Whether you work from home or just pay bills, manage household matters and surf the web from your home office, it’s nice to have a pleasant, unique space that reflects your personality.
Instead of hiring an expensive professional decorator, undertake the project yourself and tailor the space to your tastes for your home office decor. Here is a list of DIY home office decor ideas.
1. Add a Splash of Color
When your office space is devoid of personality, the quickest way to jazz it up is to add color. That may mean painting, paneling or papering the walls or adding colorful accent pieces. Use sculptures, paintings and throw rugs in vibrant hues to brighten the space if you’re not ready for a full remodel.
2. Choose a Theme
Choosing a theme around which to decorate your office is a fun way to create a cohesive look. If you long to travel, hang a map of the world on the wall and include framed travel posters from your favorite destinations. Alternatively, decorate your office to look like an Italian villa, a French chateau or an English parlor.
3. Highlight Your Achievements
Your home office is the perfect place to display the evidence of your personal and professional successes. Hang those diplomas that have been gathering dust, display the trophies you won for running track and show off the plaques you were awarded for the hours you spent volunteering for charity. Let everyone who visits your office view evidence of your merits.
4. Create a Visual
Make your office interesting by giving yourself and your visitors interesting and attractive items to gaze upon. If your digs have a window with a killer view, frame the window with stunning curtains that complement it and keep them pulled back when you’re working in the office.
5. Start a Library
If you have a collection of books that you’d like to display or simply want to start a personal library, a home office is the perfect place to do so. Build your own shelves from wood and stain them a deep, rich color or paint them a shade that’s light and airy. Fill them with the volumes you love the most.
6. Display Your Favorite Things
A home office provides a place to display items that don’t have a home anywhere else in the house. That funky Tiki statue that you picked up on vacation in Hawaii, your collection of baseball memorabilia or your porcelain pig figurines can all find a place in your home office. Hang flat items on the walls or display three dimensional pieces on shelves that you buy or build.
7. Hang It Up
If you have trouble staying organized and your desk is covered in debris, consider installing bulletin boards on the walls as a place to hang your papers. Cover one wall in cork to create a rustic look that’s also practical at the same time.
8. Create a Classy Retreat
If you long for a classy retreat where you can go for adult time, fill your office with ornaments that are safe from sticky little fingers and ban the kids from entry. Reupholster furniture that you already own with luxurious fabrics like silk and damask and refinish wood pieces and varnish them until they shine.
9. Play with Lighting
Changing the lighting in your office to transform the atmosphere. Replace dated track lighting with a chandelier, trade electric lights for kerosene lamps or place large, chunky candles in strategic places around the room to help you create a cozy glow.
10. Keep It Simple
Sometimes what a home office needs to give it a whole new look is a good cleanup. Throw away items you no longer want or need and vacuum the floor, dust the furniture and wash the windows. Reorganize the remaining items into a new arrangement to give your office a new look.
No matter which improvements you make in your home office, the most important thing is that you create a space that functions the way you need it to. Whether that’s a solitary retreat where you go to get away or a place where you meet with clients to make important business deals, ensure that your DIY projects for the home office turn your place into a space you love.
