Looking for the smartest home office design ideas, from modern to unique, small to luxury, and everything between? We’re a professional Designer + Builder walking you through HOW to design a personal home office space(s) + sharing design advice to get a result you love!
When starting to remodel a home, the average person will start with the kitchen or maybe even a horrendous bathroom…
…yet here I am, thinking about our office.😆 (And sharing how to start so YOU can glean wisdom for your own future home office or workspace!)
Why?
Since Matt and I both work from home 90% of the time, our home office space is part of our living space!
So this is a MUY IMPORTANTE part of our lives and our home. This isn’t just a “random desk nook” from the decades of yore, to be used less than an hour a day…
This is going to be a spot that sees Matt’s and my faces (and some of your faces as clients on our screen during video calls 😉 ) for at least 8 hours per day, 5-6 days per week!
(My 4th grade math skills tell me this time I’ve just mentioned is 40-60 hours per week x2, so let’s just let that fact sink in: this room is going to be used 80-120 hours of EVERY WEEK! That’s even more use than our kitchen! I do talk more about this in one of my kitchen posts about THIS feature by our last sink and how you can easily figure out the importance of a home project or change for the literal improvement of your life and saving of time!)
We’ll also answer popular questions such as
- “What is the best set up for a home office?“
- “How do you layout a home office for yourself and your clients?”
- “Which way should a desk face in a home office?”
- “What are the small home office trends for 2025 (and beyond?)!”
- “How to decorate a boring work office?”
- “How to create a creative home office?”
- “What’s the simplest way to figure out my home office design ideas that I like…and that work for my space?”
Here we go, yo! 👇
HOME OFFICE DESIGN IDEAS
Step #1: What Style/Feel Are We Going For?
I go into much more detail about how exactly to do this in our Room Design & Layout Guide HERE, but you’re going to want to essentially start with some general office style and interior design inspiration to help point you in the right direction.
It doesn’t mean you’re going to do (or get) that exact look from an inspiration photo, because you’ll have to adjust for your layout, your lighting, your ceiling height, your interior colors, and at least a dozen other factors to make sure you have a successful design, but this is a great starting-off point!
For us, the quick backstory of our current beach house (the one we’re currently looking at designing new home office space for) is on THIS post!
Because we’re
- in Southern California,
- within salt-breathing distance from the beach + can hear the waves,
- and want to create our own Spanish-style feel to go with the history and architecture of the area BUT also honor our simple, almost (but not quite) minimalist-leaning tendencies…
…we’re going to be creating our design 100% from scratch!
Adding texture with some stone walls? One of many ideas we’re pulling together!
I’ll show you some of the top photos to show you what I’m thinking for this modern home office design we’ll be doing…
SHARED HOME OFFICE DESIGN IDEAS
Step #2: Keep Realistic Function in Mind!
Even though we’re looking at style and feel right now, you can’t help but keep your actual functions in mind at this stage (I find it helps us make even smarter decisions later on).
For example, while I have ideas for separate offices (which involves moving walls in creative ways, will show you layout soon), Matt and I might be sharing an office space, so…there’s that!
I like the ability to have our own spaces plus a shared desk when needing to discuss ideas and drawings together.
In the below “shared” home office layout, I do NOT like that we could bump into each other…and thankfully our kitchen is just down the hall so we will not be putting a Smeg in our home office.😅 Adding a few extra steps away from your desk every day is healthy!
At the same time, vaulting the ceilings and having my own space in my own style (a mix of modern minimalist plus old-California-Spanish-flavor-blended-with-beach-life with some darker colors) is appealing…
Another option I’ve been chewing on since Day 1 of buying this beach house is plank walls like the below three photos…
(I wrote about plank wall design ideas HERE 3 years ago when we originally sold our big house and moved to a beach rental in another town at the time…so it’s always an easy “beach house” answer on my mind but I’m not sure if I want to go in this direction for this house at this time, in this location)!
Below I’ll show you both a vertical and horizontal application…
The below skews slightly cottagey from what I’m going for, but it at least shows how it can be done decently…just need to work in more modern elements…like instead of these traditional French doors (we did these for our home office in our last house).
Speaking of modern home office door ideas, let’s just take a quick look at what I’ve liked below!
HOME OFFICE IDEAS MODERN
Step #3: Don’t Forget About Your Doors!
Doors can set the tone for your room(s) and that’s no less true for your home office space!
I’m liking doors like these right now, which will make more sense once I get into my layout ideas for this office (or separate offices!)…
Speaking of glass doors, I have a great photo of another set in this next section below mentioning artwork…
MODERN HOME OFFICE DESIGN IDEAS
Design Tip: Don’t Forget About Artwork!
While collecting your favorite office design ideas, you’ll want to pay attention to the type of artwork you like. SO many people forget about incorporating artwork into their home office designs and it’s a huge mistake. It makes SUCH a difference! (And I have 50 Jess-approved wall art ideas HERE for you to start with…one of the gals that works for me asked me to help her narrow it down while I was also doing work for a client project, and that post was born!)
NOTE the drawers above!
- You need to read: Are Drawers Better Than Cabinets?
- If you’re looking for office lighting, see Choosing a Pendant or Chandelier: 3 Ways to Stop Choosing What (Almost) Everyone Else Has!
- …as well as see the DESIGN VARIETY of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves we’ve designed for clients. Choose your favorite to steal!
Our Complete 3-in-1 Drawer Guide shows you how to build them exactly how we do in the smartest, strongest way (or convert your existing cabinets to drawers)!
LUXURY MODERN HOME OFFICE IDEAS
Step #4: Let Yourself Blend Styles & Ideas!
You don’t want to get too pigeonholed while you’re just in this initial design phase.
(If you need personalized help making design decisions, while we’re booked with major client projects through next year, I do offer 1:1 phone consults to help you move forward immediately with confidence and stop spinning your wheels considering ALL the options you like! This happens to so many people even when you have great taste — you just need some outside guidance from someone with your best interests at heart!)
For example, in my own office brainstorming, you might notice the below aren’t all in the same “family”…but I can 100% see how to blend the best elements I like to make it so.
Let’s start with a simple “dark vs light” home office comparison:
And below is a much more “light & bright” home office design idea…
By the way, if you need help deciding whether you should go darker vs lighter, you’ll want to read my post on “7 Smart Strategies for Choosing Interior Colors!” It’s simple and easy to follow!
HOME OFFICE IDEAS
Another Example of Styles We’ll Be Blending Together…
This is VERY California-Spanish-style interior style, but we won’t be going “whole hog” this way:
(PS: Lately I’ve found that saying “whole hog” is SO much fun. Always seems to perk people up, and guarantees a laugh for myself, which is really the #1 reason I do it!🤣)
There’s nothing wrong with designers who go “Whole Hog Spanish-Style” (hey, if you’ve ever been to Spain you’ll agree that referencing hogs is perfectly appropriate for daily life…I walked by various forms of pig meat in the market in Sevilla nearly every day…).
Wait…pig meat…what are we talking about…where was I? Oh yes, Jess: office designs! 🤣 It’s a clear trail.
The problem with the above is that it feels too one-sided. There isn’t enough depth or interest, in my opinion. It looks like a decently basic designer-type room.
But if you know me and have been around this blog for any length of time, you’ll know that “decently basic” is not something we do around here. We want to
uplevel + personalize
not only the design but how it works for you (the visible PLUS the invisible)!
So for example, I’ll be blending Spanish style with minimalist coastal and even some (dare I blend these? I dare) modern Nordic…just a whiff, mind you…
HOME OFFICE DESIGN IDEAS
Tip: Natural Light Is ALWAYS Your Friend!
Because this beach house is small, I’d love to “open up” a wall of the office and do as much glass to the backyard/outside spaces as possible. And when wall space is tight, you can just do a floating desk straight across it (trust me…I’ve done this in client spaces too many times to count and love it! Although there is a HUGE thing I stay away from, and I’ll have to share that when I write a post about desks + windows and doors).
HOME OFFICE DESIGN IDEAS
“What Type of Storage To Do?”
I’ve written extensively on 5 Reasons Why Drawers Are Better Than Cabinets, but we’ll also be utilizing some cabinets (surprise! watch for how!)…
The below remind me of the same drawers we did in our last “Art Room” to hold alllll our supplies!
I don’t normally love upper cabinets but these did catch my eye as a mix of modern + beachy-licious!
And of course there’s always the option of open shelving, but minimally styled so it’s not overwhelming! (Or cost you more time cleaning and breathing in the dust that inevitably comes…)
MODERN HOME OFFICE DESIGN IDEAS
Other Ideas I’ve Toyed With:
I won’t say much about this one other than WATCH FOR MY NEXT LAYOUT POST! 🙂 If we split the offices so they’re not shared…
HOME OFFICE IDEAS MODERN
“How Do You Want It To Feel?”
Above all, I’m leaning towards a “calm” atmosphere for my work environment…how about you?
And for most of us, it’s scientifically proven that LESS CLUTTER = CALMER MIND! 😉
So, as in the above photo, I might be going with ZERO open shelves of ANY kind.
For me, that feels like an open canvas…full of possibilities…windows looking outside or clean walls with simple artwork or a plant leave my brain free to think of NEW ideas instead of being stuck with older ones.
That’s just my designer brain. Matt is different. You may be different too. That’s one reason I created these different ideas for what to do with a blank wall!
SHARED HOME OFFICE DESIGN IDEAS
“What About Office Chairs?”
Boy, office chairs are going to be a whoooooole other post, because…
You can go SO many different ways with home office chairs based on your
- Layout
- Meeting requirements
- Space
- Health/physical needs
- Style preference
- Definition of “comfort”
- To Castor or Not to Castor! 😉
- and more!
Lighting for our home office will be another post because I HAVE THINGS TO SHOW YOU on that subject! 😉
LUXURY MODERN HOME OFFICE IDEAS
What Will I NOT Be Doing?
I will NOT be doing this style which is starting to feel overdone and tired to me…I’m covering my eyes as I show you this as an example. Why does everyone’s house start to look the same?!
It’s nice but…yawn…
HOME OFFICE IDEAS
“What About Desks?”
Speaking of what I will NOT be doing :), it won’t be standard desks like these…they’re nice but not what this house will be like. (After you scroll past, I’ll show you what I’m liking!)
Depending on the final layout I choose, I might be designing something curved like this…
…and if it can’t be curved for the desktop, I’ll introduce curves somewhere else. Perhaps in the bases?
HOME OFFICE DESIGN IDEAS
So What’s the Verdict?
What will we end up doing? Planks? No planks? Stone walls? Standard walls? Modern minimalist or warm Spanish or a blend you’ve never seen before?
Next…
While I’m writing up a post for you about creating your home office layout in detail (with floor plan examples!), you’ll want to check out 15 Deceptive Home Ideas That Don’t (Truly) Work!
If you’ve already read that, you’ll want to make sure you didn’t miss
- The Only 7 Office Guest Room Ideas You (Actually) Need to Know About!
- 12+ Modern & Timeless Floor-To-Ceiling Bookshelves (from Built-in To DIY)!
- Wall Decor Ideas: The (Only) 10 Types You Actually Need to Know!
- 7 Smart Strategies for Choosing Interior Colors!
- The #1 Simple Home Must-do EVERYONE Needs!
PS: To see all our projects by room and subject, click HERE!
