Give me wonderful ideas for my new home office....

Stephen

Ecommerce SEO / SEM
BuSo Pro
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I have no idea whether this will generate any interest, but here goes....

I recently bought a house, it's a nice size and out the back behind the garage we have this annexe room which is quite big and we are turning it into my new office space, I guess I maybe based here for a year or two. I thought it might be fun to share the project with you and also get your ideas and inspiration on what to do with it.

The first major issue is that there is no real daylight, two small windows that face NE, I will rectify this but not this year as I am looking at quite a lot of other costs since we only just moved in. So it is a case of making this room as cozy and productive as you see it. I already have an Ikea electric standing desk and I'm happy with that. Project 1 is to do the best I can with this space as I can. Project 2 will include a nice glassdoor etc.

I'd love any ideas or plane barmy thoughts on how to make this space inspiring and SUPER productive.

It is my intention to share the whole project here and let you guys know how it feels once I am in.

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Definitely need some light in there. Right now looks like the type of room you'd keep a couple of teenage girls chained up for two years. Good place to dispose of the bodies too.

I like making my spaces with colors that feel relaxing. So walls a pleasant off-white, natural wood color for the desk, large hanging pictures that contain a good amount of green color. Some real plants around the room. For me that gives off a very zen feeling, feels uncluttered, and keeps me most productive.

Looking forward to seeing the progress.
 
Talking about light and costs, I'll take sun tubes/tunnels
(TDDs) as primary option.
images
 
Talking about light and costs, I'll take sun tubes/tunnels
(TDDs) as primary option.
images


That has crossed my mind actually.

But the plan is to put in a large glass sliding door into the wall you see in the 2nd image with the two little windows and the door, this will open out onto what we are planning to be a kitchen garden. This will be phase 2 as the window is quite expensive!
 
I'd go with a dark floor, a medium neutral color for the walls ( or vertical stripes if you like them) and then white ceiling to give the illusion of height. For lighting I'd use recessed lighting in the ceiling and then some strategic lamps around the room that send light upwards, again for the height. Floor to ceiling bookshelf on one of the short walls. Low furniture.
 
Thanks for the input so far!

This weekend I have mainly been preparing the room, that has meant getting rid of the old strip light on the ceiling, filling numerous holes in the wall and ripping the skirting boards off.

One of the problems with this room is that there is some very strange fibre based wall coating that is going to be impossible to remove. So I have decided to start, I'm going to paint the entire room white to just see how this fibre coating looks painted. If it looks crap I have two options, plasterboard over the whole lot. Or I buy what is called decorating paper and cover the walls with this. The second option is cheaper and easier.

I've bought a nice light stand from Ikea which has 3 independent lights which can be angled where I want which I think will help to make the room a bit cosier.

I'll update once I have the painting done and we can see how it looks as a fresh starting point.
 
How big is that room? Hard to tell from the pictures.
 
Right now looks like the type of room you'd keep a couple of teenage girls chained up for two years. Good place to dispose of the bodies too.

lol


I don't see a venting system in the room ( ac or heat vents ).

I had an office like this one time. Killer in the summer and frigid in the winter!

I'd at least add a fan of some kind to keep air moving ( maybe a ceiling fan ). Also, depending on where you live maybe a baseboard heater and/or some portable AC unit.

Also, maybe a big screen TV with nature pics on it so it doesn't seem like you have no windows.
 
lol


I don't see a venting system in the room ( ac or heat vents ).

I had an office like this one time. Killer in the summer and frigid in the winter!

I'd at least add a fan of some kind to keep air moving ( maybe a ceiling fan ). Also, depending on where you live maybe a baseboard heater and/or some portable AC unit.

Also, maybe a big screen TV with nature pics on it so it doesn't seem like you have no windows.

I'm in Sweden, so the weather here is pretty temperate. Winter can get down to -20c but there is an electric radiator for that situation and I could also add a fan heater if really needed.

I am going to add a wall mounted TV and Chromecast so I can watch training videos etc
 
Picture or it didn't happen.

So what did you decide on? colors? flooring?

To start with, I have painted the whole room in a basic white, I had some left over paint so thought I'd start with making it a blank canvas so to speak! The result is the room feels a lot larger and it is also in need of some love to make it feel warm and inviting.

My wife and I have agreed darker flooring would be best despite the lack of light in the short-term, as soon as I add the big glass doors it will look totally right, so we are scoping out various suppliers for that at the minute.

We are also looking at colour schemes for the paint work, a few ideas come to mind and I'll update when I have moved a bit further forward. Away on vacation next week so will update when there is something to say/show!

Cheers all! :-)
 
Use artificial plants (Sweden IKEA has those) and have a window.
If you can take care of fishes have an aquarium with a couple of Japanese Nishikigoi.
A couple of paintings, and some light blue roof ceiling.
 
All you need now is a deep pit in the middle.

But seriously, get a very high resolution wall picture installed. Big one that fills a whole wall space. I had one at an airbnb once, it really does help the place feel less like a dungeon or a cell as long as you have good light coming in somehow (no nasty fluoro tubes).

E.g. beach island, night cityscapes.

Hell, in a space like that I'd even consider a projector livestreaming some kind of "people going about their day" feed on one of the walls.
 
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Little project update.

After a few days away last week, I have now bought some 5mm thermal insulating underlay and some wooden flooring. I'm planning to put the final coat of white paint on this evening and then lay the floor tomorrow night! I should be moving in by the weekend all being well :-)
 
Notice how you forgot to post the pictures again. Let get this fixed ASAP. ;-)
 
Notice how you forgot to post the pictures again. Let get this fixed ASAP. ;-)
There is not much to see still, I'm hoping to get the wooden flooring down tomorrow so once that is done I will do an update with some photos.

I've also been looking to get a nice wall sign made up which will show in the background when I'm on Skype to my customers.
 
Cover one full wall with as many different currency symbols as possible in a wide range of sizes ...from yuuuge to not-so-yuuuge. On the ceiling just out from and along the full length of that wall install a minimalist wire track lighting system.

Something like this:
attractive-halogen-track-lights-tiella-lighting-800cbl5pn-cable-kit-louie-lighting-blog.jpg


???

That reminds me, I did a t-shirt graphic like 10 years ago or so using currency symbols as abstract letters to form words for a hip-hop artist. I'll dig around see if I can find it...
 
Do you do video production/content? May be a good room to put your desk by the window and leave the rest open so you can shoot video in there (as long as you have good light). Looks good mate.
 
Cover one full wall with as many different currency symbols as possible in a wide range of sizes ...from yuuuge to not-so-yuuuge. On the ceiling just out from and along the full length of that wall install a minimalist wire track lighting system.

That reminds me, I did a t-shirt graphic like 10 years ago or so using currency symbols as abstract letters to form words for a hip-hop artist. I'll dig around see if I can find it...

Funnily enough, I have already fitted lighting system similar to the one you mention and it works very nicely.

Still thinking about wall motifs etc.

Do you do video production/content? May be a good room to put your desk by the window and leave the rest open so you can shoot video in there (as long as you have good light). Looks good mate.

Thanks, it's mainly SEO and Adwords so the lighting aspect is for my benefit only really.
 
Project update...

This weekend I have completed laying down the wooden floor, painting and fitting of skirting boards, there are still various snagging tasks but I am officially now working from the room and it feels great! much better than where I was located before and with the wife expecting a baby girl in the next few weeks I have somewhere isolated from the rest of the house to maintain my workflow.

Later this week I will add some more furniture and we are going shopping for some lighting, plants etc.

Here it is...
O49nrvI.jpg
 
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Project update...

This weekend I have completed laying down the wooden floor, painting and fitting of skirting boards, there are still various snagging tasks but I am officially now working from the room and it feels great! much better than where I was located before and with the wife expecting a baby girl in the next few weeks I have somewhere isolated from the rest of the house to maintain my workflow.

Later this week I will add some more furniture and we are going shopping for some lighting, plants etc.

Here it is...

images
 
Last edited by a moderator:
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