Space Selection for Your Home Office

I’ll be visiting my parents for the next ten days in southern Arizona where they are happily retired and living in a fairly new house. I’ll stay in the guest bedroom where my mother has one of her three workspaces set up. There is a decent size desk, chair, table lamp, and some office accessories. This was actually my regular workplace for 8-months during COVID in 2020. It is a quiet room on the west side of the house with operable windows for natural ventilation on mornings and evenings and operable blinds for control of the natural daylight. These are helpful environmental conditions for a home workspace.

There are two other workspaces that my mother has created in their home – one that is her primary home office zone in an alcove next to the kitchen pantry. There she has her computer and drawers for storing files and office supplies, and this is also where she has a nice ergonomic desk chair since she works in this space more than others. It’s the spot where she takes Zoom calls and online meetings for each of her volunteer committee roles (too many to count) or with family and friends living in other states. When I visit, I see her working at this desk at least once a day but often more like three or four times a day in between her busy schedule of activities.

One of her favorite activities to do in their retirement community is different types of art and photography classes. She has probably taken just about every type of art class offered, including still-life drawing, charcoal drawing, nature photography, watercolor painting, portrait drawing, and others. With this work, she carved out a space in the laundry room for her easel and a little table to conduct her drawings and paintings. I haven’t actually seen her action with the artwork, but I have seen the results so I know she is using the space the way she intends.

What’s interesting to me is that my father more or less replicated his custom home office from the family house I grew up in from Portland, Oregon down in their retirement home in Arizona. His new space is smaller than the home office in Portland, which served as his primary office space for the management consulting business that he owned. He had custom wood bookshelves and a large custom wood desk and nice leather reading chair that were all relocated to the new home in Arizona. And although the room is smaller than the previous office of his, it is still a nice size for a home office and includes a south-facing window and comfortable feeling to it. He did not opt for the glass French doors that could have been an add-on for the room and so it is open to a side hallway and nearby is a powder room as well as a storage closet and alcove with cupboards, drawers, and a stone surface-top that he uses as his device charging station.

I know that my parents have a fairly traditional American family dynamic, since my father was the main bread-winner of the household and though my mother also worked mostly full-time, she was the main home caretaker doing all of the cooking and cleaning. With this dynamic, it seems to be typical for the man to have a dedicated home office space and the woman to have a less formal workspace set up where ever there might be room for it. In fact, even my brother’s family of six (I have four beautiful nieces who are mostly all in college now), he began primarily working from home for his management roles in transportation logistics for large companies and has dedicated home office space in the house. At one point my sister-in-law had her home office set up in their master bedroom walk-in-closet! Luckily there was a skylight in the space to give her natural light, but truthfully this was the only truly private space she could find away from the kids and distractions when she was studying for her master’s degree.

Now, in my own situation for a home office setting I have taken over an open living space in the Air-BnB that my fiancé and I rent on a long-term basis. He has now taken over the smaller flex room of the 2-bedroom home for his workspace, where he has set up his gear for the music production and sound recordings that he works on as a musician and composer. Initially, we set up our open living space for both of us to share since we were doing collaborative work at the time, but our current efforts are focused on our individual businesses and creative pursuits, so we naturally fell into this new space use pattern.

Speaking with a handful of clients and women who are also working from home on their businesses or side hustles, it has become apparent that there is quite a mix of situations that occur. Some women have given up their previous home office space to older children who have returned home for temporary periods, others use the same space as the workout room, and some have placed their desk in their bedroom. There are certainly those that have the extra room in the home to dedicate for their home office, which is most ideal both from an environmental context and also for tax purposes. In fact, one client had her desk and office setup in her basement adjacent to her vintage chair refurbishment workspace, but then she identified an unused small room in the top floor of her home that she was able to convert to her home office and she is worlds happier (and healthier) working on administrative tasks with natural daylight, fresh air, and pleasant décor. With all the spaces in most homes, I believe the topic should be given careful consideration especially for those women who are running their business and primary mode of income generation working from home.

I think many folks will often look for the space that will accommodate the size of desk and chair that they already possess and determine that will become their home office. But the space is only one variable, and honestly not as important as the environmental conditions that will allow for the best workflow setting. For a healthy workspace, one should find a zone in the home that offers natural daylight, fresh air, quiet acoustics, visual privacy, and adequate thermal conditions. Now, each of these environmental variables can be influenced or adapted if all of these conditions are not met upon space selection (e.g. artificial lighting, mechanical fans, noise cancelling headphones, privacy screens, and space heaters can be added), but having the natural environment influence the aesthetics of the space is optimal for both health and well-being.

Sometimes we will be forced to set up different zones for different workday activities, since there will indeed be space constraints and limitations. Depending on the specific work activity, certain environmental conditions are more important than others, too, so the space zoning helps optimize this. We also have a tendency to need different environmental cues and settings to help us be motivated for certain types of work, so it can certainly be helpful to have different work zones around the home. However, for someone running a business or establishing their side hustle to become something larger, it is extremely important to give yourself a true home for your home office – after all, this is the heart of your hustle not just a spot for your laptop. And while you find the right space, be sure to prioritize your health and well-being by considering the significance that the environmental factors will have on your workday wellness. Grab you free copy of the Healthy Home Workspace 5-step Guide, delivered right to your inbox, for additional insights and knowledge for healthy home office design. 

If you are interested in optimizing the design of your home workspace, reach out to AIDA, LLC today for a consultation. You can always find more information and healthy home resources at Aletheia Ida Design and Architecture, LLC (AIDA, LLC) at  www.aletheiaida.com.