How to properly set up your home office

A home office requires more than just a laptop, and it’s not uncom­mon for a sofa to replace the desk. To be able to work effi­ciently and pro­duct­ively from home, how­ever, oth­er require­ments must be met. These include, for example, the right light­ing con­di­tions and ergo­nom­ic seat­ing. Also the type of floor­ing is cru­cial. It must be able to with­stand the loads and stresses caused by chair castors, mobile ped­es­tals and heavy fur­niture. If you choose untreated wood for your home office, you will achieve a healthy indoor cli­mate. All build­ing and install­a­tion mater­i­als such as par­quet adhes­ives, lev­el­ling com­pounds or win­dow seal­ing foams should be chosen to ensure a healthy liv­ing envir­on­ment. They can be eas­ily recog­nized by the EMICODE^® seal on the pack­aging.

With an intel­li­gent room design, the right fur­niture and beau­ti­ful yet robust floor­ing, home office work­ers can cre­ate an envir­on­ment that pro­motes their pro­ductiv­ity and cre­ativ­ity. Ideally, the home office finds its place in a ded­ic­ated room where you are least dis­trac­ted. If you don’t have a spare room, you can surely find an unused corner or nook where you can set up a neat work­place.

Nat­ur­al light provides pos­it­ive energy. That’s why home work­ers should place their desk as close to a win­dow as pos­sible. A good desk lamp provides optim­um illu­min­a­tion of the screen envir­on­ment. It can be styl­ish but should also be glare-free, adjustable and dim­mable. From a col­or psy­cho­logy per­spect­ive, light or muted shades of blue and green have proven to be favor­able wall col­ors in home offices. But also a com­bin­a­tion of neut­ral and strong col­ors is pos­sible. Real wood or sol­id wood fur­niture not only brings a piece of nature into your office. It also improves the indoor cli­mate by absorb­ing excess mois­ture and thus pre­vent­ing the form­a­tion of mold. For the sake of your health, make sure the win­dows are prop­erly sealed to keep out drafts and mois­ture.

The floor cov­er­ing plays a key role: It should be as hard-wear­ing as pos­sible, easy to clean and look good at the same time. Sealed or oiled par­quet is there­fore a good choice for your home office. Take care, how­ever, to choose the right type of wood: prefer­ably, it should be hard and res­ist­ant such as oak or beech. If you want to be on the safe side, best equip office chairs and mobile ped­es­tals with spe­cial rub­ber castors so that they can­’t cause dam­age to the floor­ing. A floor mat under your swiv­el chair provides extra pro­tec­tion for the par­quet.