AD | Collaborative post
When you work from home and have a family it’s a good idea to create a home office that doesn’t shut them out, but welcomes them in. While there are those times when you’ll be really under it and will need to focus, it’s wise to have a workspace that you can share with your partner and children, whether they’re toddling or in their teens.
With this in mind, office furniture company, the Penketh Group, has put together some home office designs to consider and explains the different benefits they can have when home working with family.
Space to work and play
To welcome your younger children into your home office, it’s a good idea to create a space for work and play. You could set up a desk for you and a large table for them, positioned and spaced out so that you can focus on your work while they play or enjoy doing crafts nearby. Choosing soft, light colours for your home office desk, contrasted with brightly coloured chairs, cushions and stationary, can also make the room child-friendly for your little ones.
Desks for focus and fun
Alternatively, you could create a home office where your family can work and socialise together. This could be centred around a desk design that allows you all to focus on school or office work and have fun doing crafts together or playing games. Desks with a T-shaped design can work well for this. The shape can offer multiple workstations for Mum, Dad and kids to sit and work on their various projects during the week, and then have fun playing board games at the weekend.
Safety and protecting your work from tiny hands
Just like anywhere in the home, safety is essential in a home office, especially when it comes to protecting your little ones. So it’s a good idea to choose furniture that’s designed with safety in mind. This could include desks with rounded edges, cupboard with safety catches to store heavier items, and high shelves with raised fronts to stop files or books from being pulled off. You should also aim to protect your work from tiny hands drawing or crayoning all over it, so high desks and chairs, which they can’t reach and climb on, are a good choice too.
Ensuring homework gets done
When you have a child who is at the age of doing daily school homework, it’s wise to create a home office where they can comfortably do it and you can see it’s getting done. This could include desks that are positioned so they’re opposite each other, allowing you to keep a watchful eye on your child, without making it feel intrusive. You could set up cabinets with drawers and shelving space where they can keep their work, books and stationary, along with your own. You could also give the office a minimalist style to help keep their mind focused and free from distraction, with a modern look to make them feel all grown up. Being in a space where they can see you working hard might, in turn, encourage them to get their head down and work hard too.
Involving older kids in your work
If you have children who are about to start their school work experience, you might want to involve them more in the work you do. In this case, you could create a home office that’s set out like a boardroom, with a large table and surrounding chairs positioned in the centre of the room. This set up can give your children the space to do their work comfortably, while giving them a taste of an office environment and letting them see and experience your own work life. You could even give them little tasks to do, like creating to-do lists for you or filing your documents, to give them an early introduction to the world of work.