myjobquote

Home Blog Trending Home Office UpgradesArticle

Trending Home Office Upgrades

Want to upgrade your home office? In this blog, we’ll look at some of the best trending ideas in 2024 to create a productive and stylish workspace, where you can relax, be productive and enjoy visually.

Let’s dive in!

1. Personalising Your Home Office’s Aesthetic

You can do more to make a home office yours with personalised decor. One notable way to achieve this is by opting for colours you like that also work well to improve the look and feel of your home office.

Along with that, you should consider:

Personalised artwork
Little personalised touches/accessories (e.g. desk mats and coasters)
Include vintage elements to help blend the old with the new in an effective way (e.g. rustic early 1900s cabinet in the corner, Georgian-style wallpaper or Victorian framed paint work)
Add suitable houseplants that match with your preferences
Customised stationery to work with through the workday

Like with any efforts to upgrade your home office setup, hiring a professional tradesperson can save time and hassle.

2. Smart Technology

It’s no surprise that smart technology makes this list since a range of smart tech is growing in popularity across the UK, ranging from smart thermostats to smart meters to smart home devices/hubs.

This is thanks to the many advantages that smart technology can offer households in general, ranging from cost-savings to efficiency to convenience.

Here are some ideas of how you can use smart technology to improve your home office experience:

Use smart lighting to adjust to your mood/the time of day *
Consider a smart monitor to offers the benefits of a smart TV as well as an ordinary monitor, including the ability to cast your laptop
Enter the next space age with a height-adjustable smart desk and benefit from its various capabilities like integrated USB ports and the ability to charge your devices wirelessly

* Many smart lighting products can learn and adjust based on how you tend to use lights - of course, you’d need to spend time figuring out

3. Avoid a Cluttered Desk

It sounds pretty obvious but when we get caught up in a busy work schedule, it’s easy to ignore clutter accumulating on our work desk - this can be more of an issue for home offices since we aren’t worrying about a boss looking over our shoulders.

That said, being conscious of this and setting aside time to declutter your desk ahead of the following workday can provide a chance for a fresh start.

Once decluttered, it’s worth taking steps (as best as possible) to avoid it returning - although hectic days may necessitate a bit of mess sometimes and that’s okay!

4. Nature-Inspired Visuals

Using nature-inspired visuals can act as a great way to add a lively, welcoming and offer the potential to increase productivity.

Here are some nature-inspired visuals to consider for upgrading your home office:

Nature Wall Art (e.g. square framed botanical art with leaves or greenery landscape visuals)
Use of natural stone such as natural stone flooring, floating shelves or accent walls
Nature-inspired artwork and photography to enhance your home office
Include suitable houseplants in a well-placed location *
Real wood features/fixtures (e.g. timber flooring, home office wood panelling, etc.)
If suitable, have professionals add skylights to let more natural light in from above
Opt for nature-inspired paint colours to enhance the look and feel of your home office (e.g. Earthy colours such as blues, greens, browns, taupe and olives)

* This includes ensuring any houseplants are added to a safe location and one that is suitable visually

5. Keep Your Home and Remote Workspace Separate

It’s also important to separate your home work space from the rest of your room, not necessarily or simply through using a separate room but to mentally and practically keep them apart to the extent feasible.

If you have a separate room, this could be achieved with:

Having a room within your home dedicated to a home office
Using an outbuilding in your back garden for a home office space

However, if you cannot literally have a separate room, consider ideas like:

Zoning with rugs, office walls or office furniture that clearly separates your home office from the rest of the room
Use a room divider or folding screen to make your home office feel separate
If there is enough space and it is safe/suitable, you could setup your home office underneath the staircase *

* As with any home office setup that involves significant construction work, it’s generally best, if not necessary to hire a professional.

6. Ensure There is Good Lighting

You’ll also want to consider how your home office is lit, as this will shape the look and feel of the area, as well as how likely it is to make for a productive environment.

Good lighting approaches to consider are:

Considering using home office clamp lights
Let in plenty of natural light such as with skylights or a large picture window

Layered lighting will also often play a key role in ensuring the lighting works for you to help balance focus with good lighting conditions all round.

To use layered lighting in a home office, here are some ways you might achieve this:

Task lighting (for focusing on specific tasks) - Conventional desk lamps, adjustable desk lamps and wall spotlight if suitable
Ambient lighting (designed to light up the space more generally) - Built-in ceiling lights such as LED downlights, well-placed floor lamps, LED strip lighting
Accent lighting (highlights particular features but not specific to tasks) - Wall-mounted lights (e.g. picture lights), spotlights, art deco wall lights

7. Recent Ergonomic Chair and Desk Designs

While it's commonplace to consider ergonomic chairs or/and desks for a home office, it’s worth looking at some of the latest designs out there. This way, you can benefit from new, innovative approaches to ergonomic office furniture.

For instance, there are many durable and ergonomic desk mats out there at the moment that can provide a comfortable, stylish addition to your home office space. There are lots of designs out there including anti-glare, transparent desk mats.

Some of the more popular ergonomic desk and chairs out there right now include those that are suited to various body shapes, meaning remote workers can find tailored chairs or desks with maximum ergonomic design value, in turn, supporting more focus and productivity.

A few other ergonomic chair and desk designs to have in mind are ergonomic work from home offices that also offer style, modular work from home stations, desk treadmills, ergonomic footrests, and monitor arms to position your monitor in a way that limits neck strain.

8. Joyful Interior Decor for Good Vibes

What ‘feel good decor’ means will differ from person to person, however, joyful interior decor in one form or another can contribute to your work home office’s look and atmosphere, making for a more soothing environment as well as one that is more conducive to productivity and concentration.

Depending on your preferences, you could look at opting for your preferred colour palette (such as with wall colours, decorations, furniture etc.), personalised technology, custom canvas prints, desk accessories, word art or a gallery wall.

9. Tailored Home Office Desk (a.k.a. Bespoke)

While already alluded to a few times, you should consider having a tailored or Bespoke home office desk installed. Of course, there are many ways for a home office desk to be tailored.

Some examples of a Bespoke home office desk include:

Tailor-made home office desk with a unique visual design
Bespoke home office desk that comes with uniquely designed features
Relatively small or large desks depending on how much space you need to work with

10. Use of Sustainable Materials

Many home office workers are turning to sustainable materials thesedays. This isn’t just an approach that can benefit the environment since more eco-friendly materials can also often offer many practical or/and aesthetic benefits.