Feminine fresh look for home office

I work from home. I spend many hours on video calls. Some weeks, my job takes me about 40-45 hours…and sometimes even longer. Even after working hours I stay in my office signing up for school stuff, making appointments, synchronizing calendars, planning camps, vacation, paying bills, submitting expenses to medical insurance, checking bank accounts you name it!!

The point is that I spend way more time in this room than in any other place (except time in my bed when I’m sleeping although I still think that comes ranking #2). This is why my physical space to work at home becomes so relevant.

Regardless of how much time you work, in what room, and what you do… There are clear benefits from setting up your working ambiance in a way that feels uplifting, inspiring and motivating.

My home office was furnished more than 10 years ago with pieces of cheap or leftover furniture, and since then kept filling with ‘stuff’’… ‘. It was dark…dark walls, dark furniture, dark dimmed light, and overloaded with work papers, books, binders, accessories, that I had accumulated over the years. Natural light was hard to get as I had placed 2 massive wardrobes to each side of my window making the sun light suffer and pushing weakly his way through.  My space became the one stop place for delivered boxes, pending gifts to give, family coats/jackets, house tools, and whatever was left on desks and shelves that we thought we might need soon for something. You get the idea!

It was my 2024 year resolution that this was going to change.

With the help of Veronica Requena, a talented architect who is a professional interior and landscape designer, I gathered the courage to “empty” the space (yes, literally everything went out to donations, trash, shredding, and/or recycled into another space that would serve as my husband’s home office). We brightened the space with additional lighting, a lighter wall color, and installed a clear glass door that allows extra sunlight and extended view of adjacent room.  We picked off-white, pink, gold, gold rose as the color theme for a feminine and romantic feeling. We chose furniture that complements the new colors and décor style. I even took on the adventure of putting up the wallpaper on my own, and most of all, I had a lot of fun shopping virtually and some in person for new desk, console, monitor, printer and accessories.

Here is a Before and After of the room…

This can be a smaller or larger investment depending on the type of furniture selected and on how much you can do yourself vs hiring someone.  Overall, it’s been now a few weeks since we completed this project. And I can see the unquantifiable benefits:

Better Mood: To me, the bright environments makes me feel happier and cheerful. I feel more attracted to spend time in this space and has a positive impact in my mental state. Even the brighter artificial light when it gets darker outside makes me feel more uplifted, more active, more awake.

Better Productivity: there are studies showing that natural light enhances productivity, but who needs to go get factual evidence when I can attest by myself? My level of energy is higher up when is bright light coming through the window…and I’m feeling sleepier and slower when is dark cloudy and rainy. It feels better to get things done and check items off my list!

Better conversations: Since I renovated, of course people who knew me at work noticed my different background and asked about it. It’s been giving me entertaining conversations that lead to bonding and connecting with others in a different way. By me sharing why and how I did this, they shared some of their recent projects or desired upcoming ones. Friends recently visited my new office at home and with them too, this gave us more things to share, plan, compare, and laugh about.

Want to do something similar? I included most of the items I purchased in my Pinterest pin (from App scroll down to “shop the look” to find all the links) but I can tell you my top favorites are my new off-white office chair it adjusts everywhere headrest, backrest, reclining back, swivels and has foot rest, my cute pink and milk tea color set of wireless keyboard and mouse, and having the monitor and printer all in white.

I’d like to hear your thoughts on this project or on your own.  

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