Is Your Home Office Layout Sabotaging Your Productivity?
NICOLE PANKOPP, a former engineer turned DIY-renovation blogger in Denver, sweated designing her home office. “It’s a very functional space, and you don’t want to mess that up," she said. Beyond practicalities, notes Charleston, S.C., designer Jacob Laws, aesthetics count.
“If you find your work environment unpleasant, you’re not going to do your best work," he said. “There’s an actual science to it." Here, professionals and a couple of semi-pros detail strategies for mapping out a well-working home office. 1.
Nail the Layout Facing your desk to the wall can feel like the adult version of a timeout and is “a bit stunted," said Laetitia Gorra, founder of Roarke Design Studio, in New York City. She sets desks perpendicular to a wall or window, or floats them in the room, facing the door “for a sense of openness that allows you to know who’s coming in." When possible, New Orleans designer Ashley Macuga ensures the desk’s position affords an outdoor view, which “improves productivity and makes stress easier to manage." At the same time, the sun’s glare or sweltering rays call for window treatments. In Gorra’s home office, the drapes on the window behind her double as a video backdrop.
So you can easily get out from behind your desk, allow a minimum of 3 feet from its edge to the “limiting factor" behind you, be it a wall, window or furniture. You want a carpet big enough to accommodate your pulled-out chair and your desk’s legs. A low-pile rug will be easiest to navigate.
If you have the square footage, create a cushy, separate seating area for mulling ideas. Amanda Thomas, a civil engineer in St. Paul, Minn., who designed the office she and her husband share, included a leather armchair that doubles as a place their dogs
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