Home offices aren’t seen as the frivolous luxury they once were — after 2020, these work-at-home spaces became downright essential for many people. And yet, unless you have a spare bedroom, rarely is there a dedicated space for an office in your home’s official floor plan. It’s usually up to you to carve a space out in your layout to work effectively every day; it may feel easier said than done.
Taking the time to create a dedicated workspace is worth the puzzle hacking, though, as even just a few square feet of dedicated office space at home offers more benefits than you’d realize. Research published by the Journal of Environmental Psychology suggests that working in a dedicated space that reduces distractions (visual and otherwise!) makes you more productive than you’d realize; it’s worth the plight!
But the key to creating an optimized workspace isn’t endless square footage; it’s a utilitarian approach that rethinks storage, organization tools for work essentials, and potentially doing double duty in another dedicated space. Some of the most brilliant home office layouts Apartment Therapy editors have seen in real home tours are artfully laid out in living rooms, dining rooms, dens, small bedrooms, and even adjacent to open-concept kitchens. Many homeowners have also squeezed desks into transitional spaces like hallways — or even converted pantries or reach-in closets as power workstations.
If you’re stumped on where to start, try checking out the home offices spotlighted below. Each one is pulled from real homes we’ve toured that feature zero-renovation, budget-friendly office ideas for endless inspiration.
1. Create a home office zone.
In an open-concept home, creating a home office is as simple as locating a space that enforces separation from work and play; usually, that’s against a wall, away from busy, high-traffic spaces in the kitchen or near entryways. The homeowners in this Michigan bungalow created a breakout home office by finding the dead space in their living room, setting it off visually by anchoring the desk with a bookshelf unit.
2. Create separation with live foliage.
Whether it’s the corner of a living room or tucked into the nook of a kitchen, a desk space can be made to feel like a full stand-alone office if enveloped in greenery. In this vibrant Buenos Aires apartment, a home office space was fit into the farthest corner of a railroad-style living room and dining room combination, providing a bit of visual interest as guests enter inside. Full-bodied indoor houseplants act as a divider between a workspace and the rest of the living room itself.
3. Turn to vertical space for extended storage.
Regardless of the room you choose to place your home office in, get the most out of a tight space by looking to your walls. Using mounted shelving units can give you more space to store supplies, sure, but also create a workstation with an aesthetic that seamlessly blends into any design. Case in point: This genius home office space is tucked into the foot of a bedroom nook in a 425-square-foot studio apartment in Brooklyn.
4. Repurpose a closet.
It’s easier to find other storage solutions to supplement the loss of a closet in your home than it is to replace a whole bedroom (after all, most guests can’t sleep in a closet!). The brilliance of converting a reach-in closet into a smart, micro-size office is that you can simply close a door or draw curtains at the end of the workday to hide the office away. A splash of wallpaper and a wall-mounted desktop transformed this coat closet in a living room in this chic yet tiny Toronto apartment.
5. Rethink your dining room setup.
In this traditional dining room floor plan, a recessed wall space was created for storage; likely, homeowners could place a stately credenza, china hutch, or other glass-enclosed display here. But a smarter solution lay in converting this particular space into a workstation that doesn’t interrupt the flow of activity in this open-concept home. You’ll see that the line of sight between the dining table and the rear kitchen isn’t disrupted; try finding a niche all your own in a dining room to tuck a low-profile desk into as well.
6. Use transitional spaces.
If you think about it, these areas would be otherwise dead spaces — and underutilized square footage in your home. Plenty of smart home offices can be tucked into second-floor landings, hallways, sunrooms, and closed-in patios where it makes sense to do so. Keep the desk as low-profile as possible; consider using elements like a secretary desk that makes it easier to hide a workspace when it’s not in use.
7. Sacrifice a traditional TV wall.
In the smallest apartments, sometimes monitors can double as multimedia centers for streaming when they’re not being used for work. A railroad-style, 400-square-foot Manhattan apartment showcases just how to use one wall of a studio space to anchor a home office space; a bed and a cozy seating area is just behind these desks, allowing them to replace the idea of a TV wall in more formal seating areas.
8. Reduce your desktop size.
Creating a corner-size home office is easier if you toss the idea of a traditional rectangular desk out of the window. Micro-size workstations are becoming more popular with retailers (from modern Wayfair solutions to mid-century West Elm pieces) as people turn as little as 4 or 5 feet of open corner space into an office (special desks FTW!). A living room in this Toronto condominium hosts both a kids’ play area as well as a neat home office right next to a media console by reducing each feature’s overall footprint.
9. Kitty-corner a desk against bright windows.
Positioning your home office in a splash of natural lighting is a great way to ensure each day feels cheery. In a living room or a bedroom, placing your office chair in the direct sunlight may help you feel more alert. It also gives you a better view during the day, as is the case in this Los Angeles home.
10. Consider a room divider.
You may not choose to actually construct one, as was done in the retrofitted study above, which was made by intersecting the long living room layout in this historic Amsterdam apartment. You can buy custom dividers or even DIY them yourself, including makeshift bookshelf dividers, floor-to-ceiling curtains, or even indoor plants.
11. Convert your dining table.
Sometimes, there’s no avoiding it — you’ll need to do double duty in the same space you eat every single day. Doing it in style means keeping the amount of items you keep on the table for work to a minimum; in this warm Manhattan apartment, a single resident keeps just a handful of books and a lightweight portable printer on her dining table. It’s easily cleared off when a guest comes over for dinner, with an extra dining chair at the ready.
12. Replace your media console.
Can’t seem to find the floor space to dedicate to a desk? If you can, opt to mount your television and upgrade the traditional TV stand for a full-blown workspace. You can still work on incorporating media storage into your desk as needed, as done in this studio apartment.
13. Utilize every nook.
If all else fails, and there are no corners available in your more spacious rooms, consider fitting in a custom-size workstation in your entryway — in this case, homeowners capitalized on the 4-foot clearance beneath a staircase, as featured in our Small/Cool contest. It’s often the busiest point of a home during the day, but in many cases, an entryway can offer a dedicated space for a desktop that won’t disrupt the design of sitting rooms, bedrooms or kitchens.
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