Your home office is where all the magic happens. You’ll need all the home office ideas and home office design tips you can get!
You’ll be spending a lot of time in your home office, so we’ve compiled a list of 15 unique tips that you must use to brighten up your office decor and keep you motivated.
Remember that it all starts with a good home office setup. How you set up your home office will likely drive the decor. Interior design basics are also useful to make sure your decor blends and is aesthetically pleasing.
Are you ready for some great home office decor ideas? Let’s get decorating!
1. Create and Designate A Specific Shelf for Office Decor
If you have space above your home office desk, consider putting a shelf which will allow you to add office decor of your choosing. Shelves are not difficult to build or place, and if needed, you can always hire a handy man to do the work.
Adding shelves to your office walls or an accent wall is critical as it allows you to maximize vertical space. If you don’t have room horizontally, your walls will help you use space vertically. Floating shelves are very popular and easy to install.
A floating shelf is a shelf appended to a wall with no visible support. The brackets are behind the shelf. They come in all sizes and colors:
You can place them in different ways, and they look great when decorated. Here are some examples:
You can also install shelves that have a visible support mechanism. These look great too:
Another possibility is to buy a hanging rack and hang it from the ceiling above your desk. You can then add your office decor to complement your home office space. Here’s an example of a shelf above a desk. The desk is simple and minimalistic, but the shelf above provides an opportunity to add color and texture, two great office decor ideas:
When adding the decor items, add office wall decor with color or items that are softer and more aesthetic that provide a personal touch. There are no rules here, just get creative with your office space!
Another example:
A cup that you’ve spray painted, a decorative vase, or crochet ball will all add a refreshing appeal to your office space. Almost any office decor ideas will work here.
Now, if you don’t have a shelf near your desk, don’t think you’ll get off that easily. There are plenty of tutorials on YouTube on how to quickly build a floating shelf and it only takes 30 minutes.
- Center art around the shelf – bring it into the office space
- Add a box for items you don’t want to lose and place the box near your work space
2. Hang Some Of Your Favorite Photos, Sticky Notes or To Do Lists to Add to Your Office Decor
Now that you have a floating shelf as part of your work office decor used specifically for decorating, hang some of your favorite photos across it in a washing line style.
Sure, anyone can pin some pictures to their office wall but everyone does that and it’s boring.
Take a long and thin piece of rope or string and hang it across your shelf. Attach your favorite pictures to this sting by using pegs.
This is sure to look awesome and motivate you to get to work. This is similar to a gallery wall and can reduce stress.
For this, you can purchase a baking rack at the dollar store, paint it along with some clothes pin, and prop it on your desk against a wall. You will then have space to hang photos, sticky notes, reminders or other items that inspire you. As office design ideas go, this is a great one!
Here’s an awesome do it yourself (DIY) video on creating beautiful office decor items from the dollar store:
3. Bring A Random Something Into Your Office And Decorate It
We all know the usual office items like pens, paper, a computer, and books. Everyone uses these to decorate their desk, but if you want your home office space to be truly unique, bring in something random and decorate it.
For example, find two decent sized rocks, spray paint them, and use them as bookends. You could also get a cup, paint something on it, and use it to hold your pens.
If you’re crafty, and as another work office decor idea, you can actually create your own mouse pad to replace the old, dingy mouse pad on your desk. This is one of many great home office ideas!
4. Bring In Fresh Flowers Every Week and Dry Them for Reuse
Fresh flowers aren’t immortal, but they add a touch of bloom to your office decor. It also smells amazing. Choose a day that you’ll go outside and pick flowers, preferably roses, and put them in water. Add this to your office and after a week, throw them out, and add new ones.
I like picking roses on Sunday afternoon so it smells nice for Monday morning.
If you really want to expand this home office idea, consider drying the flowers and preserving them to reuse. The easiest way to accomplish this is to air dry the flowers. Assemble a bundle of the flowers and hang them upside down and allow them to air dry. The process takes about 2 weeks.
If you want to extend the life of your flowers before you dry them, try spraying them lightly with hairspray. Be sure to keep the nozzle or can far enough away to avoid damaging any delicate petals. Remember that you spray the flowers while they’re fresh and before you dry them.
You can also press and dry the flower petals (works great with roses) and use them for something crafty later. You can frame the petals, for example, with a decorative frame and create a unique photo. You can place the framed photo on a shelf or on your office desk.
Home office ideas like these will make your work office decor unique and personal!
5. Create A Unique Desk Calendar
It only takes a few minutes to make an awesome desk calendar, and the style points you get from it will last until your calendar is finished.
This isn’t only stylish, but it keeps you up to date with all your appointments and important meetings.
6. Paint Something Awesome And Add It Your Office Decor
Painting isn’t only a stylish way to decorate your office desk, but it’s lots of fun. Who knows, this might be your new hobby.
Your painting doesn’t have to look great since not everyone is blessed with drawing skills, but it must be painted by you. This gives it character and whenever you look at it, you’ll be reminded of when you painted that work of art.
All you need is a small canvas, paintbrushes, and paint. Choose a color scheme that complements your work space.
If you want your painting to have even more character and meaning, get someone important to you like your mom, dad, brother, or sister, to paint half the painting.
Get some office home office ideas for painting here:
Get additional ideas here:
7. Use A Desk Chair That’s Unique And Eye-Catching
If there’s a color that means a lot to you because it brings you happiness, or it’s the color of your favorite sports team, find a desk chair with this color and use it in your office.
Your office space will be instantly transformed into a place of happiness.
Maybe you like light blue because it reminds you of the ocean which calms you down and makes you forget about all your problems. Or maybe you like red because that’s your favorite sports team’s color.
If you’re really into it and want to transform your office chair, check this out:
8. Hang Up Mason Jars On Your Wall
Everyone knows that anything in a mason jar looks cool. Why not take advantage of this and hang it against your office wall and use it to store boring accessories like pens, pencils, paperclips, and staples.
If you put a mason jar on your desk, it looks boring. But put them on a piece of wood and hand them against the wall with a string, and that’s a completely different story.
Check this out for a rustic look that’s absolutely beautiful! These are great home office ideas!
9. Take Advantage Of Patterns To Make Your Office Decor Look Awesome
I’ve seen many office spaces that looked dull, but when they swapped out certain accessories for others that matched, it looked beautiful.
For example, your chair, pillow, and mousepad can all match and this will give your office decor some uniformity. Use patterns to spruce it up.
You can also add patterns with area rugs or curtains. These are great accent pieces and add new life into your office:
10. Get Creative With Pencil Holders
When you’re working from home, there’s one thing you can never have enough of, and that’s pens or pencils. They always seem to disappear and when you do manage to hold onto one for a few days, the ink magically goes away.
But who wants a boring ol’ pencil holder when you can just add some creativity, and turn it into a visual masterpiece.
If you do work where you need lots of pens or other writing supplies, or you simply love having pens near you while working, you’ll love decorating or even making your own pencil holder from scratch. And like with all the other tips on this list, making a pencil holder is easier than watching Netflix after a long day or work.
Simply get your hands on 5 identical pieces of wood. You can easily find these at your local hardware store. Get some glue and glue the 5 pieces together until they look like an open cube. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just needs to hold your pens and pencils. Any imperfections can also make your pencil holder more unique.
Lastly, whip out a paintbrush and some paint and start painting any design.
11. Use A Tray To Increase Your Office Decor Points And Stay Organized
A desk tray is an awesome hack that keeps your desktop looking pretty and organized. It also helps if you struggle with putting your accessories all over the place which causes your desk to look cluttered and chaotic.
Instead of putting your accessories everywhere, put them in a desk tray, and watch how your desk transforms from a chaotic mess to a hyper-organized working space. Paint the desk tray to add color and make the storage space pop!
12. Use Wallpaper To Make Your Office Decor Look Unique
You don’t have to use actual wallpaper, but simply gluing wrapping paper to your walls or upholstery can achieve the same look with far less effort.
The end result is an area filled with personality and uniqueness.
When choosing a wallpaper, go for something you can relate to. Maybe it’s a bunch of stars in a dark blue background that resembles space and how all our problems are insignificant when compared with the entire universe.
13. Go Crazy With Different Colors
You’re bound to feel tired throughout the day and to keep your energy and enthusiasm levels sky-high, add an accessory or two with a pop of color. Maybe a shocking pink pen and a bright red pencil holder.
Anything that’ll keep your energy levels sky-high.
Bonus office decor points if you can match a few bright colors. Maybe your pencil holder and office chair match while your mouse pad and bookshelf match.
Painting is another option for adding color. Don’t worry, it’s not that gruesome!
14. Add A Lamp To Your Office Decor
A desk lamp is an absolute necessity for anyone working from home. I see this all the time, people think just because they have an overhead light in their room that they don’t need a desk lamp.
But proper lighting is necessary not only for productivity, but to keep your eyes healthy by not straining them.
Look for high-quality desk lamps that have a CRI (Color Rendering Index) between 85 and 100 because CRI measures how true real-life colors look under a desk lamp’s light source and you want a light that won’t distort your view.
Also, I recently painted my desk lamp and while it isn’t perfect, I now love it more than ever. So if you already have one, I highly recommend giving it a personal touch.
15. Sit On A Funky Pillow
Your bed or couch isn’t the only place where you can toss in a pillow or two. When you’re sitting for 6 to 10 hours, your back will start killing you and nobody likes back pain.
This is where a simple pillow can save your day. A little extra back support won’t hurt anyone and you can even start getting creative. Use a pillow from your favorite sports team, series, or movie, and you’re good to go. You can do this in your family room or living room too!
Conclusion
Nobody likes boring office decor. But by using these 15 home office decorating ideas, you can turn a chaotic, boring little office into a personalized, exciting work space. Use these ideas however you’d like, but the most important thing is to take action and do something! That will motivate you to do more.
From a photo or two on your walls or a picture of your kids placed strategically, you’re bound to find inspiration in the tips above.