Whether you’re a remote worker or a work-from-home entrepreneur, a well-planned home office setup ensures optimal productivity and comfort. The best home office setup considers your individual needs and strikes a balance between comfort and functionality. The right furniture, design, and tools create an inspiring and efficient workspace.
To get you started, I’ve compiled the best home office setup ideas to help you create a functional and inspiring workspace for mobile and work-from-home professionals.
A conducive working environment leads to enhanced productivity.
1. Set Up a Dedicated Workspace
Creating a conducive work area begins with a dedicated workspace at home. Creating boundaries between work and home is essential to establish a work-life balance. When choosing a space for your home office setting:
- Select a generally quieter area of the house so you can focus better.
- Opt for a minimalist background to avoid visual distractions during an online meeting.
- Give yourself ample light.
The desk location is the most critical consideration when deciding the best home office layout, as this is the same place where you work and join videoconferences. We recommend placing the desk where you can look at something pleasing, such as your house’s garden or near the window of your mini library.
Set up your office in such a way that makes a good background for your online meetings. Your background should be tidy and void of personal items. A neutral background for video calls is ideal so it doesn’t distract others during the meeting.
Your home office should be an excellent spot for virtual meetings.
Lighting and sound will also affect your meetings’ image and audio quality. For noisy environments, consider soundproofing with foam or wool or noise-canceling headphones, which are budget-friendly alternatives.
2. Invest in Quality Equipment & Ergonomic Furniture
The right tools and ergonomic equipment are essential for an efficient home office. Uncomfortable chairs and poorly positioned monitors, for example, can lead to back pain, eye strain, and burnout, draining your productivity. Investing in the proper setup boosts comfort and helps you manage tasks more effectively and stay focused throughout the day.
Investing in an ergonomic chair that supports your posture reduces long-term health risks, such as repetitive strain injuries. These tools aren’t just about comfort or convenience; they protect your health and optimize your performance. When your body feels good, your mind can focus on the work that matters, not the discomfort of poor equipment. Below, we cover the must-have ergonomic equipment and the best office gadgets.
Home Office Equipment & Tools | Description |
|---|---|
Noise-canceling Headphones | Reduces background noise to improve the quality of your calls, and listen to relaxing music without interruptions |
Ergonomic Mouse/Keyboard | Shapes the keys in a slightly curved position to relieve the pain and muscle tension caused by long hours of typing on a standard keyboard |
Voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) Hardware | A standard desk phone lets you make calls via VoIP and supports different call features like caller ID and call transfer |
Webcam | An external webcam is videoconferencing equipment with frame rates as high as 120 frames per second, providing you with a smoother, top-notch video quality |
Dual Monitor | Provides additional screen space for viewing multiple windows or applications simultaneously |
Sit-sand Desk | A height-adjustable desk lets you switch between sitting and standing with the push of a button |
Ergonomic equipment is key to a comfortable, productive home office. Amazon offers a variety of affordable options, from adjustable chairs to sit-stand desks, allowing you to find quality solutions that suit your budget and needs. Whether upgrading or starting fresh, you’ll find plenty of choices to enhance comfort and productivity.
An ergonomic chair allows you to adjust the height of armrests, back support, and more. (Source: Amazon)
3. Get Reliable Internet Service
With most of our work done online, fast and reliable internet is essential to completing your office setup at home. If your job involves frequent collaboration and high bandwidth usage, it’s even more important to have high-speed internet.
You have two options: upgrade your internet service or reconsider the router placement. If your home office is far from the router or blocked by walls, you may encounter internet problems. If you cannot rearrange the router, one way to improve internet speed is to use Wi-Fi extenders or repeaters.
The Verizon Router for Fios (model CR1000A) for 5G business internet (Source: Verizon)
4. Use the Right Communication Tools
With the rise of remote work, software solutions for project management, messaging, and videoconferencing are critical to team collaboration. These tools include a wealth of features that enable distributed teams to synchronize work and stay connected amid geographical constraints.
If you’re working from home, having a dedicated business phone number separates your work and personal calls. A VoIP provider like Ooma lets you choose between a free home phone service or a premium office plan with a local or toll-free number included.
Ooma lets you make calls directly from your desktop. (Source: Ooma)
Unified communications (UC) providers bundle voice, chat, and video capabilities into one platform to reduce app switching. This integrated solution provides a single workspace where teams discuss projects and share files within a single screen. If you plan to invest in a UC solution, check out some of the best VoIP home services for home offices.
Unified Communication Providers | Monthly Starting Price (per User) | Key Features | Learn More |
|---|---|---|---|
 | $30 |
| |
 | $25 |
| |
 | $19.95 |
| |
 | $10 |
| |
 | $14.99 |
| |
5. Prioritize Lighting
An ideal work-from-home setup ensures good visibility of your work. Maximizing natural light is key, so position your desk near a window whenever possible. This gives you even lighting that enhances your appearance on video calls by reducing shadows. Facing the window or putting it to the side works best, as it fills in light without causing glare on screens.
If you’re in a space with limited natural light, use diffused lamps to create soft, even lighting that reduces eye strain. While natural light is best, adjustable task lighting allows you to control brightness for comfort and focus, depending on the time of day and your tasks.
Bring natural light into your home office to improve the ambiance and aesthetics of the space. (Source: Envato)
6. Personalize Your Space
The overall design of your home office influences mood and motivation. Personal touches, like adding favorite art pieces or inspiring quotes, can make you feel more at ease. Depending on the hue selected, you can evoke an ambiance that affects your state of mind when working. Color therapy suggests that green is calming, yellow improves concentration, and orange enhances moods.
The best small home office setup features an abundance of greenery. Plants help relieve stress and improve concentration, and studies show that people who have plants in their workspace tend to perform better. Snake plants, aloe, succulents, and English ivy are great choices for low-maintenance greenery.
Plants add visual appeal to a home office and relieve work stress. (Source: Envato)
In terms of furnishings, you can go for simple, streamlined pieces. You can also incorporate artwork or photos that motivate you. Get inspiration from home office ideas online if you’re unsure how to integrate certain hues or decor.
7. Keep the Work Area Tidy
The desk quickly fills up with stuff when you’re busy working. If left unchecked, you may be surrounded by a mountain of files reminding you of things to address. A DePaul University research reveals that clutter negatively affects work satisfaction and increases the risk of burnout. In this case, make it a habit to clean your desk and be organized as you work.
The level of neatness will either improve or dampen work efficiency. For a clutter-free workspace, consider these office setup ideas:
- Store essential files in a filing cabinet near your desk for easy access.
- Put books and other materials worth displaying on floating shelves.
- Place unsightly items like wired electronics in bins and baskets.
- Store office supplies like notebooks and sticky notes in desk organizers with different compartments.
- Hang a pegboard to hold items like headphones and pens, so they’re easy to reach when needed.
8. Have a Vision Board
A visually inspiring wall can boost creativity and motivation, especially on long, challenging days. Add a vision board or wall with inspirational quotes and photos that motivate you to power through or remind you of your long-term business vision. This board is great for solopreneurs who want to stay focused and feel empowered by their environment.
For more information on how to set up an office, our guide details five simple steps. We also provide a free office setup checklist to help get you going.
Four Home Office Setup Ideas & Designs
The design of your home office plays a key role in your daily productivity and business success. For small business owners, whether you’re a solopreneur, in a partnership, or managing a micro-team, it’s essential to create an environment that fosters focus, creativity, and efficiency. If you’re looking for ideas for setting up a home office, here are four popular and practical design aesthetics suited for modern small businesses.
These designs will hopefully give you ideas for a home office setup that suits your needs and style. Each design enhances functionality but also meets the diverse needs of entrepreneurs.
- Minimalist: This approach emphasizes clean lines, neutral colors, and functional furniture to reduce clutter and distractions. It creates a functional and calm workspace with essentials like a simple desk, ergonomic chair, and smart storage for better productivity and organization.
- Scandi Chic: This design blends simplicity with natural elements to create an airy, light-filled workspace that feels calm and clean. Focusing on light-colored furniture, it’s ideal for small business owners who value both aesthetics and functionality.
- Industrial: This is defined by bold, modern aesthetics using metal, brick, and reclaimed wood. This spacious, energetic vibe is a go-to design for small teams or solopreneurs in creative fields like design, tech, or consulting.
- Modern, Tech-savvy: This is one of the best home office setup ideas for those in tech-driven industries. It incorporates sleek, contemporary furniture, multiple monitors, cable management solutions, and innovative tech devices like adjustable lighting and wireless chargers. This modern home office setup emphasizes convenience, innovation, and seamless connectivity.
Productivity Tips for Work-from-home Professionals
While a great work-from-home office setup supports productivity, it takes good habits to maximize benefits. This section tackles the best practices to optimize time while working from home.
- Treat your home office like a “real” office: In the same way that you condition yourself to get the job done when reporting to the office, your mind and body should be in work mode as soon as you step inside your office. Remove everything that steals your focus, like pets and television.
- Create a schedule for the day: It’s easier to manage tasks and stay committed to finishing them when you have a schedule. This way, you’ll feel more motivated to follow through with your to-do’s for the day. monday.com, Trello, and Todoist are some of the best task management apps for this purpose.
- Establish a routine: Monitor yourself and identify your peak productivity periods—everyone has times when they’re most focused and energized. Once you know your natural rhythm, schedule your most important tasks during those periods to maximize alertness and efficiency.
- Take regular breaks: Stepping away from work to refresh your mind and body helps you stay sharp and work optimally. Try the Pomodoro technique: a productivity hack that involves breaking work into intervals. Set your timer to 25 minutes, take a five-minute break, and repeat.
- Set clear goals: Set both short- and long-term goals for your business and break them into daily or weekly tasks to stay on track. This approach ensures steady progress and helps you focus on achieving your larger objectives.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The perfect home office setup includes ergonomic furniture, adequate lighting, relevant technology, and organized storage. These elements provide users with a comfortable and clutter-free environment, boosting motivation and creating a pleasant work atmosphere. The best home office setup integrates items that suit your style and work needs.
Setting up an office for working from home requires a quiet, well-lit space, ideally separate from your living areas. You must establish clear boundaries to distinguish between work and personal life and maintain an organized but personalized space that’s both inviting and inspiring.
The ideal size for a home office room is around 100 to 150 square feet to accommodate movement and essential future. However, home offices differ in size, ranging from 50 to 150 feet. Spaces can be smaller if you’re working in a shared area, like a corner of a living room or bedroom. If space is limited, consider multifunctional furniture or vertical storage solutions to optimize the area.
Bottom Line
A well-designed home office setup is a cornerstone of success for anyone running a small business or maximizing the benefits of remote work. It affords you a space that enhances productivity and fosters mental clarity. When done right, the best home office setup provides cost savings, promotes greater flexibility in scheduling, and prevents commuting stress, contributing to greater job satisfaction and productivity.
