The Home Study: The Interior Designer's Everest

The Home Study: The Interior Designer's Everest

The home study is intended to be a practical use of space – but, often, it's anything but that. Home studies are typically the smallest room in a home and have the potential to become a bit of an eyesore. From scrap pieces of paper left lying around to clunky, rigid furnishings, getting a home study to look aesthetically pleasing is an interior designer’s Everest.

Beauty is as important as practicality here. Any room intended to house us for eight or more hours a day demands a certain amount of inspiration and creativity, and that’s why more people are turning to interior designers to create multi-purpose studies that look inviting.

Let's explore how interior designers conquer their Everest: the home study.

Neuro-architecture

“We shape our buildings, and then afterwards our buildings shape us” is a quote from Winston Churchill that makes a lot of sense in the modern world. Science has proven that architecture and the spaces we spend our time in affect how we think and feel. The concept of neuro-architecture correlates with designing a home study. A home study should promote focus, reduce stress, and have a calm atmosphere - something easier to achieve with interior design than some may perceive.

Applying the concept of neuro-architecture and even delving into environmental psychology – explaining how our environments shape us – can help designers to create the perfect home study. For example, colours influence emotions and concentration, with science proving that low wavelength colours are among the best for focus. Greens, red, orange, yellow, blue, and violet are all low wavelength colours perfect for a home study. Greens, yellows, reds and blues are also trending tones in 2022, with sage greens and royal blues creating simply stunning aesthetics when coupled with the right furnishings and accompanying colours.

Combine colour with inspiring shapes for the most interesting room possible. A feature wall, papered with a print that takes our mind on a journey of its own is perfect for counteracting the intense focus of the working day. Our Flowerberry Orange wallpaper is illustrative and inspiring, but not distracting – perfect for a study that feels a million miles from the outside world. Combine it with a couple of plants that improve air quality, and you’ll feel a lot less hemmed-in.

Practical Spaces

The true mountain to climb is creating a space that serves a practical purpose, has plenty of storage and desk space, and doesn't look crowded - tidy desk, tidy mind, as the saying goes. Home studies are typically small spaces, so it's easy to overcrowd the room with chunky furniture. Where the size of the room is an obstacle, utilising the furnishings as storage space creates the ideal solution. P

Placing an ottoman beneath the window, for instance, gives you some much-needed storage space, but also somewhere else to sit besides the desk. We can all benefit from regular mini-breaks away from the keyboard or notebook, but adding in another piece of furniture to a small, practical space can feel a little taboo. This way, you stand to benefit from more than one use – a win-win for the work-from-homer.

Does Decor Matter?

Is the sky blue? Any interior designer knows that decor is at the heart of a home, with the potential to make or break the atmospheric harmony a home should have. Remember, that atmosphere in a home study matters - it should be calm, relatively simple in design, and clean. Instead of adding hundreds of accents and accessories, whittle your creativity down to a few key pieces instead.

Doing so will give the room more of a flow, and also create a backdrop that looks more put-together for work calls.

Investing in a couple of decorative lamps is a great idea. These pieces make a big statement in terms of design, while also serving a practical purpose. Most of us work better when the lighting is brought down to a comfortable level, rather than beaming down on us like a grow light in a greenhouse.

Picking decor that meets with your practical and aesthetic requirements is essential -just because it's a home study doesn't mean you should neglect the power of being in a beautifully decorated room.

Saying that the home study is an interior designer Everest is almost a misconception. Yes, the design element is different to any other room in the home, but there is room to inject a creative flair into the design. As long as it's practical, calm, and to the client's needs, a home study has the potential to be a visual delight.