How to Remodel Your Home Office

Get important things up off of the floor by remodeling your home office space.

Turn your spare room into a home office, to use for work, study, hobbies or a combination of activities. With a moderate level of home-improvement skills and knowledge, most home office remodeling projects can be completed in a day or two. Whether you plan on building most of the elements yourself or bringing in premade or custom furniture and accessories, the key to successfully completing an efficient space is to plan for all of your needs before you start.

Things You'll Need

• Paint
• Office furniture
• Storage units
• Organizational containers

Instructions

1. Paint the walls a color that appeals to you and helps you complete tasks. For example, even though blue is meant to be a soothing color, if you hate it, you will not feel relaxed.

2. Create a work space in the corner of your room and work your way outwards to maximize square footage. Corner desks use what usually ends up to be wasted space.

3. Build a floor-to-ceiling custom bookcase on at least one wall to add additional storage and organizational opportunity. Back the shelves with wallpaper or a painted wall to bring an accent color into the room, or back them with a mirror to make the space visually larger.

4. Pick out furniture on rollers, such as a swivel chair that makes navigation easier from one area of the room to the other. Other items to place on wheels include printer stands, filing cabinets or extra work tables that can be tucked away under desks when not in use.

5. Bring in organizational items to store things that need to be in easy reach in an attractive way. For example, use baskets for yarn and fabric squares in craft rooms, or glass canisters for paper clips, pencils and highlighters in a study space.

6. Plan for your office space to grow with you, choosing items that can be repurposed later on. For example, a college student's need for a study may change to a home business space after graduation; make the shelves adjustable in the bookcase to change from book height to binder height in little time.

References

• Ask the Builder; Maximize Home Office Space; Tim Carter
• House Beautiful; 6 Simple Tricks to a Perfectly Organized Home Office