DWC Home | Magazine | Back Issues | April 2006 | Design Perspectives

More Articles by Karla J. Nielson  More Design Perspectives

At Home at the Office
Function, comfort and beauty—what applies to today’s homes also applies to the home office.

by Karla J. Nielson, Allied ASID, WCAA

The home office is becoming a staple in American architecture and design. For some, it means telecommuting. It suggests more freedom without sacrificing the larger paychecks of the corporate world. Whereas the corner office used to be a symbol of moving up the corporate ladder, now more people are seeking a different ideal: working in a successful business without the hours and hassle of a commute, or perhaps only making the commute occasionally, when personal business contact dictates.

It also can mean working as owner or part owner in a small, closely held corporation or sub-chapter S corporation or as a sole proprietorship with the office right at home where overhead is low, efficiency high and working hours very flexible. Work sometimes can be done deep into the night or very early in the morning, all in comfortable attire.

For others, the technology revolution that has made home offices possible and so widespread plays a much smaller role in their careers. This group of home employees and business owners works at projects that may not rely heavily on the computer. Theirs is sometimes called “a cottage industry.”

It cannot be denied, however, that the advent of affordable personal computers, laptops or notebooks; their various support equipment; the Web; and the surge in technological development on a daily basis is the very reason why professional home offices have proliferated.
According to the American Internet Users Survey, upwards of 50 million Americans work from their homes in some capacity, with more than 13 million Americans now working full-time from home offices. This 13 million represents 35 percent of all U.S. households, according to statistics from the Small Office, Home Office (SOHO) Summit. That means that more than one in three workers in America is finding the hours, flexibility and working conditions best suited to them at home.

It also means that the days of having a makeshift office stuck in a corner of a room or in the basement are over. New home offices have become functional, and often beautiful, spaces where productivity can be high. Here are some ways to help your customers feel professional as they work from home.

FUNCTION FIRST
The first order of business in creating a home office is to evaluate what goes on there. Here is a checklist of things to consider:
First to be addressed are the space planning aspects:

1. How many occupants will use the space?

2. How much space (in terms of square footage) does that give per worker?

3. Does each employee need a specific place or type of space to work?

4. How much furniture and equipment is expected to fill the space?

5. Who will use these items, and how and when will they interact?

6. Will there be multiple users on any one piece of equipment? If so, how will the space be organized so that one user will not impact the work-in-progress of another user?

7. How much pressure is there in the home office to produce under deadlines?

8. Will concentration on tasks be an issue?

9. How many hours at a time will anyone be stationed at one place in the office?

10. How should the furniture be arranged to achieve the best use of the space in terms of productivity, function and workflow?

Make a plan for the logical location, sequence and convenient use of all furnishings, equipment and office supplies. Everything from the computer location and work surface placement to the location of the telephone and envelopes should be listed and organized so that the function of the entire room can be made most efficient.

This may seem a bit ironic—seeking maximum efficiency in the home office—because the image of a home office is laid back and somewhat relaxed. But that image is outdated, and today the opposite is true. Today’s savvy workers want the highest degree of efficiency so that work done in a home office can be accomplished quickly and the worker has time to squeeze in some personal things—chatting on the phone, processing laundry, ordering food, watching a DVD, shopping, playing golf, who knows?

Yet one concept rings true. Today we work at home because we want the benefits of working at home, not just saving the commute and having to buy costly clothes. We have things we want to do with our time. “There is life after work” is a more meaningful statement than ever before. Maximizing that life beyond the computer or workstation is a big factor in productivity, which is made possible by efficiency.

COMFORT, COMFORT, COMFORT
Comfort is the second key element in home office productivity. It is also is important to workplace efficiency.

At home, we tend to think of comfort as the part where you hand in your work suit for a sweat suit or, even more comfy, pajamas. Probably everybody who has a home office has done some part of their work in pajamas either very early or very late in the day, but I’m not convinced that very many people hang around in PJs during normal working hours (I could be wrong, though).

There are other aspects to comfort in a home office outside attire. Lighting and aesthetics are two of the most crucial.

LIGHTING
Lighting is the most important element in comfort and ranks high as an element in efficiency as well. For years, we’ve been conditioned to thinking that fluorescent lighting causes the least fatigue when working long hours. With today’s technology oriented work, however, that is not necessarily the case anymore.

Fluorescent lighting does cause fatigue because of its bland, even and shadowless light. After a period of time, one seems to have difficulty thinking creatively. Also, it often is too much light for computer-based work. Many people experience headaches while working under fluorescent lighting. Although I don’t know of any studies that have explored the real cause, I suspect it is the buzzing of the ballast combined with the blandness of the light—it seems to slowly suck away energy and lessen the desire to finish up a project or task.
In fairness, tubular fluorescent lighting does have advantages. Among them are low operating costs and even quality of lighting, which is demonstrably good for eye and hand tasks.

However, the placement of lighting is as important as the type of lighting. General lighting—that placed in the center of the ceiling, for example—may be less effective for computer work (watch out for over-the-shoulder shadows) than low-voltage lighting from a variety of sources, such as ambient lighting (light directed to walls that bounces off and indirectly lights the space) and natural lighting.

Balance is the key to good lighting. Adjustable lighting (widely available in the incandescent varieties, yet still in the experimental stage with fluorescent) is very desirable for home offices. The ideal situation would be a combination of adjustable incandescent, natural lighting and some high-efficient fluorescent bulbs so that the home office user can be in control of his or her lighting at any time of day or night, adjusting the lighting to the needs, moods and demands placed upon the worker.

Natural lighting is often the most cheerful element of a home office, yet can also be the source of the greatest discomfort. The direction and intensity of the light, the occasional intense heat gain, the inconsistency of patches of brightness interspersed with gloominess, are all characteristics of living with the rhythms of the sun.

Glare, a chief culprit in lack of home office comfort, is easily remedied with solar film. Solar film nearly eliminates the damaging ultraviolet rays that fade interior furnishings, eradicates the blinding glare that obscures a view or the reflecting glare that shines off a computer screen. Another plus is that solar window film evens the temperature in the room, making the interior much more comfortable.

BEAUTY AT THE WINDOW
Window treatments can really boost the comfort level for the home office occupant when they are planned for function and beauty. First, by providing treatments that control brightness computer screen work especially will be a more comfortable experience.

Second, treatments that provide day and nighttime privacy offer psychological comfort by allowing light to enter in the day but giving security while at work. Privacy also protects office equipment—often very valuable—from the perchance view of a potential burglar (for more on the importance of privacy, see D&WC, July 2002, page 24).

Third, comfort comes through aesthetics. Making the window treatment beautiful is a special kind of comfort that goes beyond glare control and privacy/protection issues. Be brave in suggesting decorative window treatments. At home some beauty at the window is highly desirable. It is one of the perks of working at home. Although too much decor has the potential to distract one from the work at hand, it is also true that loveliness uplifts, ennobles and motivates.

BEAUTY ALL AROUND
Two schools of thought seem to be the trend today in home office furnishing and design. One is that the home office is indeed the office and should not blend in with the rest of the home’s theme. This means that when the worker enters the office, there is a mental shift away from domestic duties and away from tempting indulgences such as taking a nap or raiding the refrigerator.

The other decor opinion is that it should be an integral part of the home’s decor, and as much effort should be placed on furnishings there as in any other occupied area of the house. This school holds that the office is connected to the home and walking from any area in the home into the office should not be an abrupt experience.

Interview your clients. Ask them which of these directions is most appealing to their personal sense of style and the way they want to use the home office. Then go for the gold! Make the home office as functional, efficient, lovely and as comfortable as your skills and their budget will allow.

As you select appropriate background materials such as wall coverings, flooring and window treatments, you will be able to make the home office really work for the occupant, and make the occupant want to work there too. Most of all, they should be able to enjoy the work!