More and more people are working from home these days, so it seems natural that you may be thinking more about a home office. Whether you’re working from home permanently or on a temporary basis, having a designated space can make a huge difference in your experience working from home.
Converting a shed into your home office makes a lot of sense, even though it may not be your first inclination. Here are some tips for turning your shed into an office where you’ll love to work.
Get Climate Control
If you’ll be using your shed as a home office in anything but the best possible weather, you’ll need climate control. Luckily, you can get a Wall AC Unit affordably. A refurbished Wall Air Conditioner will only run you a couple of hundred dollars. However, it offers powerful temperature control to keep your office shed at exactly the temperature you like. You can choose to get a unit with only air conditioning or a unit that also has a heat pump so that you’ll be able to work in your shed year-round.
Climate control will be more efficient if the shed is insulated. However, even if you don’t insulate your shed, the cost to run the unit will be negligible if you only turn it on when you sit down to work. These units can change the temperature of a space rapidly, so you can turn it on and be ready to work in minutes.
Increase Natural Light
Natural light is instrumental in creating a pleasant working environment. People tend to be happier, more relaxed, and more focused when they can work with plenty of natural light.
At the very least, add a couple of additional windows to the shed. If you’d really like to enjoy the space, consider adding a solarium. Building a solarium has the double advantage of increasing the space that you have to work with in your office and dramatically increasing natural light. You can also use the solarium portion of your office shed to house some attractive plants, which can enable you to enjoy your workspace more than ever before.
Eliminate Clutter
If you want to use a small space like a shed for your office, you’ll probably find that you have a lot of stuff to store and not a lot of room to store it. It can be easy to let your work equipment pile up all over the office.
Working in such a disorganized space can negatively affect your productivity. You can lose, damage, or forget about important work when your workspace isn’t kept organized. You probably won’t enjoy being in the space if it’s very cluttered, either. Therefore, it’s a good idea to actively avoid and eliminate clutter in your office shed.
One useful technique is to create a wall of storage that presents a clean face to the office. This way, you get plenty of storage but the effect is of an organized space.
Make it Easy to Spend Time There
If you’re constantly finding excuses to go from your office to the house, you may find that you aren’t as productive as you like. Try to eliminate as many trips to the house as possible.
Consider putting a mini fridge in your office shed so that you will always have drinks and snacks available when you need them. If you’re the kind of person who drinks a couple of cups of coffee while you’re working, you may want to think about having a coffee maker in the office, or at least investing in a big thermos to bring with you when you work.
Whatever you find yourself making trips to the house for, try to provide for in your office shed instead.
Plan for Video Conferencing
For most people who work from home, video office meetings are a regular part of life. A professional background establishes respect in the digital workplace. While you can always use a filter, it’s much better to have your own real professional background.
Keep the need for a professional background in mind as you’re setting up your office workspace. A plain wall works just fine, but a bookshelf or some decorations make a better impression. Avoid having a background that shows the door of the shed, an angle that lets the viewer see the roof, or anything else that will clue your co-workers into the fact that you’re in a shed.
You want your home office shed to be a fun anecdote you can tell surprised coworkers, not something that’s immediately obvious on Zoom. Otherwise, it may be a distraction or reflect poorly on you.
Make the Most of Working from Home With a Shed Office
When you’re looking for ways to increase your space to accommodate a home office, your shed probably isn’t your first thought. However, for many people, the shed is a very logical place to set up shop. By installing temperature control, adding some natural light, avoiding clutter, and planning for video meetings, you can create a work space in your shed that will make you love working from home.