Five ways to create an inspiring home office

According to research, it is estimated that there are 4.2 million home-based workers in the UK. This is nearly a quarter of a million more than the previous 10 years and works out at around one in seven of the people currently in work.

Experts agree that when it comes to working from home, personalising your home office - with anything from inventive storage creations to feature walls - can help to unleash creativity and boost morale upon even the most gruelling days ‘at work’.

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So, to help aid UK home workers creativity, self-storage company, Space Station, has teamed up with a series of leading interior experts to offer advice on how to achieve the ultimate inspiring office space and they are running a competition to find the UK’s best home office, too.

Here are their top tips.

Choose a colour that represents your personality

People often underestimate the impact the colour of a room has on motivation. Colours can boost creativity or make us feel like we are trapped between four, clinical walls - depending on the colour. Interior expert, Alexandra Thompson said: “As the dominant colour in nature, green evokes organic, fresh, restful emotions and can foster concentration. Lime Green can add freshness and vitality to an office.

“Yellow grabs attention, that's why the most popular highlighters are yellow. It catches the eye like no other colour, making people happy and evoking optimism. However, a bright yellow might be distracting or overpowering in an office area and could even cause a degree of anxiety.

“Accents and shades of purple have been proven to stimulate the imagination. Purple or lavender tones cross the line between warm and cool tones and can help with focus and concentration. While blue can actually make a room feel cooler and can lull occupants to sleep. It's an ideal bedroom colour, but not the perfect office colour.”

Invest in an inviting desk

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When it comes to choosing furniture for your home office, it is important that you really focus on the type of desk that is likely to invite you to sit down and do work. Layla Chapman, owner of House of Sparkles, said: “Don't be boring and go for the typical pine desk. Create a desk where you feel proud to work from. Add a statement chair to this so you don't feel like you’re working in a mundane office space. You want to feel motivated to work each day so your desk and chair are super important.”

Create mood boards

Mood boards are a great way to showcase your business goals and objectives, as well as your creative ideas. You can also pin up photographs of the people in your life who motivate you. Kate Beavis, Vintage Style Expert, said: “Create a feature mood board wall full of design images to inspire you while you work. This could be a large magnetic board or a hand painted blackboard. Cut out images from magazines, print off photos…the list is endless.”

Bring plants into your office space

According to research, plants can help rid the air of toxic chemicals that lead to sickness and stress. Therefore, if you’re looking for an inexpensive wellbeing booster, investing in an office plant might not be a bad idea. Layla Chapman said: “Flower displays and plants are so important to bring texture and warmth to your working space. Invest in some artificial flower displays or plants as they require no maintenance yet look great.”

Invest in storage

Clutter can be highly distracting, especially in a working environment. Consider investing in storage boxes and items to help keep your desk clean or, if you have a large objects or a high volume of items to store, you could always look into self storage.

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With more people than ever before working from their home, Space Station are running a competition to discover the best UK home offices, giving participants the chance to win a £150 Not On The High Street voucher.

Vlatka Lake, Marketing Director at Space Station, said: “With more and more adults going freelance or starting businesses from home, we want to look at the best way to create a productive and appealing office space that is good to work from.

“We’re hoping our competition, where we are challenging people to submit images of their home office, will inspire people working from home to invest more time in creating a working environment that is inspiring to work from.”