Design your personlized home office online.
Your working environment can, depending on its color, design and the objects surrounding you, influence your creativity and the way you work. A space designed to conform to your work habits should inspire you, make you feel comfortable and increase your productivity. Whether you are designing an office from scratch or just adding some paint or furniture, there are a number of tools online that can assist you in designing your own home office that reflects your needs, desires and personality. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Look through design magazines like Architectural Digest, Elle Decor, Veranda, House Beautiful or Better Homes and Gardens to get inspiration for your room. You can also find inspiration online by sifting through HGTV's Designers' Portfolio or design blogs like Apartment Therapy or Design Sponge. If you like a particular furniture store's style and aesthetic, such as Pottery Barn, look through their website and catalog as well. The goal is to determine your overall design style. Is it modern, traditional, country or rustic? HGTV.com offers a list of design styles accompanied by photographs.
2. Measure the space you would like to use for your office. Measure the length and width of the room as well as the height.
3. Choose your paint color based on your design style and the mood you want to invoke from the room. For example, if you want a clean, modern office, bright white walls might work well. If you want a cozy room with a Tuscan feel, choose burnt orange walls. Glidden and Sherman Williams offer online color palettes and tools like "Room Painter" and "Color Visualizer" to help you envision what your room might look like. You can also buy paint samples from your local paint or hardware store, like Lowe's or Home Depot, to see how the color will look on your walls. Swingline.com also has a description of the moods that different colors evoke. Orange, for example, is energizing.
4. Decide how you want to arrange the furniture in your room. Better Homes & Gardens has an "Arrange-a-Room" tool that allow you to plug in the measurements of your room and move the furniture around the room. This will allow you to determine which of your available furniture pieces you want to use, and which types of furniture you may want to purchase.
5. Purchase furniture and artwork if you don't already have them. Consider shopping at local antique stores, consignment shops or garage sales if you need to save money. You can also create your own artwork by printing your photos in large scale at Kodak.com.
6. Put all of the elements together. Paint your room, arrange furniture and hang artwork.
Tags: your room, arrange furniture, Better Homes, Better Homes Gardens, design style
