Our home office inspirations for this week are for multitasking parents – moms and dads who work or run their businesses from home while looking after the children and taking care of the house in general.
If you are one, we understand the dilemma this arrangement brings you. While you recognize the need to have a dedicated workspace, you can’t have it in a separate room because you won’t be able to keep an eye on your little ones. So, the easiest way to do this is to set up one in the area at home most people would lounge in, which is the living room.
On that note, you have to set a clear and defined work area and not just do it where you feel like doing it — on the couch today, on the counter the next day, and so on. Doing this allows your brain to draw the line between which place is for relaxing and which one’s for work. As a result, you’ll have the right mindset when it’s time to do the grind.
Here are two ideas worth giving a try on fixing up your office-in-the-living-room space.
Turning Small, Tucked-In and Forgotten Spaces into Mini Workstations
The small area next to the fireplace, the space next to or behind the sofa, that corner in the passageway, the nook under or at the bottom of the stairs – these are the unused parts of your living-slash-family room that you can convert into a mini home office.
You can set up a desk – ideally, one with a drawer to keep your paper files in – and a chair that blends in with the color palette and interior design of your living area to keep things streamlined. Inspiring wall art and a hanging plant complete your workspace look and separate it from the bigger room.
If your work involves lots of paper files, you might consider getting a secretary desk or one with a built-in hutch to keep things organized, provided they aren’t too bulky for your intended workspace.
And in place of the wall art, you can customize the wall right in front of your work desk into a board where you can tack on your work calendar, schedules, ideas, and other whatnot.
Console tables work best for passageway corner work areas. Look for one that’s perfect for these two categories – fits the area you have in mind best and works well as a work table.
Using Shelves to Separate Areas or Be Your Working Area Altogether
Industrial shelves are one good way to separate your work nook from the living room, giving you the office feels and privacy you need while allowing you to monitor the children as they play or watch TV.
On one hand, if your living room’s scrimped up on space already, you can utilize an industrial shelving unit as your work desk!
Install a compact shelf unit, converting a part of it as your laptop-only workstation while filling the other parts with reading and office materials. You can even fit in decors – a lamp, tabletop plant, framed art or pictures, and other knick knacks. And tada! You literally have your workspace on a shelf.
These are but two of the countless living-room-home-office ideas. Use these as head starts and get your creativity going! Tune in next week for more home office inspirations.