by placing it on a box or similar item. You want your posture to be straight, so the screen should be about eye level.
  • Use an external mouse. An internal mouse encourages you to slouch!
  • Bring over a table lamp if your lighting is not bright.
  • Wear a headset or bluetooth ear buds for calls so that you protect your posture. Never rest your phone in between your shoulder and head. (Ouch!)
  • Stand up and stretch. Sitting shortens our hamstrings and makes them tight. Better yet, take a walk outside and enjoy some fresh air!
  • Keep in touch with friends and colleagues to ease feelings of isolation. Many of us have found Zoom, Google hang outs, FaceTime etc. to be great tools for our businesses as well as to connect with friends and family who are in their own homes.

This smaller built-in desk next to the bar in Entertainer’s Dream includes a convenient pullout to keep the printer fully accessible without strain to your body.

Northbrook Office Design

This beautiful kitchen in Northbrook Allure carves out a small convenient office space, designed to handle scheduling, email and other online activities.

Without knowing how long this will last or if companies will be moving to “remote” workforces in the future, many of us may want to set up permanent offices within our homes. For permanent home offices, consider these additional helpful hints.

  • Designate a room separate from your living space for your home office (if possible).
  • Place your desk facing the door, known in Fung Shui as the power position. This way you see who enters the room.
  • Invest in a good chair to protect your posture. Another great item is a desk that can be raised up and down, so you can alter sitting and standing to reduce leg fatigue and tightness.
  • Plan for plenty of storage for your files and supplies. A large work surface and storage for binders, miscellaneous items, files and supplies are important to minimize clutter.
  • Include visual inspiration with colors you enjoy, pictures that are inspiring, photos of loved-ones, and natural elements like plants.

Classic and Sunny Home Office

Also, the homeowners of Classic and Sunny in Northbrook dedicated the back of their large island to hide clever office storage space with convenient pullout drawers.

We’re all doing our best to get through this challenging time by being productive while protecting our health. KDP hopes these tips will help you work more comfortably at home. We are here to help with storage solutions for home offices, mud rooms, and of course, kitchens and baths.

We send our best wishes to you and your loved ones during this challenging time. In the meantime, we are open and working within the social distancing guidelines. Give us a call at 847-564-9780 or use the form on our Contact page to schedule a virtual appointment with us. We can use FaceTime or Skype to to conduct an online consultation to get you started on your next project. Additionally, to see more home office design projects, follow us on Houzz.