Ten Tips On Decorating Your Home Office For Less

For those just beginning a home-based business, whether working from or in the home, one of the last things usually considered in the beginning is decorating their office. With all other expense of starting the business, decorating the office may seem like an unaffordable extravagance that wait until you become a millionaire from your business. However, your home office is where you will be spending an inordinate amount of time and how it feels when you are at work can make a difference in productivity.

Most will not be able to afford a professional decorator or organizer to come into their home office and put everything in its place, creating a friendly, inviting atmosphere. For the majority of home business owners, they will be doing the work themselves or with the help of their spouse or children. For the fortunate ones that a separate room in which to set up their office, the task is much easier. Others will have to carve out a space from the family living area to work privately and without interruption.

In the separate room, it can pay to start from scratch by emptying the room of all furniture and pictures. You may decide to paint the walls to create an atmosphere more conducive to work and your color choice will be on an individual basis. However, light colors or earth tones have been shown to provide a better environment to reduce stress and spark creativity.

You can then make a floor plan on a plain piece of paper to determine where each piece of furniture will go take the office more organized and within reach of your office chair. Creating a materials flow can help decide where the office equipment should go and then follow the plan when you put the furniture back in. Understand, there may be some pieces that will not fit, such as beds or dressers if taking over a former bedroom, but they do not belong in an office anyway. Be prepared to put them storage in the basement, garage or at a storage unit.

You may need a file cabinet and the top can be used to hold your phone, fax machine or copier and if you have one machine that does it all, that is the spot to hold everything, giving you more room for anything else. An open book case can serve as storage for office supplies as well as books concerning your trade. Be sure nothing else is allowed to go on the shelves to junk up your work space. Think about a traditional office when considering what to put in yours at home. Keep it professional.

A few pictures on the wall can improve the working environment and maybe a potted plant as well, just to add some ambience to an otherwise sterile work center.