Ah, the home office. What once was the underrated room of the house, often passed off as a ‘bedroom’ on real estate listings, has become front and centre in recent years. However deep your indoctrination into the ‘working from home’ era, the home office has always been a place of retreat. Whether you use this space for remote work, creative projects, or even video games, the home office can be a haven from the world. It only follows that you would want this place to feel like a dedicated space rather than a junk room.
Image: 1825 Interiors
If your home office looks either plain or worse for wear, fear not! We have some stylish home office design ideas to breathe life into your barren or blocked space. If the 2020s are the era of working from home, let’s optimise every last square millimetre of your home office. So let’s kick off with the home office must-haves.
HOME OFFICE MUST-HAVES
If your home office is devoid of a desk, is it even an office space? Though this blog post will detail varying home office design ideas, all home offices should share common ground. Home office must-haves include:
- An ergonomic desk standing between 73 to 80 centimetres tall
- An equally as ergonomic chair (if your space will host a computer, we strongly recommend an adjustable office chair)
- Sufficient lighting (high-quality—nothing fluorescent)
- Power outlets.
Our final recommendation is Internet access, although this is not strictly necessary. If you are ‘old-school’ and content to work ‘unplugged’—or if you wish to retreat to a more ‘offline’ space—you can forgo this option. However, please note that it may be necessary if you either work from home or have kids who need the space for homework.
We’ve laid out the bare essentials, so let’s move on to what 1825 is all about: the interiors, the flourishes, and the decor!
I’M YELLING TIMBER
At 1825 Interiors, reclaimed timber furniture is our specialty. Made from globally-sourced, hand-picked pine shipping pallets, our timber furniture is effortless, ‘old-world’ style objectified that also goes easy on Mother Earth.
Image: 1825 Interiors
Why else do we love timber? It’s sturdy and durable, and it’s as easy to style as it is on the planet. Timber forms a solid base from both a literal and figurative standpoint, the latter pertaining to timber’s seamless melding with almost any colour scheme. It can resuscitate a barren office space—or mindset—by breathing in life from the fertile outdoors.
Needless to say, our Home Office collection consists of many timber items. It’s difficult to pinpoint the best office table because we have something to suit everyone! If you want a timber desk in its most unaltered form, then we recommend the Vintage Desk, which you can pair with our Vintage Bookcase. These products have a weathered finish to allow the timber’s natural features to shine through. If you’re after something more stylised, our Byron desk may just be for you. Keep reading for some Byron-inspired home office design ideas.
BUILD A BYRON-INSPIRED SPACE
Our Byron collection is nothing less than stylised authenticity. You can spot a Byron desk from its aged timber top and ivory-washed trestle legs. Our Byron furniture is that perfect blend of natural and ivory-washed timber that renders it ideal for contemporary and Hamptons-style spaces alike.
Image: 1825 Interiors
If you want to style a home office space Byron-style, you’ll need our Byron desk, French Cross Dining Chair (Antique White), and Byron Ladder Bookcase. To achieve a neutral, largely ivory-washed aesthetic, you should ideally work from a base of plain, white walls, and tiles or carpet in a neutral tone, such as grey or sandstone. Styling tip: If your home office has a tiled floor, it runs the risk of feeling barren or cold—literally. Add a cosy rug beneath your desk to insulate your workstation. Choose either a white or neutral rug to blend into the room or something with a striking pattern or colour, if you wish to make it the room’s focal point (aka accent piece).
THE DESKTOP VIGNETTE
Once you’ve arranged your desk, chair, and bookshelf in a way that feels right, it’s time to get styling. And, assuming it’s not clogged with a dual- or tri-screen computer setup, the desk may be a great place to start. If you’ve ever arranged a vignette on a coffee table, you’re going to have an advantage here—although it’s worth noting that a vignette for your home office is not the same thing as a lounge room display. Whilst the latter is a showpiece greeting guests as they enter, the former is going to be just for you.
To get you started, add some practical items, such as a lamp or a penholder. You’ll want to stick with neutral colours that blend with the room and Byron furniture. In the above photo, we got a little Hamptons-inspired and added a sprinkling of bleached starfish, as well as a white photo frame featuring navy blue floral patterns. Because of its darker colour, this frame establishes itself as the focal point of the display—and this makes sense. Even in childhood, it’s common to find comfort from the image of a loved one—be it Blu-tacked beneath your open-top school desk or framed beside your work computer.
The final component of this display is a plain beeswax candle encased in rounded glass with a rope handle. This is a very specific item, and of course, you don’t need to match the item exactly, but the design does work a dream in this context. The unaltered beeswax and the rope’s rough edges fit with the room’s overall aesthetic, as well as the two-toned neutrality of the Byron furniture.
A vignette with blue colour theming also works with the Byron Desk. Image: 1825 Interiors
When constructing your vignette, choose practical items that also match the room. You’ll want about four or five items, all of which play into a theme. Unlike the lounge room vignette, the home office vignette exists for a specific person as they carry out the specific task of working at a desk. So, it may consist of some more practical items, or the focal point may be a photo of a loved one. If you work from home, you’ll be spending a large chunk of your life in this space, so choose items that will brighten up your day.
STYLING YOUR BOOKCASE
Some bookcases will be purely functional, and this is fine. In fact, functionality is the driving force of minimalist design, which is a separate blog post in itself. However, if you have bookshelf space to fill, our advice is fundamentally the same as our take on vignette arrangement: choose items that suit the room, ensure the items play into a theme, and choose a focal point for your accent piece.
Image: 1825 Interiors
Returning to our example above, you’ll notice that we’ve filled out the Byron Ladder Bookcase with assorted books and decor. And, as you’ve possibly noticed by now, there is nothing random about this selection! Look closely and you’ll notice that about a third of the items are neutral-toned, another third are red, and the final third of items fall into the blue-green colour scheme—including the aqua clock, which, with its break from the otherwise earthy tones of this display, is the accent piece. The eye draws towards the clock—which is handy if you want to know the time at a glance.
If you want a bookshelf as good-looking as this one—and if your bookcase isn’t completely stuffed with books—then you may wish to take a leaf out of our Byron-inspired book. Photo frames can add a personal touch, whilst houseplants, faux fruit displays,or even glass jars of nuts or potpourri can bring a touch of the rustic outdoors in. (This is ideal for a room reliant on natural and whitewashed timber furniture.) Use bolder colours sparingly, as these become your highlights, and should ultimately still contrast the accent piece. Play around and see what works, and don’t forget the power of blank space. You may not need as many items as you think!
Image: 1825 Interiors
If you want to decorate a largely book-laden shelf, perhaps you could add some bookends. These will take up minimal space and will double as practical features! Check out our ceramic owl bookends, which would fit the Byron-inspired look to a tee.
LET’S CLOSE THE BOOK HERE
This blog post has been a love letter to timber furniture and our Byron collection, but it’s hopefully given you some solid home office design ideas. If you ask us, it’s best to furnish your home office with timber, as a touch of the natural world can revitalise a sterile office space or foster the seeds of inspiration or productivity. Whether you want the timber barely tamed from its original state or something more stylised, look no further than our Home Office collection for your best office chair and table combination. You needn’t keep it matchy-matchy, either. Mix things up and see if anything sticks!
Image: 1825 Interiors
Whilst desk vignettes and stylised decor may suit this look, other designs express movement in other ways. Minimalism, for example, does away with the trinkets and finds itself through definitive angles and clean lines. The Hamptons style is somewhat minimalist, but it does enjoy its blue and white decor, as this design makes waves through spaces of oceanic blue. Some remote workers may relish the idea of bringing the outdoors in by inundating their space with houseplants galore! It all comes back to whatever fuels your creativity and productivity.
Whatever your preference, we hope we have inspired you to get creative with your home office layout. Perhaps we have encouraged you to think in terms of colour theming and blank space, or perhaps we have inspired you to try your hand at composing a vignette. We hope that our insights have left you richer and with a refreshed perspective of the sacred space that is your home office.