Enjoy this week’s guest post from Alexa Imwalle, owner of Smart Start Tutors, on deciding if it is time for a home office redo!
I’ve been working from home as an online reading tutor for quite a few years now, but recently, with adjusting to our “new normal” (and my husband suddenly working from home, too) I realized how badly I needed to organize and update my home office.
For us entrepreneurs and small business owners who work out of our homes, we can often overlook the difficulties of our situation in comparison to the benefits. That is, until there is a major shift. I had grown accustomed to my home office the way it was, but under the pressure of quarantine, the cracks and flaws started to become, oh-so obvious. It became very clear that I needed to organize my office.
Since we moved into our house almost 3 years ago, my office has been an overflow room for a lot of items that didn’t have a home. For me, if there is clutter within my eyesight I can’t think as clearly or be as productive as I’d like. A cluttered space, for me, also means a cluttered mind.
Often, when working from home, home life and work life can blend together and almost morph into one state. For me, it’s a top priority to keep home life and work life separate. That’s where a well organized and designed home office comes in!
Part of this project was getting rid of clutter, organizing materials, and upgrading furniture/finding pieces that would store materials out of eyesight. Since my husband and I are now both working from home I also wanted this room to be an escape with artwork and furniture that would make us feel good and help provide a clear head for us to both be productive while working from home.
The Major Changes
To start our home office redo, we painted the walls a soft blue/grey color that would allow for a more relaxed look and feel. The color we selected was Sea Salt by Sherwin Williams. It’s incredible how much a little paint can change the whole look and feel of a space. We selected a new desk and a storage tower. The new desk was smaller than my old desk but still offered a lot of work space. We took a look at what we had on the old desk and how we could store those items somewhere else out of eyesight to allow for a smaller desk size that didn’t overwhelm the room.
Next, we added a new mirror and artwork. The piece of art we selected allows us to feel like we were looking out of a window. This was especially important to us in these current times, since we’re not getting out as much as we’d like.
We also framed our college and grad school diplomas, which was something we’d wanted to do for awhile.
We took a look at the dimensions of the room with the dimensions of the furniture to make sure everything worked well. We decided to reorient the direction that I sat so that I was no longer looking at my storage closet and rather was looking toward the door with our diplomas and the mirror behind us which would look nice while ZOOMing with my students.
How to Keep to a Budget
A big goal for me and my husband was to do this project economically. Here are a few things we did to ensure we stuck to our budget.
- We hired a very affordable art consultant who we trusted. When we started the project we discussed our budget. The art consultant was able to research office furniture and art that were within our budget and offered us options in a variety of looks based upon the vision we had created.
- We selected pieces (both furniture and art) that would work in a variety of spaces if we ever wanted to use them in another room.
- Most of the pieces that we purchased were on sale or purchased from a place that was within budget while still offering great quality.
- We also tried to use items that we already had that would work in the space and moved them to other parts of the room. For example, two bookcases I already had went into the nook to provide storage in a previously cluttered space.
Lessons Learned
Doing any sort of home project (even when not cooped up together for months) can be stressful. Here are a few lessons my husband and I learned from doing this project together.
- We learned that it was possible to redo our office and stick to our budget! Sometimes hiring the right person to help you make the tough decisions can save you both time and money! Although it is an investment, it ultimately saves you money because you don’t end up buying the wrong pieces and it saves you time because you make the right decisions from the beginning. It’s also nice to have another set of eyes to look at your space and help bring a different perspective.
- We learned that you can use what you already have in new and creative ways. This saves money and allows you to keep things that you like but use them in a way that refreshes your space.
- We learned that mirrors, art work, and paint can do a lot for a space and are relatively inexpensive. Mirrors can be used to reflect the natural light in a space (even when there is not much of it, like in a home basement office). It can really brighten up a space! Art work can give you the illusion of looking at something really beautiful, especially in these times when we cannot go out as freely as before. Paint can also make a huge difference! Changing the paint in our office made the biggest difference and was one of the least expensive things that we bought! If your budget is really slim, you can do a lot by just changing the paint color and adding a mirror!
If you regularly work from home, or are working from home for the time, creating a space that supports your work style and productivity is important. Now might just be the right time to redo your home workspace! I hope these simple tips and my story will help you establish a space that makes you feel motivated to work while also feeling refreshed and relaxed.
Alexa Imwalle, M.Ed is a wife and mother of twin girls running a successful online tutoring business, Smart Start Tutors, out of her home in Maryland. Alexa holds a Master’s Degree in Literacy and works 1:1 with students to help them go from struggling to confident readers who have discovered a love for reading and have developed the necessary skills to be successful lifelong readers! She is also passionate about supporting parents to help them ditch the feelings of overwhelm and guilt and empower them to play an active role in their child’s reading development.
You can follow along with Alexa at her website, Smart Start Tutors, or on Facebook, Instagram, and grab her FREE reading resources on Pinterest.