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Thinking of setting up a home office?

By Graham Baylis

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Published: 07Feb2009
Word count: 562
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Well perhaps the first question to answer is "do you need one?" Many people think not, that they can work well enough on the dining room table and keep their files in the bedroom, whichm if that is the way you think and can work can be just fine.

Others on the other hand feel that they must have somewhere they can go and concentrate on the work they need to do, somewhere perhaps with a door they can close on the outside world (and family life) for a time, perhaps even somewhere close to home, but separate.

Some people choose to use the spare room, but of course not all households have that room spare to make into an office, so for them, the choice is either to make the guest room into an office too, or to go for a room in the garden, not a shed, but a self contained oasis especially designed as an office.

Both groups are not alone, in the UK home offices are by the way becoming more and more popular, with some 54% of homes now having one today.

But having made the decision to have a home office, what are the considerations that you should take into account.

Designing the home office

The main question that has to be answered first is, is this going to be just an office / study, is it going to be a dual purpose room, e.g. an office, a studio and perhaps even a retreat?

The reason this is important is that office spaces are often best fitted with different floorings (and even perhaps different wall decor), this especially being important if the traffic levels are likely to be high or a lot of computers are going to be used (carpets can create a lot of static and computers hate static!). Of course if the room is a dual use room you have to accommodate both uses and that means compromise, something that is quite possible and has been done in hundreds, if not thousands of times.

Things to bear in mind

Once you know what room you are going to use as an office and have some idea of what is going to be going on inside it (i.e. how many people, what sort of equipment will be used etc) and know how much space you have to play with, something, that with garden office / rooms, is largely governed by the size of the garden itself, you can start deciding what type of building you want and the furniture you will need to place inside.

Electrical and phone points

The number of electrical points needed in an office / studio (and where they need to be) is a prime consideration when designing an office. Phone points especially need some thought, the additional question being, do we get another phone line in for the business, or just use the house line? Either way, you need to make sure that your office space has access to the outside world and that the points are in the right place for the broadband router, the phones, not to mention the answer phone and the fax.

As you can see there are lots of issues to bear in mind, and I hope that this list will help you through the process of deciding on and the setting up of a home office.

Graham Baylis is as busy a business man as you can be and he knows that it's a well known fact that people need space to think, and what better space is there than a peaceful spot in your own back garden. This is just the thinking behind Garden Escape's unique range of Garden Buildings. Of course you can also use such space for business or pleasure, this list covering the FUN area. See www.thegardenescape.co.uk

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