My Tiny Home Office
One thing the COVID-19 pandemic has brought us is a new appreciation for the employee who can work from home. When COVID-19 started affecting the U.S., most companies that could function remotely sent everyone home. At the time, my husband and I lived in a 750 sf duplex apartment. For the first couple months of the pandemic, I spent 8 hours of my day at the dining table in a thrifted wooden chair. Eventually, I made the trip to the office to retrieve my desk chair, which greatly improved my physical comfort while working from home.
We moved into our new home at the beginning of July 2020, still in the midst of the pandemic and my company's shutdown. Very generously, corporate offered a limited reimbursement budget for employees to fund home office expenses, including furniture, technology, and other needs. I was so excited to upgrade my at-home workspace!
Even in the new house, there isn't enough space to dedicate an entire room to my office, so I chose to transform the space in front of our sliding door to the backyard. This was the perfect location for me because it had plenty of natural light - and artificial if required - was out of the way of our daily routine, and had an accessible wall outlet. If this area was not an office, it could have been a mudroom of sorts with shelves or cabinet storage, but we don't have a need for something like that right now.
This is what the space looked like before the transformation
Now it is my beautiful and functional home office!
Since the "after" photo was taken, I have added the tech purchased my my company - an 18" monitor, docking station, and webcam. I use my laptop as a keyboard and secondary screen, and can use either the mouse touchpad or the wireless mouse in the photo.
Because my office is in an open space in our home, I wanted to use furniture that was functional AND beautiful enough to be "on display". I also had to stick to a strict budget so I had reimbursement funds left for the tech that I needed to do my job. Fortunately, I found furniture pieces that are stylish, functional, and not too expensive!
This desk is minimal enough to not be visually heavy in the room due to it's light color and slender design. It also folds down for easy storage in case I ever want to retire this office! The chair as well has clean, contemporary lines and was easy to assemble. Speaking as someone with a back condition, this chair has excellent support. I find it more comfortable than a conventional office chair, and it certainly looks better in my home!
I already owned the lamp, rug, and outlet adapter. The lamp caught my eye in a Spokane thrift store a couple years ago, and I remember turning my car right around to go buy it. I ended up having to re-wire it for it to work, but I'm so glad that I did because it works perfectly in our home. It's always great when old items fit together with new items so well - and I'm so happy with how my home office transformation turned out!
Shop items in my tiny home office:
Desk - Amazon
Chair - Amazon
Rug - bought it at Ross for my college dorm 6 years ago! Here's a similar one from Amazon
Lamp - thrifted, shop a similar item here
Wireless mouse - Staples, for college years ago. I don't think they sell this particular design anymore, but this one's also cute!
Coaster - Amazon, a wedding gift from a dear friend
Plug adaptor/surge protector - Amazon
Whiteboard - very old, I'm not sure where it's from. You can buy a similar one on Amazon
Plants - Peace lily and orchid
