Creating My (Tiny!) Home Office

 
It’s been nearly a year since I started working from home. During this time, I’ve wanted to have a home office of my very own, but didn’t have the time to design anything or find the space for it.

So my office has been the corner of the loveseat with an end table to place my laptop and a folding table in front of it to hold my notebooks/glasses/pens/etc. It wasn’t my intention to keep such an unofficial (and cramped) work space for such a long time, but hey, at least it’s a comfy place to sit.

Earlier this year, my aunt bought a new house – a larger house – and I saw an opportunity to create some space here for myself. I had been visualizing the area between our living room and the dining room as the perfect spot for a mini-office.

The only issue was the piano taking up all of that space. The upright piano is mine, a gift from my grandmother after I taught myself to read music and play piano when I was a kid. I love the piano, but it hasn’t had a lot of use lately. I rarely get a chance to play it, and both Cordy and Mira have shown zero interest in wanting to learn to play. 

So I asked my aunt if she would take the piano for us, at least until we (someday) have a bigger house where it might fit. Since there was plenty of room in her new house, she gladly accepted it (she can play as well), and offered me her desk in trade.

I had planned to find my own desk for the office, but when given the option of a free desk and chair, it’s hard to turn it down. Free trumps even IKEA prices.

My new office space now has a basic structure to it, which leads to the real dilemma: how do I transform this area into a super-usable office? I’m starting (nearly) from scratch with it. This is the current set-up:

The kids’ bookcase on the left will be moving a little further to the left to give me some space. To the right is a small filing cabinet with the printer on top of it. The desk fit perfectly where the piano used to be. Realize this will be a very small office crammed between two other spaces – for reference, I’m taking these photos perched on the staircase.

Kinda bland, eh? I still need to scrub down the wall to remove the years of dust from behind the piano, but as you can see, it’s a blank canvas, waiting to become a beautiful office.

I’m begging for ideas here. What does this space need? I’m already considering some shelving on the wall and possibly a calendar. I might add a roll-out filing cabinet under the desk, too. There’s very little natural light in this area of the house, so maybe a lamp? Or bright artwork to make it more cheery? (My Happy Light will likely be joining the desk space as well.)

Because this area is the connector between the living room and dining room, I’ll also have to find a way to make it look like it’s own defined space without walls, doors or room dividers. I’ve got just under 8 feet of width along the wall with four feet out from the wall to work with – anything further out will cut off the walkway between rooms. 

I know several of you are gifted with the creative gene, so I’m hoping you’ll help me brainstorm ideas for transforming this into a bright, cheery office that I will look forward to working from each day. Once it’s all in place, I’ll do a big before-and-after reveal.

I can’t decide if being excited about having a real home office space is normal or just proves I’m old?