Landed House by Image Creative Design
With telecommuting on the rise, and work-from-home increasingly becoming a reality for many workers, more and more are choosing to design and furnish a workspace within the home. In keeping with the lifestyle trends and needs of millennials, workplaces are also adopting more flexible and remote work arrangements.
But there’s more to telecommuting and freelancing than waking up at 9am, or working in your PJs. You’ll need the space and tools in order to fashion a space that will help you get focused, organised and productive. In this article, we provide the lowdown on how to carve a workspace that will allow you to find your work-groove.
Blogger’s Studio by The Local Inn.terior
1. Capture the Light
One of the key elements that can make or break a workspace is lighting. Natural light improves productivity and mood so if you have good natural light in your home, make the best of it by setting your desk near a large window.
If you expect to be pulling many late nights, do make sure you have adequate room lighting, such as a flexible desk lamp, in addition to overhead lights. And wherever possible, use white light instead of yellow ones, as this helps to boost reading visibility and even productivity.
Condominium by Urban Design House Pte Ltd
2. Carve out workspaces out of small spaces
With most Singaporeans living in urban high-rise flats, a little creativity can go very far. The image above of a walk-in wardrobe cum workspace is one good example. With some added shelves, it would be a perfectly functional, not be mention private, workspace.
HDB @ Punggol by Posh Living Interior Design
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3. Colour your workspace happy
According to Koo Hwee Min from D’esprit Interiors, colour, lighting, and decoration all play an important part in creating an excellent and inspiring workspace. The choice of colours boils down to the individual user, as some feel energized by highly-saturated bright colours while others respond best to muted and earthy less-saturated colours.
So do take the time to consider which colours work best for you, and the kind of work that you do.
HDB executive apartment by The Local Inn.terior
4. Separate work from rest areas
When you are done for the day, it is important to be able to set work aside and make time to rest and relax. People who work from home often have a difficult time separating work from rest and family time, because it’s so easy to keep at it late into the night. But think of it as a marathon instead of a sprint. While there is the reality of deadlines and urgent emails to attend to, you’re in it for the long haul and that longevity comes from knowing when to say “enough” and to shut down.
To promote that sense of balance, Eric Toh of EC Vision Design suggests placing your home office away from your bedroom; “Your bedroom should really just be a place of rest. But if you really need to fit your workspace into your bedroom, think about placing some kind of divider so that you don’t see your desk and computer in full view when you’re trying to sleep.”
Le Wood @ Bukit Timah by The Fuse Concept
5. Have hidden shelves
Although most of our documents are now stored on the cloud, there is still need for the occasional paperwork, reference materials, and other odds and ends. Having sufficient storage and filing work can make for a hassle-free search for that missing report or client contract. Shawn Lew from Home Concepts Interior and Design advises against having too many open shelves as it would mean more dust landing on your books and files. Instead, he suggests using glass doors for book cabinets for fuss-free maintenance.
Here’s one last tip. Remember when you’re tele-conferencing, you need to exude an aura of confidence and control. A neat workspace, and a visually appearling backdrop can provide that extra boost.
We hope these tips work (hard) for you when you’re ready to dream up your personal home office.
