Curating a beautiful home office - Part 2

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Working from home looks like it’s here to stay. Creating a more permanent, well functioning and aesthetically pleasing space is more important than ever.

So we’ve done the initial planning, we know all the functions our space needs to encompass, we’ve got a scale plan and we know how we want to feel whilst working in the space.

This week we are looking at Furniture and Storage........  


Before we get into the nitty gritty of things to consider before you purchase, the most important step is to “DECLUTTER” the stuff that you have to store. If you’ve got 20 years worth of home admin paperwork you do not want to be filling up your nice new desk with this clutter. It’s a time consuming process but going through this and shredding/binning the things you no longer need is well worth the effort. Be brutal, with everything online these days you actually need to keep very little in terms of paper records.

Furniture & Storage

There are so many options out there how do you make sure you make good purchasing choices?

Here are some of the key considerations when it comes to purchasing home office furniture:

  • Pay special attention to the chair you purchase - is it going to offer you the right amount of support? If you spend a lot of time sitting this is really important. Getting the right balance between aesthetic and functionality is so important.

  • Desk depth - many of the desks I see out there look great but are too skinny to work at comfortably. You want to have enough space between your monitor and you to be able to spread out and also so you don’t strain your eyes (560mm+ is a good guide)

  • Desk storage - look for desks which have inbuilt storage, this is going to give you a cleaner less cluttered look. Desks with a low depth drawer at the top for storing pens, paper and office supplies are an excellent option. Many desks have inbuilt compartments to allow you to seperate out your pens and pencils. You’ll also need some deeper drawer storage for things like files or administration. In my experience desks with inbuilt filing cabinets function so well allowing you to organise any paperwork and have it all at hand. They tend to be more expensive but this may save you the cost of a filing cabinet or another piece of storage furniture.

  • Standing desks: Standing desks are a great option if you are someone who suffers with back or neck issues. However they can be tricky to make work well in your home office and may not fit with the aesthetic you are trying to achieve, they also don’t generally have any inbuilt storage. A key consideration is whether all of the cables that you have trailing off them will reach when you have the desk at its full height.

  • Bookcases/library units: Many units today are open shelved, think carefully before you choose a fully open shelved unit, these can just become clutter gatherers and may quickly become disorganised. Choosing a unit with a mixture of cupboards or drawers and open shelves means that you can store away the less aesthetically pleasing items and then display some of your prized books, artwork or homewares. If you do go with a fully open unit look at how you can close parts of it in using magazine box files, paper drawers, pull out boxes etc.

In the final part of this series we will look at how to pull together all the parts to create a space which will make you happy for years to come…