6 Designer-Approved Tips For A Home Office Layout That's More WFH-Friendly (2024)

Before March 2020, a home office was one of those “nice to have” spaces that often ended up ignored. If you happened to have a WFH day, it’s likely that you posted up in a more appealing place to answer emails—the kitchen counter, the family room sofa, even your bed.

But now, with remote work and virtual school being the norm for families across the United States, the home office has become one of the most important, and most coveted, rooms of the house. To ensure your space is working as hard and efficiently as you are, it’s important to design the office with a few key principles in mind.

Interior designer Dee Frazier, who works with Decorating Den Interiors, a network of individually owned and operated interior design franchises throughout the U.S. and Canada, says the first step in determining how to lay out a home office is to better understand how your needs can be met in the available square footage. This means asking questions. “Are you using it for your personal life? Will your job be out of the office? Will you have clients come in? What about kids?”

Interior designer Barbara Hayman, who also works with Decorating Den, notes that the quartet of privacy, storage, cord management, and lighting need to be considered for every home work space, no matter how it will be used. “Privacy is one of the top things people are looking for, in terms of being able to filter out noise, especially if you’re on a lot of video calls throughout the day,” explains Hayman.

To help you with your own home office planning, here are six aspects of layout Hayman and Frazier leverage to create distraction-free and video-friendly work spaces.

A properly placed desk

The desk is the most important feature of any home office, but putting it in the wrong spot can seriously hinder productivity—a bad angle to the window can create screen glare, your back to the door can cause stress, facing a wall is likely to be uninspiring.

The best desk placement, according to feng shui principles, is one that puts your back to a wall and gives you a view of the door, but doesn’t place you directly in line with the entrance. Called the “commanding position,” this placement, it’s been shown, creates the best energy for you to be in charge of whatever comes your way.

You should also place your desk as close to a natural light source as possible. Some like to face the window, but if that proves too distracting, put the desk perpendicular to it. If the most productive placement puts the window behind you, meaning that light will hit your monitor, add window treatments to block the glare.

Video conferencing adds another level of complexity to desk placement. “If you’re going to be on a lot of video calls, you want to make sure that there aren’t people moving around in the background or things that you don’t necessarily want everyone to see,” says Hayman.

A seating area for work and relaxation

Frazier adds that seating, beyond a desk chair, is also crucial, whether it’s a bench for when the kids inevitably pop in or a table and chairs to review documents with clients. “I usually look at how many people are going to sit there at one time, and how many we can accommodate,” she explains.

In this Frisco, Texas, space, Frazier was working with a high-ceilinged room that had a double-height turret with huge windows, lending an airy feel to the wood-paneled space. She placed a plush round ottoman and two leather chairs near the windows to create a cozy seating area. An inviting rug helped separate it from the more formal work zone. This versatile arrangement works for informal meetings with clients, as well as casual family chats. Plus, adds Frazier, “I think the dog loves it just as much as they do.”

Room for two

Clients in Spring City, Pennsylvania, hired Hayman to design a space where husband and wife could work at the same time. The room was anchored with a custom built-in storage unit that was measured and built specifically to fit their equipment, including a monitor and printer. She also divided the room with an oversized built-in desk, with his-and-hers sides, that has cut-outs on top to allow for hidden cord management below.

Hayman notes that when designing an office for two people, style is just as important as function, as one person’s aesthetic could be distracting or off-putting for the other. “You have to find a common ground to make both of them happy, even if they don’t like the same things,” she says. “In this case, the husband was very contemporary and the wife liked the farmhouse look, so we had to combine those styles.” Hayman put up a custom map mural to provide a striking video background for him, while bright artwork and an upholstered chair add color for her.

Built-in tech storage

In today’s digital world, file cabinets and document storage have become less of a priority in home offices. Instead, storage is designed to hold computer equipment. “There’s always a printer, sometimes a fax, maybe a shredder,” says Frazier. “You never want these things on display, but you want them to be near you.”

“A lot of pre-planning needs to occur so that we think about where cords are going to go and how we can best hide them,” adds Hayman.

An often deployed trick to maximize space and create a wow-factor is a wall of built-in bookshelves and cabinetry, in front of which you place the desk. The cabinets hide unsightly wifi boxes and office supplies, while open shelves provide an opportunity to showcase your personality (and create a chic video call background) with books, photos, and artwork.

A double-duty small space

For Frazier, when designing a small office, the first thing she considers isn’t the desk, it’s storage. “Where is it going, why do they need it? What do they absolutely have to have?” she asks her clients. Then she can determine the appropriate size and place of the desk.

Hayman notes that a piece of furniture that can do double duty as workspace and storage, like a credenza desk, is a good choice when square footage is limited. If storage isn’t a concern, a glass or lucite desk that doesn’t take up much visual space can make a room feel larger.

In smaller offices, the only option may be for the desk to face the wall. If that’s the case, turn that wall into a statement with an inspirational mood board or a custom mural, or hang a whiteboard with a calendar to keep important dates and notes top of mind.

Lighting that’s layered

Furniture isn’t the only piece of a proper room layout—lighting needs to be plotted out as well. “Because most meetings occur during the daytime, we want to take advantage of natural lighting first,” says Hayman. If there’s not enough natural light, she integrates recessed lighting in the ceiling for ambient light—Frazier notes that she always puts ceiling lights on dimmers so homeowners can easily adjust the intensity—and adds task lighting over the desk and seating areas if necessary. “If they’re like me, they work at night a lot," says Hayman. "And we have to make sure that there’s sufficient lighting in the space.”

Frazier adds that many clients don’t think task lighting is necessary if they have overhead lights, but she stresses that “it will be so much better on your eyes if you have a desk lamp.” Plus, adding accessories is part of the fun: “There are so many cool and unique lighting fixtures,” says Frazier. “It’s like the jewelry of the room.”

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