Home Office Setup – 27 Practical & Design Tips

1. Set up a private business phone line

Marc Prosser, Co-Founder, Fit Small Business

Working from home necessitates the privacy of a business phone line. Maintain confidentiality by setting up a VoIP phone line using your existing internet connection. RingCentral offers personalized vanity numbers for as little as $19.99/month, and it works with any SIP-enabled phone. Or, install the app on your mobile device and take calls from anywhere. RingCentral even has a 15-day free trial, so you can see how it works for you risk-free. Click here to get started.

Susan Fitzell, Author, Consultant, & Professional Speaker

I don’t sit well. I find that if I sit in my office, I become uncomfortable while working. As such, I struggle to write with focus, and I start to feel neck and back tension. I’ve learned that I need to alternately sit and stand during the day. I often start the day standing at a standing station in my office; then, I might move to a Pilates ball or a wobble chair that I can adjust for my standing station or for a traditional desk. Typically, by evening, I’m ready to sit and can adjust my monitor, remove the standing station and, voila, I can sit and work like most other people.

3. Make sure you have a comfortable office chair

If you’re going to be sitting in your home office for several hours a day, you need to make sure you’re taking care of yourself by investing in a good chair. Click here to see our recommendations. You can also check out our top tips on picking an office chair.

4. Enforce office hours

Carrie Sharpe, Communication Consultant and Speaker, He Says, She Says

It’s important to find an office space in your home that works for you and your family and can be personalized to fit your interests and work needs. Most of my work is online and with clients via Skype or FaceTime. I also homeschool our five children. I chose to make my office in our bedroom because it’s near our living room, where our children do their schoolwork. I chose a corner desk because it fits best in this space. I even bought a stop sign that I hang on my door whenever I’m working with a client so our children know they can’t interrupt during the appointment. My office hours work around our homeschooling schedule. That works for us; it’s important to figure out what will work for you!

5. Don’t mix business and pleasure (financially)

Jeff White, Real Estate & Small Business Writer, Fit Small Business

It’s important to make sure business and personal checking and savings accounts are separate. This will save you loads of time and effort at tax time, not to mention throughout the year if you pay quarterly. Also, if you are ever audited, having a business bank account will make it much easier to prove that your books are balanced correctly.

Capital One has a free business checking account that has no monthly minimums and no monthly transaction limits and their high yield savings account allows you to earn interest on idle capital.

6. Check your insurance coverage

Barbara Weltman, President, BIG IDEAS for Small Business

Don’t assume your homeowners or renters policy covers your home office. Check your existing policy to learn whether you have liability coverage for accidents that may befall business visitors, such as clients or customers, or even delivery people. You may need to purchase a separate commercial liability insurance policy. Also find out whether you have property coverage for losses to business items, including expensive equipment, and if so, the extent of your coverage.

7. Keep your home office separate from your living space

Samantha R. Strazanac, CEO and Founder, Strazanac Solutions LLC

I own a marketing consulting firm and work out of the spare bedroom in my townhouse. The best thing about my workspace is the desk and the fact that it is separate from the rest of my house. The desk and dual monitor gives me the feeling that I am in a real office and not at home, unlike how it would feel if I were working off the kitchen table.

The biggest key to my setup and success is separating work from home. I close the door when I am in my office, and I close the door when I am not in my office. I do not eat in my office or socialize in my office. It is for work only.

8. Stop interruptions before they happen

Richard Lowe, Founder, The Writing King

One of the issues I ran into creating a home office was since it’s at home and without supervision, it’s easier to give into interruptions.

I had to make it very clear that if I was in my “office”, at that time a small room to the side of the living room, I was not to be interrupted. At first my family was offended, but eventually, they understood this was not personal—I was trying to make a living and had to set boundaries.

9. You have to want to spend time there

Michelle Pippin, Founder, Women Who WOW

While I’m okay with some chaos, I want my office to be welcoming to me. It must have ambiance. I love working from home because I get to work exactly the way I want — on my couch, at my desk, in my workout clothes, or whatever. But I also love that I get to choose what I’m listening to and how the place smells. I love my essential oils and great music to fuel my days!

Also, it must be effective. I’m not “playing” business. This is how I support my family, so my home office must work for me. It must be conducive to producing my best work. That’s why every home office should be different from the next. As I grow and as my business evolves, my office does too.

10. Add a touch of professionalism with a virtual office

Maggie Aland, Fit Small Business

Although convenient, a residential address and personal phone number don’t give you the credibility to be taken seriously as a professional. A virtual office from Servcorp includes a prime business address, full mail management, and a local business telephone number with a dedicated local receptionist–all with the flexibility of a month-to-month contract. You also get up to 16 hours/month of private office or conference room access in your area.

11. Follow a daily routine

Joanna Douglas, Owner, Clean Affinity

Avoid getting sidetracked, and you won’t fall short on any tasks that you need to do for the day. For example, in the morning, I wake up at 6am, get my kids fixed up with breakfast, finish some chores, then get to work around 8am. At 12, I’ll be fixing lunch for the kids and I check in with my employees and list down what we have accomplished so far. Write up a schedule for yourself and stick to it.

12. Have processes and procedures

Similar to the tip above, it’s useful to create a formal system of operations for your home office that you follow. This doesn’t need to be too formal, but standardizing recordkeeping, paying invoices, logging time, responding to emails, and other administrative tasks will help add structure to your day. It will also help to keep your office organized and ensure that information is available where and when you need it most.

13. Incorporate energizing style elements

Natalie Athanasiadis, Head of Digital, Design Visibility Group

Style the office as a space that will energize you and motivate you to want to be in there and achieve the most. Incorporate scents where possible because they can help you get in the zone. You can use items like reed diffusers, candles, or essential oil vaporizers. Just try and keep it consistent.

14. Go green

Real plants add more than just a colorful element to your office. They actually help clear the air of all sorts of nasty toxins, from formaldehyde to benzene.

Don’t have a green thumb? No problem. Try hardy indoor plants that are hard to kill, such as aloe vera, spider plant, and dracaena.

15. Keep track of your potential deductions

Marc Prosser, Co-founder, Fit Small Business

Setting up a home office can be a costly endeavor. Thankfully, working from home often qualifies you to deduct office expenses when tax time rolls around. Everything from your stapler, to your floor lamp, to that beautiful new desk can help you pay less at tax season—IF you have good records. Use Quickbooks Self-Employed to stay organized throughout the year and when April arrives, you’ll be all set. They even offer a bundle with TurboTax to make filing a breeze. Start a free trial today.

16. Have a flexible furniture plan

Keeping your working and living spaces separate is ideal, but it’s not always possible — especially if, like me, you live in a smaller condo. In these cases, you can make the most of your space by making your office do double duty.

Apartment Therapy suggests using tablespace you already have, such as a dining room table or a kitchen island. A small desk can also be a vanity when you’re not working on it.

17. Take breaks

Working in a traditional office forces you to take the occasional break from your desk, whether it’s for a meal or a meeting. But when you’re working from home, it can be hard to remember to do other things when the lines between work and home become blurred.

Take yourself out for a coffee or lunch, go for a walk, play with your dog, or just step outside for some fresh air to break up your day.

18. Invest in better lighting

Good lighting is often overlooked, but it influences how you feel in your home office, which will directly affect your productivity.

Natural light from the sun is the best, especially during winter months, but in lieu of that, try to experiment with different intensities or light tones to find out which one works best for you. If you have the space, different fixtures can create different moods.

19. Design your space with colors you love

Forget office beige or primer white. The colors of your room will have almost as much of an effect on you as the lighting, so choose ones that align with your work style.

For some people, that will mean bright and energizing colors like orange or lime green. For others, a more calming shade of seafoam blue is best.

20. Make the most of vertical space

Floating shelves are inexpensive and easy to install. Plus, they give you an opportunity to display the things you care about. Floating shelves are an excellent alternative to a bulky bookcase when space is at a premium.

21. Use Pinterest responsibly

We loved this tip from Fast Company. Websites like Pinterest or other design magazines can be great for inspiration, but their ideas aren’t always the most practical.

Upholstered dining room chairs, small vintage desks, and bright colors all photograph well but are they really conducive to how you like to work? Too much visual stimulation can be its own distraction. A good home office needs to place function over form.

22. Make sure you’re getting a home office tax deduction

Crystalynn Shelton, Tax & Accounting Analyst, Fit Small Business

If you are a sole proprietor or a single-member LLC and use a portion of your home for business, then you could be eligible for a home office tax deduction that could significantly lower your tax bill.

23. Make easy improvements!

Even though this article is about setting up your home office, it’s never too late to improve yours. If there’s something that’s not working its best for you, change it!

There’s not much that a little thought, reorganization, a few well-chosen accessories, or a bucket of paint can’t fix. Or if you have the time, you can completely transform your working space over a weekend.

It’s easy to fall into a routine, but a quick home office makeover can be just what you need to re-inspire you.

24. Break up your routine

No matter how great your home office is, sometimes you just need to break up your routine. Find a local café with WiFi and make it your office for a day.

A change of scenery can help inspire creativity and being around other people can help to fill the social void that leaving a traditional office can create. Best of all, you’ll never run out of coffee.

25. The psychology of color

Different colors evoke different emotional and physical reactions and impact mood and energy levels, so be aware of the impact of the colors you choose for your office.

Blues, greens, and violets are peaceful and relaxing; yellow grabs attention; red is energetic; white and grey minimize distractions; and, purple inspires creativity.

26. Go wireless

Avoid adding a cluttered and tangled mess unnecessarily by using as much wireless technology as you can. Keyboards, mice, printers, and your internet connection can all be shared wirelessly, giving you more flexibility with your furniture arrangements and keeping your space tidy and visually pleasing.

27. Hang art

Personalize your office’s walls with paintings, photos, or anything else that you find personally pleasing to help keep you inspired.

Whether you prefer a gallery-style arrangement with lots of variety or a single statement piece as your focus, incorporating art into your home office helps to keep you motivated, inspires creativity, and adds a personal touch.