Can the Home Office Ever Be as Beautiful as it is Practical?

Can the Home Office Ever Be as Beautiful as it is Practical?

For obvious reasons, recent years have put the spotlight on the home office. What was once a little ‘extra’ in most homes – usually reserved for the odd stint of overtime or GCSE revision – became one of the most frequented rooms in the entire house.

Accordingly, the number of aspirational photographs and ‘home office tours’ available online skyrocketed. Suddenly, this wasn’t a room for the family computer, the bulky, ergonomic office chair, and a heap of paperwork – it was a room for styling. Just as the open-plan kitchen underwent a broken plan makeover thanks to the number of zoom calls and online lessons it featured in, the home office became just as important to making a personal statement as the parts of the home that real, physical guests were welcomed into.

But the home office is also tricky. The amount of time – and, of course, the nature of the time – users spend there means that function will inevitably start to overwhelm form, no matter how much we want to keep it looking beautiful. It’s a constant fight to improve focus when working from home, and part of that stems from the office’s décor.

What makes it so tricky?

Between the daily pile-up of mugs and glasses, paperwork, cables, notes, crumbs, wrappers, jumpers, hair-ties, and other miscellaneous bits and pieces, it is a challenge to keep the desk – and the office at large – looking perfect. True, the same can be said of any room – a kitchen is only perfect half the time, and the living room needs a routine plump-and-tidy if it’s to stay looking good – but the office is a little different. It sits in a perfect storm of fixed-gaze productivity, glaring concentration and, at the end of the day, a quick and clean departure for other, less taxing rooms.

True, we may feel inspired to organise our desk clutter every once in a while, but it’s all too common for the room to start to feel tired, unloved, and, for all the time we spend in there, overlooked.

On the opposite side of the coin, familiarity breeds contempt. Even the most beautiful room can start to feel a little jaded after several 7-hour stints on the trot and, try as we might, it’s hard not to fall into the proverbial rut. The minefield that is finding a work-life balance is allegorised in the home-office – a continual struggle between pragmatism and a will toward beautiful objects and furnishings. The ergonomic chair is a keen rival – as is the mound of cables any 21st century WFH-er needs. Busy, artfully chaotic backdrops aren’t the sleekest on digital meetings, and makeshift constructions get the sunlight off the screen or balance the webcam at a more flattering (though teetering) angle don’t exactly complement a sleek, minimalist-inspired style of interior design.

What is the solution?

In the home office, careful balance is key. You cannot enjoy a home office that is devoid of all life and colour, just as you can’t get much work done in a home office that is devoid of all the office staples.

A strong focus on the core elements that bridge the gap between one and the other is key here. Firstly, lighting is productivity’s linchpin – but it also happens to be the fundamental element behind good interior design. Natural daylight is, as we all know, hard to come by when your job revolves around a desk, so letting it fill the room as much as possible is key. The ambiance – or lack thereof – created by efficient, utilitarian spotlights is definitely less desirable than daylight, both from a perspective of productivity and beauty. Accent the space with some decorative lighting for the dimmer evenings in autumn and winter.

Introduce a few personal elements into the room through unobtrusive elements. Take time choosing a beautiful curtain fabric – not one that feels at-home in a high-rise, but in a home. Balance the relatively bare walls with a few simple pieces – some black and white photography, or a few vibrant paintings – and, if the space still feels lacking, introduce a feature wall with a wallpaper that makes a keen statement.

Building the space from the fundamentals is nothing ground-breaking, but it is a great mindset to remind ourselves to fall into if the more creative ideas are overtaken by the practical considerations of desk configuration, ergonomics, pen pots and cable management.