Next Home Office Furniture

With a well-thought out home office design based on solid home office design ideas and good office space planning behind you, you're ready to take the next step - considering how to set up your office at home to make it ready for work.

Getting Started: Clear, Construct, Clean and Replace

You may have all the home office design ideas in the world, but until you actually pull it all together you won't get much work done. Following these steps when you set up your office at home should help make the job go more smoothly:

• If at all practical, remove any existing furniture and plants from the room or space that you will set up as your home office. If you're converting a closet, remove all clothing and other items from the closet. This will help you start with a blank canvas that you'll fill in with your home office design ideas one step at a time.
• If you need some remodeling done to accommodate your home office set up, the next step will be demolition to remove existing partitions, shelving, etc. that are not part of your new home office design ideas.
• Install any electrical, phone or cable outlets, cabinetry, shelving, and/or wall partitions on your plan - ideally while the space is already empty.

• Thoroughly clean and paint, wallpaper, add floor coverings, hang light fixtures, etc. before bringing anything into the new space. Without furniture and equipment to get in your way, this step can be completed much more quickly and easily. However, while you don't want the furniture in the way at this stage of setting up your home office, you'll want to make sure you know exactly where your furniture and equipment will be placed in the room. For assistance, see the Home Office Furniture Plans step in this series.

• Start bringing furniture into your office space. It's best to start with the larger pieces first so you'll still have the maximum amount of floor space to move them around. As you set up your office and bring in furniture, dust and polish it as needed.
• Bring in your home office equipment and place it where it needs to go in the room. As you place each piece, check to see if it needs to be cleaned, oiled, or otherwise serviced, and that all cords are long enough to reach your outlets or power strips.
• Before connecting everything, make sure you're still happy with your home office design ideas, especially the layout of your work area and that no unexpected problems have cropped up – such as a monitor screen receiving too much glare from a nearby window, or your desk area not receiving adequate light. Sit in your desk chair and take in the view.
• Place your wall hangings, artwork, bulletin boards, white boards, chalkboards and other items.
• Bring in smaller items to complete the set up of your office at home, such as lamps, organizers and desktop items. If needed, clean or dust them as you place them in the room.