Home Office Design Tips: To Make Your Workplace Beautiful, Functional & Ergonomic

Working from home seems popular trend for most of modern people. Home office gives us more opportunity for real comfort, efficiency and little pressure. Whether your home office is designed for daily office life, occasional telecommute, or just a room for organizing your staff, you deserve more than a neat desk and extra chair. Home office to some degree reflects the comfort of the rest of your home and even affect the whole style of your home decor. Once nicely decorated as well as functionally and ergonomically concerned, it can be a charming place that you can burn the midnight oil there without feeling depressed or tired.

There is a need to make our home office different from the office of the company. Here are some tips for designing your home office and making it more nice, functional or ergonomic.

For ideal home office design, first we need to think about some questions as follows. How often will we use the office? What possible activities we will perform in the office? Will we open our home office to our guests? What type of materials will we store in this room? What kind of furniture, equipment or accessories shall we add to the home office? We need to ask us more questions so that the home office design easier.

Generally, comfort is a priority for home office. As for comfort, we may consider the feature of ergonomics of our home office design. We need to choose ergonomic office chairs, ergonomic computer peripherals, etc.

Style comes second because if the home office is designed similar to the corporate office which is characterized by gray, white or such monotonous hues and furniture, it will convey a sense of “forbidden”, depression, dullness. We need to add color and style to our home office by choosing some colored furniture or office items, raising some green plants or flowers in the office, adding more pieces of art and such things to make it full of fun and vigor.

Function is also important, though sometimes ignored by most home office designers. It is home office where we perform some work there. Stylish sofa is attractive, but maybe it is not functional when it is used as seat. Various decorative lights are nice and can make the office vibe casual or inviting, but they may divert our engagement in the work.

Here are some other important parts that we need to consider whatever style of our home office will be.

We need to add some necessary equipment to maximize the function of our home office. We can get some USB hubs for better organization of cables on the desk. Invest in the fastest and newest equipment for higher efficiency. But never pay for the equipment that we will not use every day.

Lighting is essential for good home office. Make the best use of natural light and also well use general and task lighting for enough brightness. The overly low light levels may produce negative psychological effects such as depression. The ideal lighting is supposed to be able to cast a yellow-best. Never make the overhead lighting directly project onto the computer screen because the glare may result in eyestrain.

Make sure the furniture or office items, especially the chair at your home office is ergonomic one. Prolonged sitting is bad to our back, but we still need to do something for lessening the harms to our back. We need ergonomic chairs, ergonomic monitors, or even ergonomic mice.

Finally, color for home office is also a difficult part of office design. Colors may affect us emotionally and physically. Blue, green, and violet are viewed as cool colors, which may evoke feelings of peace and relaxation. Blue, ideal color for bedroom, is not suitable for office because it may lull us to sleep. Green is ideal color for office because it can generate calm and fresh emotions, which is also beneficial for better engagement and vitality. Yellow is a kind of attention-grabbing color, but when it is applied in the office, it may cause anxiety. Red is energetic and stirring, but usually right as accents only. For ideal home office colors, we can also choose white, ivory or gray as accent colors.

Is Your Office Environment Ergonomic Enough?

We may all have heard of the ergonomic workplace policies adopted by some giant businesses to ensure maximum comfort, health and efficiency to office staff. We shall all try to make our workplace ergonomic by introducing ergonomic chairs, ergonomic screen stand, mouse, etc, and convert a health-obsolete office into an ergonomic one. Ergonomic office is meant to help us achieve better productivity and health. It is worth investment.

What is office ergonomics?

Ergonomics in the office means upgrading the workplace to a new and higher level which can maximize health and efficiency. Our workplace needs to be set up in a way that best fit us. Ergonomics transforms our work environment into a place to be more human friendly, comfortable and natural and finally, office staff improves productivity there naturally. Setting up an ergonomic office does not have to be difficult or costs too much. Instead, an ergonomic office environment in the strict sense, is the place that fits every individual office staff and lessens the pressure on the human body. The priority of ergonomic office is to break the concept of one-size-fit-all.

Like most office staff who are seated in the chair before the computer all day long, we may get a aching shoulder, eyestrain, back pain, etc. If we feel pain in the back or stain in the eye after several hours’ sitting in the office, we need to familiarize ourselves with ergonomics and we may need to update the office chair, the screen stand or the lighting in the office. We all know in the office there are a lot of factors that might affect our health or mood, from sitting posture, lighting, exercising, etc. These are all things that have much to do with how comfortable and efficient we are, and thus have to be upgraded to ergonomic level. To improve our work office ergonomically, we need to invest in ergonomic office supplies, such as ergonomic furniture, keyboards, mice, etc.

Ergonomic office, is it worth the cost?

Every once in a while, we may have the experience when everything just goes wrong. Our boss exerts pressure on us, we feel uncomfortable sitting too long in the office, etc. We can actually make some changes. One of the changes is to invest in ergonomic office supplies and to create an ergonomic work environment. Ergonomics in the office is not a trend or new concept actually. It has been proven to bring a lot of change to many companies. Then is the ergonomics worth the investment. The fact is ergonomic office does good for our work efficiency, and more importantly, ergonomic office is great for our health. Then what are the benefits of ergonomics we can obtain?

Ergonomics increases productivity. The best ergonomic solutions in modern office can help enhance productivity. We tend to fail to make better progress in the work once we feel uncomfortable. Yet most often, the discomfort of office staff is caused by poor sitting posture, poor lighting in the office. The back pain, shoulder ache or stiff neck have become the main point of our concerns whenever we walk into the office and bury ourselves in the work. By designing an ergonomic workplace, our body can get the maximum support and our job can be well done.
Ergonomics is about better health and safety

Many people do not realize the main benefit ergonomic office brings us. That is, ergonomic elements in the office can help keep us health and eventually contribute to our longevity, preserving our spine and joints even though we have to work for very long hours in the office every day. Yes, sitting in the office chair just takes a toll on our health. We stressing our body in every day. But the ergonomic office supplies such as spine friendly chairs, wrist pads, etc can help us feel better. For example, after we are seated in an ergonomic office chair, our body will hardly suffer from pain because of the support the chair offers us. The ergonomic office supplies can keep us more healthy and productive while we are working.

Ergonomics betters company image

Ergonomics can show the great health concern of the company to the office staff. A lot of giant companies have made great efforts to ensure the safety of the staff and one of the best practice is to add ergonomics elements to the workplace. Safety and health seems to be a core value and enhancing the health of office staff in the office will help contribute to a human oriented office culture and realize human performance for the whole company. This eventually is beneficial to the employee engagement as well as attracting more talents to the company.

Keep up with Trends

Ergonomics is no longer no concept and it has been a trend in modern office. Ergonomics has positive effect on the office performance and health of the staff. It is necessary to furnish the office with ergonomic elements so as to make it a modern company.

Ergonomic Supplies for Modern Office

Ergonomics presents an even larger time-based optimization opportunity. With a certain monetary investment in the ergonomics furniture or products, we can greatly improve all of our remaining working hours. Spend more on ergonomics, and we will be more productive and healthier into the later years of our life. Here are some of the ergonomic products that are well recommended to be introduced to our office.



Ergonomic Office Chairs

The average people now spend 50-70% of the day sitting in the chairs at work. Over time, this can cause very nasty effect to our back or shoulder. Develop a right sitting posture and more importantly, invest in a good chair For a good sitting posture, we need to keep our PC monitor at our eye level and avoid any pressure on our spine. Keep our knees at a 90 degree angle. For a good office chair, we need to get a chair that actually fits our body enough to let us sit in a proper ergonomic position. The ergonomic chair is usually the one adjustable in height and has other ergonomic functions that can reduce the problems associated with static positioning.



Ergonomics in Computer Accessories

Keyboards and mice should be as close to the body as possible so that we will not have to rest our arms on the computer desk edges or our wrists will not have to extend forward. Ideally, the keyboard and the desk need to be well adjusted so that the keyboard can be brought to a level that allows our arms to be level with the floor when shoulders are in a relaxed position. Monitors should be positioned at or near our eye level. Otherwise, we will have to stain our neck to view the monitor.



Lighting

The proper lighting can bring us a big difference. A lot of people might suffer from headaches, fatigue or fail to focus on the work because of the poor lighting in the office. The overhead lighting fixtures are not enough actually. Try to add some personal lighting to our workplace. Adequate lighting can keep us focused while not staining our eyes.

Ergonomic & Stylish Office Furniture Can Better Modern Office Life

If you are manager, have you ever thought about the ways to improve your staff’s productivity? If you are office staff, have you thought about why you are now poor in the efficiency? For those who work at home, productivity is also a concern. Sometimes, the office furniture can influence our efficiency, especially in terms of the aesthetics and performance of the furniture.



It is said that ergonomic and stylish office furniture can increase the productivity. Is that so? Is your productivity decreased because of the fact that your office chair looks ugly or the chair is not comfortable? Here take a look at how the ergonomic chair or stylish chair influences our office life.



Ergonomics of office furniture

Most of us have to sit in the office chair for at least eight hours. Sitting for a long time is not pleasant experience. If the chair is not comfortable enough, we would suffer more over a long time. It is easy to understand comfortable chair is really great bonus for office staff, especially for those who have back or neck issues. When chairs are ergonomic, we can fix our focus on work and eventually, efficiency is improved. Besides the chair, other office items such as computer, screen, the desk, keyboard or even mouse also need to be ergonomically designed. Ergonomically designed office furniture just free us from serious wrist stain, eye stain, back pain, etc. Ergonomic furniture allows us to do our tasks more naturally and decrease the time we take off caused by a stress injury.

Look of office furniture

Apart from comfort of office furniture, the look of office furniture also has effect on the productivity of office staff. Most of the office furniture, especially the office chairs come in all black colors. They are leather chairs. That just makes the office boring. Boring furniture has little help in inspiration. Boring and dull working environment may sometimes just make office workers feel stuck in a space like a hospital. However, stylish furniture can change the atmosphere of the office and inspire office staff to be creative or passionate in daily work. That is why most of the companies in pursuit of creativity use the office furniture which is aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

High productive office life requires the office furniture to be comfortable and stylish. Interesting office can be more likely to encourage the office staff brain to think about challenges in a new way. It may make one feel just at home. A feeling of comfort and style helps inspire office staff to perform up to their potential.

Tips on Ergonomically Optimizing Office

In today's office environment, employees have to work long hours, hunched over the computer table, sitting in the office chair for long hours. A lot of employees begin to suffer from repetitive-stress injuries, back or shoulder problems. Is your workplace ergonomically sound? Ergonomics, or exactly making the work systems fit the workers gets more and more attention these days. Is our workplace ergonomic or are we still slaves to the workstation? Here are some tips for a more ergonomic work space.

As for ergonomic office, it involves various aspects of work all the way down to the type of office chair we sit on, how the office stuff on the desks are arranged, the keyboard we are using, etc. For an ergonomically sound office, it has to be the place where we can feel our best at work. For prolonged sitting, we are not doomed to a career of neck or back pain. Office ergonomics, if we we do some improvement to our chairs, sitting posture, or proper equipment spacing, can help keep us comfortable at work, de-stress and improve performance.

Ergonomic Chair

For ergonomically sound office, I recommend to start with the ergonomic chair. Choose an ergonomic office chair with adjustment and support. Adjust the height of the office chair to place the feet comfortably on the floor. Adjust the chair for better sitting posture. Make sure the chair offers the maximum lumbar support so as to relieve the pressure to the lower back.

Stand up Occasionally

Though ergonomic chair is better for relieving our back pain caused by prolonged sitting, we still need to stand up from time to time. Try to stretch our arms and back and take in some fresh air.

Adjust Monitor

Adjust the computer monitor till it is just below the eye level. Make sure the line of sight needs to be slightly downward. When we make any adjustment to the monitor, we need to ensure no glare from natural or artificial light to the screen. If so, just turn off some of the overhead lights or try to close the curtains if we sit under strong sunlight. For those who wear eyeglasses, try to adjust the tilt back to about 35 to 40 degrees. As for right monitor height, we need to make sure the monitor is about 18 to 28 inches in front of us.

Occasionally rest our eyes. For most of the work, we have to sit before the computer screen and have to stare at the screen for too long hours. We need to take our eyes off the screen and focus 20 more feet away. For better protection of our eye, try to step out of the office and walk around for eye rest.

Desk Dimensions

The proper dimension of the desk is at least 19 inches deep, 30 inches wide and, depending on individual height, up to 34 inches high. Besides, the desk still needs to allow for enough place for our legs, knees and thighs. It’s better not to keep too much stuff stored under the desk.

Posture

Keep the center of our body exactly in front of the monitor and keyboard. Sit up straight, keeping our thighs horizontal with knees. Keep the forearms level or tilted up slightly.

4 Ways for Improving Home Office Efficiency

More and more employees tend to work from home and this trend just shows improved productivity as well as better quality of life for the employees. Compared with working in the office, employees can be 12% more productive when they work at home. Besides, most employees just experience a 50% increase in satisfaction about such work status.

Because of the improvement in technology, working from home will be favored by more people in the future. We can benefit a lot from working from home actually, for example, much more flexible work hours, no long commutes, comfort of the home office, etc. Yet, when there seems no strict discipline or strong organization at the home office, how to be efficient at home?

Leave a room only for work

When we work from home, we shall still develop strong discipline or have the organizational skills. Set up a room that is specially used for work and make it different from other rooms that are meant for enjoyment or entertainment. Try to make a good balance between work and life. When we have a special room for work, we may not that easily tempted by other distractions.

Decorate Home Office & Make it Ergonomic One

When we have a designated home office, try to do a bit of decoration to it and make it full of atmosphere that can inspires our creativity. Make sure the home office have enough natural light and still, place the computer desk in a corner where there is no glare on the computer screen. Always open the window for fresh air, which can even bring you fresh ideas. Bring some life to the home office by adding some plants or hanging some paintings. The most important decoration part for home office is to invest more in ergonomics. Get an ergonomic chair that can offer us proper support. Ergonomic chair is essential for modern home office and it can help lessen the pain in back or shoulder due to prolonged sitting. Besides, try to customize the home office with some gadgets such as keyboard, footrests or other home office supplies to make the home office environment best fit us. Ergonomic home office can keep us attentive and more focused on the job, and thus better productivity.

Get Appropriate Equipment

Though we work from home, we still need all the supplies that we may use in the office, especially the technology gadgets such as phone headset and webcam for video meeting, flash drives of enough space for storing data, USB gadgets, and other tools that can facilitate our work. Since we are working remotely, we need to get as more equipment as possible for keeping us efficiently connective with our colleagues as well as improving our productivity. Always keep the operating system up to date.

Set an Ideal Work Schedule

Working from home, though we may still need discipline, we will not feel that constrained as we are in the office. Working at home, we may easily get disturbed as errands or housework. Still, try to make up a schedule that can better deal with work and life. Try to allocate enough time for work-related goals. Of course, when we work from home, we are most often working alone, without any group activities or discussion that can ignite our imagination or motivation. To be stayed motivated, try to go to a coffee shop or work out for the afternoon.