Abigal Ahern: 5 steps for creating a fabulous home office

From the design guru, Abigail Ahern;

Morning, I’ve spoken before about the importance of creating a home office to die for, that’s cosy, tantalising and that inspires productivity, creativity and anything else you so wish. I’ve broken it down into steps to make it easier so you can dip into or out of as you wish. The steps aren’t rules (there are no rules when it comes to design) so tweak and improvise as much as you wish.

So in no particular order:

Step number one is a practical point, I am so not a practical designer but this is pretty fundamental. Move your home office into an area away from noise, kitchen noise, and more importantly TV noise. You don’t need to dedicate a whole room to a home office in NYC I’ve seen some beautiful home offices in hallways, passageways even alcoves. I’ve seen bedside tables that double duty as home offices, hell I’ve even seen home offices crafted from an impromptu table sitting on a landing. The important factor is not to have a load of distracting noise going on or at least as little as possible.

Step two, ramp up you’re lighting, you might think you have enough but believe me you haven’t. Now you’ve all seen my studio a thousand times I am sure but I’ve recently created another desk space in the adjoining room and upped the anty with the lighting. An angle poise gives me perfect task lighting for typing, reading etc. and a super sized table lamp adds a decorative note. Go round the room and you will find seven other lights (yikes)!

Step three; add flowers or plants they immediately soften the space give it personality and break up the corporate feel. I’ve got white faux blossom on my new desk, take it away and it just doesn’t have the same impact. I’ve also got a posy of fresh flowers from Columbia Road on the desk this week purple and pink hydrangeas, next week who knows, herbs, eucalptus some lovely scented foliage it really doesn’t matter.

Step four, move away if you can from buying office furniture particularly the desk since it takes up the most room and sets the tone. I’ve got an old zinc thing from Petersham which I adore, you don’t have to go vintage you just ideally need to source something that doesn’t look too corporate. If you have a corporate looking desk then acessorize the bejesus out of it.

Step five, accessorize. Prop pictures and paintings against the desk, skim the floor with a rug, heap a pile of books on the table, add a scented candle. Easy no?

My new space below, (don’t look at the wiring we haven’t wired it all up yet, its me being impatient and wanting all lights on asap so extension leads, tons of wire all sorted by my DIY guru this weekend). So the trouble I now have with with creating this second zone is the internal battle each and every day - which desk to sit at, it’s a conundrum!

Oh I forgot one more step making it 6 – ditch the beige haze paint colour, go dark, cross over to the dark side its way, promise way more fun this side and pretty darn life changing!

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