43 products to create your very own home office

As we embrace virtual meetings, gone are the days when it was fine to have a backdrop of spare room chaos and peeling posters. That part, we are getting right with neat shelves of good books, art works, the occasional vase of flowers and sometimes a fresh coat of paint. It’s now time to turn attention to what our screen can’t see, but what we can and do experience every day.

For many the realisation that working from home is a permanent thing has crept up slowly with lockdown-prompted shifts becoming a concrete decision to stay at home. The downside of this is the fact that many of us are still sitting on a kitchen chair that needs to be moved as it’s called into need. When choosing a chair for the home office there are a couple of things to consider. Ergonomic design is primary, but is your flooring suitable for casters? And can it sit hard against the desk if space is limited?

Desks too are likely to be a spare table or something that was picked up cheaply because no one could envisage using it for longer than a month. Same with lamps, a bedside lamp may look lovely, but is it really shedding light where you need it and let’s face it, the bed does look odd with only one lamp. That said, the light you choose for your desk can look as industrial or exotic as you like, just make sure it does what you need.

Rugs are a whole other ball park of luxury that may have been forgotten as you shuffle from bedroom to desk with Uggs the unseen part of your working wardrobe. A good rug however will transform a space, delineate it as your office and with careful selection, will declare your office as your own beautiful space.

Shelving is of a similar transformative nature with good shelves providing space for books, files and the occasional beautiful object or vase that looks just as good empty as full. With shelving often occupying the wall directly behind you, a good shelf is pretty well essential to your background space, so make it sing!