The best home office setup strikes the balance between comfort and functionality in terms of equipment, furniture, and design. With your needs and preferences in mind, invest in ergonomic furniture, keep your work area clutter-free, optimize lighting control, and choose the right equipment for your workflow. To get you started, here’s a compilation of the best home office setup ideas for work-from-home professionals:
1. Find an Ideal Work Area
The desk location is the most important consideration when deciding the best home office layout, as this is the same place where you work and join video conferences. We recommend placing the desk in a spot 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 a great spot for virtual meetings.
The lighting and sound will also affect your meetings’ image and audio quality. If you live near a busy street or have kids or pets at home, soundproofing your office with wool or foam can help absorb the sound.
2. Choose the Right Equipment for Your Workflow
Creating a home computer setup requires proper tools to make managing tasks easier and improve comfort while accomplishing to-dos. Since modern work involves long hours sitting in front of the computer, the right equipment should promote efficiency and align with your current workflow. Below, we covered the must-have office gadgets for your home office.
Home Office Equipment | Description |
|---|---|
Noise-canceling Headphones | Reduces background noise to improve the quality of your calls and listen to relaxing music without interruptions |
Ergonomic Mouse/Keyboard | Rearrange the keys in a slightly curved position to relieve the pain and muscle tension caused by long hours of typing on the keyboard |
Voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) Hardware | A standard desk phone that lets you make calls via VoIP and supports different call features like caller ID and call transfer |
Webcam | An external webcam is a video conferencing 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 |
3. Get Reliable Internet Service
With most of our work done online, a fast and reliable internet is essential in 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.
There are two options to consider: upgrade your internet service or reconsider the router placement. If your home office is far from the router or blocked by walls, there’s a good chance of encountering internet problems. If you cannot rearrange the router, one way to improve internet speed is to use Wi-Fi extenders or repeaters.
4. Use the Right Communication Tools
With the rise of remote work, software solutions for project management, messaging, and video conferencing 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. Check our in-depth Ooma review to get a closer look at its budget-friendly VoIP offerings.
Ooma lets you make calls directly from your desktop. (Source: Ooma)
To reduce the amount of app switching, unified communications (UC) providers bundle voice, chat, and video capabilities into one platform. 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, here are some noteworthy providers to consider:
Unified Communication Providers | Monthly Starting Price (per User) | Key Features | Learn More |
|---|---|---|---|
 | $30 |
| |
 | $30.95 |
| |
 | $19.99 |
| |
 | $15.99 |
| |
 | $23 |
| |
5. Invest in Ergonomic Furniture
The best office setups aren’t complete without ergonomic furniture. Depending on your needs, options range from adjustable chairs, height-adjustable desks, and footrests to laptop stands.
Ergonomic chairs are a home office staple, allowing users to sit comfortably for hours while working.
An ergonomic desk allows you to adjust the surface at elbow level when seated.
If you want some movement, a height-adjustable desk lets you switch between sitting and standing with the push of a button. Those looking for a budget-friendly ergonomic option may consider a laptop stand that raises the laptop to a certain height, preventing users from hunching over the screen.
6. Optimize Lighting
An ideal working-from-home setup offers great visibility of the task you’re working on. If your home office doesn’t have access to natural light, use lamp shades to create a diffused type of lighting that’s easy on the eyes. Task lighting is ideal if you’re working on documents.
Bring natural light into your home office to improve the ambiance and aesthetics of the space.
As much as possible, maximize natural lighting. Aside from keeping you more productive at work, natural light drastically enhances your appearance on video calls, especially when facing a window. The light fills the sides and helps project accurate skin tones during video meetings.
7. Personalize Your Space
The overall design of your home office influences mood and motivation. Picking the right hues for your home office creates wonders for your productivity. Colors are not just home office decor elements—they 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 most amazing home office setups feature an abundance of greenery, as plants help relieve stress and improve concentration. Studies show that people who have plants in their workspace tend to perform better. If you’re looking for low-maintenance greenery, snake plants, aloe, and English ivy are some great choices.
Plants add visual appeal to a home office and relieve work stress.
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 incorporate certain hues or decors.
8. Keep the Work Area Tidy
The desk easily fills up with stuff when you’re busy working. If left unchecked, you may end up surrounded by a mountain of files reminding you of things to address. A study 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, here are some office setup ideas to consider:
- Use a filing cabinet for important files and place it near your work desk so they’re easy to reach.
- For books and other materials worth displaying, put them on floating shelves.
- Unsightly items like wired electronics can be placed in bins and baskets.
- Store office supplies like notebooks and sticky notes in desk organizers with different compartments.
- Hang a pegboard on the wall to hold items like headphones and pens so they’re easy to reach when needed.
Productivity Tips for Work-from-home Professionals
While a home office sets you up for better productivity, it takes good habits to maximize its benefits. In this section, we tackle the best practices to maximize time while working from home.
- Treat your home office like a “real” office: In the same way 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 home 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 worth using.
- Work during your most productive period: Everyone has different times for productivity peaks. Figure out yours by observing your alertness, energy level, and productivity at different hours of the day. Once you determine that, schedule your most important tasks for that specific period.
- Do more than the minimum: Tasks often take longer to finish than you initially expected. As a result, you usually accomplish less than you planned to cover. Rather than sticking to the minimum number of deliverables for the day, plan to do more so you can work harder. If you fail to meet your target, you’ll still see more tasks finished at the end of the day.
- Use the Pomodoro technique: The Pomodoro technique is a productivity hack that involves breaking work into intervals. Set your timer to 25 minutes, and then take a short five-minute break. After three or four sets of 25-minute work, take a longer break for about 20 to 30 minutes.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
When shopping for a chair, choose an adjustable seat height, lumbar and arm support, back tilt tension, and a headrest. Go for those made of comfortable materials with enough padding so you can sit comfortably for hours. The seat width must provide ample space for thigh support. At the same time, the chair must be deep enough that your back can lean against the backrest comfortably.
It’s worth buying a power strip for additional office equipment such as a printer, dual monitor, and fax machine. When shopping for one, consider the number of outlets, cord length, and safety features like 15- or 20-amp circuit breakers. A great tip is to choose power strips with USB ports.
An inspiration wall is one of the most affordable home office setup ideas to enhance your space’s visual appeal. Turn an empty wall in your office into an inspirational corner where you hang beautiful photos, favorite brands and quotes, and different illustrations that motivate you. When curated well, this also makes for an excellent background for video meetings.
Bottom Line
To maximize the benefits of remote work, setting up a dedicated office at home is necessary. It should have the right tools, promote a comfortable ambiance, and make it easy to get the job done. 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.
