The Home Office

Author-JoAnne Lenart-Weary

One Day Decorating

Isn’t it wonderful that with today’s technology, many of us are working from home, eliminating that daily ride to and from the office?  The key to successfully working from home is to treat your home office, like a professional space, and not just an overflow area of your home.  You may be utilizing a spare bedroom, the room formerly known as the dining room, a corner of your family room, or if you are lucky, a specific space dedicated only to your business. The bottom line, no matter how large or private, you will work better in a space that is aesthetically pleasing, well-organized and reflects you. Let's talk about decorating for both the right brain and left brain mentality and creating a home office that helps you get the job done.

1. Start with Color-What skills does your business require? Is your business more right-brained and focuses on creativity?  Or is it more left-brained, with a business that requires you to be more logical and sequential in your approach? Right brained people may do well by adding touches of bold color in prints, upholstery, storage products, etc to stay energized. Have fun and combine 3-4 different prints in the space to motivate creativity. Left brained people may be better focused by keeping a more neutral color palette with the interest in the space provided more by changes in texture. Co-ordinate your office organizing products just like you would fabrics for your livingroom. Use a mix of stripes, plaids, mini-prints and fluid designs that make you happy when you see them.  

2. Power of Placement-Arrange your furniture to be functional and also to help you feel inspired as you sit at your desk each day.  If possible, capitalize on a great view to keep you feeling energized and refreshed.  Natural light will make you feel more alert and connected to the outside world. If an outdoor view is not in your mix, add live greenery and/or fresh flowers to help bring the outside in.

You may want to be sure you can see what is going on in the rest of the house while you are working. So if your chair is not positioned to see an adjoining space easily, change it to a swivel chair that allows you movement. When setting up your furinture, be sure to target each area of your business and what the needs are.  Do you need space to sort and collate?  Then be sure to have an extra workspace for overflow working. 

Comfort is key to working at your desk.  Have a comfortable office chair, but also, provide an alternate seating area, where you can put your feet up on an ottoman while using your laptop to give you some variety.  As a one man team, you can get a bit bored working from home at times, so allow yourself the opportunity to feel a change of your pace, even though you haven't left home.

3. Function,Function, Function-Revisit what type of person you are.  Right brain people like stuff easily available, so open file storage with baskets, decorative boxes, and wall files will work best for them.  Left brain people like things put away and everything neat.  One filing system that works equally well for both are colored folders, right brains respond to the visual stimulation and left brains respond to the organized color blocks.

Now go decorate your office space or find a decorating professional from the ODDAA Directory. Great decorating will lead to great productivity.

Happy Decorating, JoAnne Lenart-Weary

About the Author: JoAnne Lenart-Weary is a 35 year veteran of the decorating industry.  Since 1998, she has focused on helping others to pursuse their dream of creating a successful business, creating beautiful spaces.  She has appeared on HGTV, a weekly TV segment in her local market, founded ODD and ODDAA, as well as a co-founder of The Society of Decorating Professionals.  JoAnne also is a co-inventor, along with Cyndie Stefanik, of the patent pending Color with No Regrets.