Many of us have been working from home for almost a year now! As we’ve gone from not having a home office to working in one every day, we asked our colleagues to share: what’s working for them? How have they set up their home office? What items have been useful additions? Check out the post below to see the wide array of home offices arranged by our creative colleagues! Mark Zammuto wins the award for most monitors, and Becca Hopkins gets the award for cutest coworker!
I’ve converted the spare bedroom. A desk, comfy chair, dual monitors, good light and a nice view into the woods at the back of the house. To light my face for conference calls, instead of buying a fancy light, I took a bedside lamp with a bendy base that faces the wall in front of me. The reflected light isn’t too bright on my eyes, but does the trick for calls. Always have a cuppa something, and a couple of friends to keep me company. When I don’t need intense concentration to get things done, I like listening to VPR. The voices make me feel less alone. And lucky for me the family is just downstairs. Though I’m thinking my wife who has always worked from home can’t wait for me and my daughter to head back the office/school. I know my daughter wants to be in the classroom with her buddies, but I’m kinda diggin’ this work from home. My snowshoes in the winter and my bike in the summer offer a great mid-day break from sitting at the computer.
5 monitors, 4 charging stations, 3 camera views, 2 workstations, 1 currency collection.
My home office has been made even better by the addition of my desk contraption (thank you Cyrus!). I love my view. I can see our birdfeeders in the foreground and my sister’s house in the background. I have a bunch of dad’s paintings on the wall to the right and some great black and white photos from my friend Amy Ali Stotts on the left – some from Japan where we both lived.
My home office is the room that we’d always called “the office” but, until March 2020, was the “extra random stuff storage room”. The weekend after Champlain went remote, I bought a desk at Restore for $40. It’s been developing ever since, with new plants, more bookshelves, and a desk upgrade. And, what home office would be complete without the furry coworker??
I currently have two! One in Vermont and one in North Carolina at my parents house where I have currently been residing. I have found that having a laptop stand, wireless keyboard and mouse, stand for my phone and ample room for drinks and snacks to be critical to success! A window also makes a huge difference! Here is a photo from my work space in NC.
My hubby has been a WFH freelancer since 1994 as a video editor and web designer. When house hunting four years ago, we were lucky to find one that had a first floor office right off the family room. The home office already had beautiful office cabinets and a large cubby space for storage. When I started working from home, he graciously offered to set up a desk (to the left) for me. So we are now office mates and we still like each other (I think!)
My home office is in the corner of our living room facing our land in the back. It’s nice because it feels cozy and I’m able to see birds and feel the sunshine on my face when it’s sunny. I surround myself with paintings my daughter made (the larger carnival one we bought from a child artist), books that help my work and efforts in social justice and snacks. Must have the snacks. Sometimes it’s healthy stuff and sometimes it’s chocolate. Sometimes it’s both.
My home “office” is set up close to windows that get a ton of light and near some of my favorite plants. I had to get creative with my set-up as my desk space is pretty small. Luckily, I had some spare craft boxes to lift up my second monitor and I invested in a cheap (but effective) bamboo desk stand for my laptop. I also got very lucky when I wandered into Michael’s Craft Store one day and they were having a sale on rolling carts. Once I added that to my work space it all started to come together in a (semi) organized and efficient manner.
In the almost 10 years of living here, what is now my home office space started out as my spouse’s chiropractic space (until he found downtown space), then a spare bedroom for guests (until we realized our families didn’t like to travel this far to see us), then my spouse’s home office (until I did a career shift, pre-Covid), to what is now our shared home office space. It is constantly evolving, and it always works! My most favorite desk feature is the sit/stand computer riser that sits on the desk, allowing me to sit or stand throughout the day. My favorite thing about the room is the large windows that allows me to see the dogs and chickens playing together outside when I am working. My most treasured item in the space is a beautiful paperweight that my grandmother gave to me when I was in 6th grade; whether I am in a coaching session, preparing for class, or just browsing the news, it is a wonderful reminder to always “pick-up” whatever it might be that I am working on or reading about and look at it from multiple angles to ensure I am considering the multiple possibilities and perspectives.