Attractive display areas may be necessary in the home office, especially if your work entails designing products or something that people will want to buy, or hire you to make for them. It may be that you are a photographer and will want to showcase your best photos. You may design brochures or do any number of beautiful things that will enhance your business if displayed, so how can you display these things in an attractive manner?
Using the wall is a good idea. This keeps floor space free for other things necessary to an office. And it creates room to move around more easily. If you have a meeting area in your office, then use the wall nearest it to display some of your things. You can do this by framing several in one large frame, or by hanging them individually. If you also use accent lighting to highlight them, it will create a beautiful display that shows your work to its best advantage.
Another idea is to paint a frame directly onto the wall and hang your pictures inside it. This will unify them if you have many of different sizes. Make sure they are hung in a way that is balanced, with the largest in the middle and slightly above the center. Medium sizes should be dispersed equally around it and the spaces filled in by the smaller ones.
But what if you cannot hang the things you want to display? Then you can use shadow boxes, or open shelving on the walls to create display areas. A freestanding unit would also be suitable if you have the floor space because you can have non-reflexive glass doors to keep the dust out. And you can use the bottom part to store things that you don't need to display, so you get storage area combined with your display area.
If your display is small, you may choose to arrange it on the top of a filing cabinet. Standing two storage units side-by-side will extend this area. Another idea is to use a small side-table along one wall. This could easily become a feature in the office if you have enough room. Accent lighting can come from above for all those displays except those on shelving. In this case, the shelf above would create a pool of shadow that would hide your display rather than enhance it.
Find out the best position for accent lighting on display shelves by holding a table lamp in various positions. It could be that a spot on the opposite wall would be suitable.
You may have searched through your home and found the only place to put your home office is in the living room. This is usually where your family plays the TV or other music loudly at various times when you are trying to concentrate. You may find that the toddler will crawl around your feet when you are busy and play with all those interesting shiny buttons on the CPU. Instead of pulling your hair out, follow these few tips to successfully share living space with a home office.
Once the children are old enough to obey a few rules, be sure to write them where all can see. The rules may include:
No loud music or television turned too high.
Use of headphones to listen to loud music or TV.
No kicking or throwing balls in the living area.
Respecting your office 'space' by keeping out of it.
Don't interrupt unless there is blood on someone.
What you choose for rules depends on you and your sanity levels. You may work quite well with the television blaring, the baby crying and the dog barking. If you can't, then it's best to shift the office into the kitchen.
The other viable option is to limit work hours to school hours when the children are not home. Otherwise you may need to invest in a quality set of earplugs.
When setting up a home office in the living area, try to keep it all in one place. This place should be somewhere that is not used for a walk space. Nor should your office space intrude between the seating arrangements and the television. But these days of super-large TV screens, you could consider buying a large-size TV and putting it up high on the wall, so that vision is not impeded. This could also free up some extra floor space for your office.
A strip along one wall is the most basic arrangement that seems to work well. It is economical in space usage and could even be used in a hallway. Or a corner arrangement may suit your furniture layout better. You can find many computer desks built for corner installation. You may be able to achieve a modicum of privacy by installing heavy curtains across the corner.
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