Your Home, the New Office
Tips from Steve Tilton
Within the last 15 years, we've seen more and more requests for home offices. Whether we are building for retirees or those still working, people want a dedicated space where they can sit and do their jobs, catch up on emails, or just have a place to get things done. Just like the rest of the home, these office spaces reflect the personalities of our clients. Some clients want a warm, intimate office close to the main space, while others have requested detailed, dedicated, spread-out spaces off to a quiet area of the home. With almost all our designs now, we're seeing at least one home office included in the plan, if not two spaces. Occasionally, we'll see a dedicated shared office space, with both partners having desk spaces.
With pure vacation homes, we don’t usually see a huge number of requests for a dedicated space. People seem to just bounce around the house, maybe working from the couch or the kitchen table. What we see in primary homes, or even second homes, is that home offices are becoming a significant focal point of the home build, as customers are spending more of their time there. They want it to be comfortable, accessible, yet have privacy away from all of the noise.
In today’s world, complete connectivity is vital. As the whole family seems to be making Zoom calls now, having the capacity for strong bandwidth is key. If both partners are working from home, they both need dedicated spaces and connectivity. We make sure to include access to proper wi-fi bandwidth, avoiding the perils of other wi-fi sucking devices in the house. These aren’t really discussions that we were having with clients 5 years ago.
As everyone is spending more time in their home-offices, there are also a few other details that you can take into consideration:
The Location: Where in the home is the office located? Do you need total privacy? Maybe you’d like to highlight a specific view. Will this office need to be larger, or can it be small and cozy? What type of natural lighting is ideal? These are all important to think about prior to the home build plan.
The Materials: Here, we keep in mind aesthetics and practicality. While many like to use glass doors, they're not great at stopping sound. It’s best to use doors that can absorb sound from inside the room. You’re going to want this room to be quiet, not only for home noise coming in, but also to avoid disrupting other family members during meetings. Additional office storage is usually requested by clients, which should be mapped out in the cabinetry design phase. When building this room, the design and materials should reflect your personality, as you’ll probably be spending most days there.
Office Variations: If a full office space isn’t in the plans, there are hybrid space designs that home owners can create. We’ve recently seen great new home builds include things like a command post, usually near the garage entrance, serving as a place to keep a small desk set-up, drop off keys, or keep work items. We’ve even seen these morph into nook spaces, especially near the kitchen.
Over the past year specifically, even more companies and roles have gone fully remote. I think that's going to be a trend that sticks. Homeowners will continue to need a dedicated office space and Coastal Signature Homes will continue to develop innovative, trendy new ways to help clients merge work lives with their home spaces (when they want to do so at least).