How to Convert A Spare Room into A Home Office

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed a lot of things in every day life, one of the biggest changes that effected a lot of people was offices closing down and us working from home, while work from home was intended as a temporary solution it’s been shown that both employers and employees are on board with working from home.

When work from home was seen as a temporary solution, lot’s of people set up make shift offices in their kitchen or living room, but if work from home is becoming permanent for you, it’s time to sort a proper workspace. 

Working in a poorly set up office is bad for you, when you’re in front of a PC for 8 hours a day, there are issues which can crop up, like: eyesight issues from PC screens, back problems from uncomfortable chairs and even an increased likelihood of RSIs if your set up isn’t correct.

So, it’s time to set up a proper home office and one of the best rooms to set up an office in is the guest bedroom/spare room, today we’ll look at how to convert your spare room into your new home office.

Clear The Room

First things first, you’ll need to have a clear out of your spare room, so that you have enough space for all your office supplies and furniture. While you can move some elements of your spare room back in once the office is set up, it’s best to work with a blank canvas of a room.

Set Up A Desk

Once the room is cleared, the first thing you should add in is a proper desk set up. You can easily find office desks online or in homeware stores, so simply find a desk that you like and purchase it for your office, then set it up in your office room.

When you have your desk, you’ll also need a nice office chair, you do not want to cheap out on this, as you’ll be sitting in it 8 hours a day for the foreseeable future and with a bad chair, you may develop back problems.

Once you have your desk and chair set up, you’ll want to add in your computer, it’s important to note that the top of your computer screen should be at your eye level so that you don’t strain your neck and at least 30-50cm away from your so that you don’t strain your eyes.

Correct Lighting

As we mentioned, in an office job eye strain is something you want to protect against and a good way to keep your eyes nice and healthy. The first step is to ensure your office room is properly lit, so you’ll want to make sure your ceiling lights provide enough light to your room and if not supplement it with some lamps.

Another area to look at is your windows, natural light comes and goes throughout the day, so if you’re relying on natural light, you’ll find you have stretches of darkness and times where there’s too much light. So you’ll want to install a set of double roller blinds on your windows, double roller blinds have a dimout layer and a blackout layer, so you can use the dimout layer to temper light during the day and use the blackout layer at night if you still use the room as a guest room.

Add In Office Extras

Now you have your desk set up, it’s time to make your room feel like an office. Having your home office set up to feel ‘officey’ will help you get in the right mindset for working and help you maintain productivity.

Examples of these office extras would be having a small coffee machine in your office, so that you don’t need to go back and forth to your kitchen, or some office desk plants, which will give your office a nice feel and help keep you in a positive state of mind!