How working from home can be improved by your interiors
A big question at the moment, especially with the increase of home working, is how to create a home when work is with us all the time. How can we use design to create a space that allows us to function at our best when working but also enables the much needed balance and distinction between work and personal space to ensure positive mental health at home?
We delve into our top interior design tips to help create a working home that still prioritises health and mental well-being.
Storage
Joinery which encourages you to put your phone, work bag and laptop away to charge and be out of sight once you switch off at the end of a working day, is key to creating a working home environment that doesn’t trickle into your personal time. If you can’t see your laptop or your paperwork it’s less likely you’ll open it or start working through it.
We work with some incredible carpenters who really know their craft and work with us to create storage which is a thing of beauty, personalised to our clients style and their room. Consider hidden features tailored for the way you live and organise your life. Make sure you plan this through in detail and really think about how you use a space, what you want to store, hideaway and put proudly on display.
Personally I love creating drawers for each member of a household where they can store their laptop or iPad and phone, and have dedicated integrated charging points in a hallway cupboard, or when space is tight, in the kitchen. They found popularity in the States as ‘docking drawers’ and are incredibly useful.
social areas
Think about creating a sociable furniture layout that encourages you to speak to each other when you’re not working. Occasional tables, inviting seating and artwork that engages and inspires can create social or break areas for you within the home.
We always start designing a living room layout from a sociable point of view, rather than dedicating the entire layout to the TV position and everything being centred around it. If the TV isn’t the centre of the room, there’s a good chance it won’t be the first thing you think of when entering the space. Instead, we love hiding a TV behind moving panels, in a pop-up lift or making use of projectors and hiding screens inside the ceiling.
Try using these areas when you’re on the phone, or find a good place to do some laps whilst talking to encourage you to get up and out of your seat and away from your desk at times. Consider views when planning these social areas - artwork, windows, skylights all allow for a chance to escape work for a brief moment and can offer some clarity to a busy brain.
GREEN VIEWS
Having a green view from the area you’re working from is incredibly beneficial. We all have an inherent need to connect with nature and green spaces and doing so has huge benefits on the way we feel. This is often referred to as the concept of biophilia - humans innate attraction to nature and natural processes. This has led to a huge focus in recent years on biophilic design, something I’ve always found fascinating and have always used in my designs. Biophilic design looks to bring natural elements indoors in a way that mimics what we usually expect to see outdoors.
One of the simplest ways of incorporating this into your home office is to make sure it benefits from an inspiring outside view - ideally with lots of greenery, a garden, tree tops or a park for example. If the layout of your home and the space you have set aside for a home office doesn’t provide this outside view then the next best thing is to bring the greenery inside by incorporating large house plants into your floor plan along with small potted indoor plants on desk tops, window sills and shelving units. This is a quick and simple fix. When we work on a project at Gunter & Co we look to go beyond simple fixes to truly incorporate biophilic design throughout by placing plants in clusters at varying heights with different textures and colours to mimic nature. We also incorporate natural colours into our interior design schemes, source nature-inspired artworks and think about the natural light and shade of a building to bring the feeling of nature into a home office.
personalisation
Curate a home which circles around personal objects that you’ve collected over time and that have meaning to you, this will keep your home feeling personal and full of memories when you switch off from work. It can also help stimulate thoughts and creativity around your office space. Collect your items together and zone them into how they make you feel - if a piece of artwork or a collectable produces feelings of calm, keep them for your spaces which are work free. If something sparks interest and excitement then place it in your working space to stimulate your creativity.
Lighting
Mood lighting is really important to not only sync with your circadian rhythm but also to create distinct zones for work and relaxation. Make sure you have bright, practical lighting in the area you work from and more dimmable, atmospheric lighting in the places in your home that you come together as a family or to relax such as a family room, bedroom, en-suite or reading corner.
Zoning
Try to separate out your working from home area rather than having it all open plan. Having a distinct divide between the two will help you to compartmentalise in your mind too. The creation of a garden studio where you physically have to leave your home to go to work can do wonders for the work life balance.
mindfulness
Practice mindfulness and create zones in your house which encourage this. A reading corner, a spot with a beautiful view to nature or a place to stretch out on a yoga mat after work can all help you to decompress after work and send signals to your body and mind that work is over for the day.
healthy rituals
Develop an evening ritual including enjoying some down time away from screens. This could be a soak in a bath at the end of the day or a chance to read something that has nothing to do with work and is entirely for you. Even if I’ve spent the whole day indoors, after kids’ bedtime I go for a long walk around the neighbourhood to make sure I can do my 10k steps and listen to an audio-book. It was a measure I started during lockdown when I realised how little I moved, but I’ve enjoyed it so much, and it’s such a lovely way to wind down after a day, I’m on my fifth book already.