Home Office Success Series Ep3 Carole Lee with Dolores Pian & Najeeb Khan

GUEST:

Carol Lee, Freelance Software Developer & Consultant Austin Texas USA

EPISODE TITLE:

CRAFTY SOFTWARE DEVELOPER NEEDS TO WORK FROM HOME

Dolores and Najeeb, the HOSS Success Team to the rescue.

What You’ll Learn From This Episode:

Multi-functional room can do it all - work from home and produce crafts.
Arrange your space to suit your workflow with cubbies and casters.
Cubbies are the answer to looking elegant and organized.
Clean desk. Clear mind. How to complete your workday when your home and office are the same spaces.
How to pick a paint colour to suit your work from home office style.

Carol’s Story:

Carol is a freelance software developer and consultant who hails from Austin, Texas. She purchased her current home after graduating from college over 20 years ago and painted her home office, navy blue.

During her workday, she doesn't use video for work. She only uses Zoom when spending personal time with friends. So looking good on Zoom is not a priority for her.

What bothers Carol about her space?

Carol has too many items crammed into one room. Her work from home office is a multipurpose space that is not conducive to concentrating on work.

Budget?

Carol hasn’t thought about a budget or shopping for new furniture. She’s open to buying what’s required.

How would this improve Carol’s life?

Carol is a pretty happy person. She feels that a redesigned home office and more organized space will increase her productivity and outlook.

She is ready for a transformation and knows she'd smile going into her refreshed space and be proud to show it off to her friends and colleagues.

How can Dolores and Najeeb help Carol?

Carol is confident that Dolores and Najeeb can arrange her furniture so that she can work more efficiently with less distractions.

This consultation comes at a perfect time since her current contract ends in June. She'll use the upcoming downtime to implement a home office design.

What did Dolores and Najeeb do?

Before meeting up with Carol, Dolores and Najeeb reviewed her floor plans and photographs while carefully studying her needs and space requirements.

Later they connected with her through Zoom, with all three of them involved in the design process. Dolores and Najeeb discussed and planned, in real-time, three different layouts to fulfill her ideal home office and craft room requirements.

Room / Space Description

Painted dark navy blue
Large room 11’-6” x 12’-6”
Dedicated to home office and crafts
Large window at east end with lots of natural light

HOME OFFICE INTERIOR DESIGN PROCESS:

While working, Carol spends one hour to two hours doing her work and then she'll do something else and then get back to work. Carol wants to change that routine to be more productive and focused on her work.

This room is quite spacious and is larger than most executive corporate offices. Happily, there are many options for planning furniture layouts.

Also, many of the items discussed apply to all layouts, so you’ll see a summary of “Advice For All Layouts And Best Practices” of all the great tips, tricks and advice below.

Layout #1

Dolores and Najeeb recommend that Carole place her desk in front of the large window. She can then place two tables on either side of her. The room can be a series of tables around the perimeter, with shelving or cubbies above. Tables can be a series of workspaces so that she can spread out her journals and papers everywhere. The scanner, printer and other tech items will be within arm’s reach. All she has to do to roll around in a chair, like an astronaut, to access what she needs whenever she wants. Or, she could have a separate chair for each zone.

Carol can also remove the closet doors and place a table inside with more shelving above. Further opening up the room.

Also, a good practice is to look away from the monitor from time to time to exercise your eyes to reduce eye strain.

Najeeb recommends having the laptop on a dock and one large screen. Within the camera viewing angle, people would see her background. She needs to be mindful about hiding what she doesn’t want to be seen.

The window in front of her will light her face from behind the screen. A secondary light source placed on one side will give her a bit of drama and definition without over lighting her face. There are different ways to introduce lighting in your space to fulfil many needs such as a floor lamp where the light shines up bounces off the ceiling. A table lamp can light up your immediate work surface or can double as a secondary for the side of your face.

Dolores is a big fan of cubbies which are small square storage compartments that can be used to store a variety of things. Whatever you put into a cubby, seems to organize items quickly and elegantly. Humans like to organize things that relate to each other and which makes sense to them, as opposed to organizing in alphabetical order. Dolores uses cubies in her own office. And, can see them when you meet with her on Zoom.

In Carol’s home office, the wrap-around desk arrangement with cubbies, allows her to do whatever she wants whenever she wants. She can group things together to create a bookscape or any arrangement she chooses.

Bulletin boards between the desk and cubbies allow you to tack and display whatever you want.

And, there’s lots of room under the tables. Rolling cabinets can fit nicely under the table.

Carol can paint or stain all the furniture to have a monochromatic uniform look.

Layout #2

Dolores and Najeeb suggest tucking a desk in the closet. She can close the doors at the end of the workday and then the rest of the room can become a craft or lounge space.

Carol has a reading lounge chair that her Dad gave her. She’d like to place it by the window where she can snuggle up and read a book.

In this modified wrap-around arrangement, she can put a series of tables on either side of the wind for crafts. Crafts require a lot of layout space, storage and many file drawers for supplies. The more layout space, the better. Also, remember to use vertical space with cubbies.

Najeeb enquired about the location of the electrical outlets. The room has three outlets, one on each wall with the fourth hidden behind a bookcase. Power bars are recommended to facilitate all tech functions. But, not all power bars are created equal. There are designer power bars with surge protectors and an on/off switch that can be accessed on the top and the sides.

Wiring is always a challenge. Twist ties keep spaghetti wiring in bundles. There are many solutions out there to manage spaghetti wiring such as clips and wire troughs.

Although Carol doesn’t make many Zoom work calls, it is becoming more popular because people want to see who they are speaking with. She needs to raise her laptop to eye level so that she doesn't develop a laptop hunch. If the camera is not at eye level, then she’ll be presenting herself in an unflattering viewing angle.

Layout #3

Here the desk is placed perpendicular to the wall in the middle of the long wall where Carol can still look out the window. She can place another table in front of her and have someone working opposite of her, They can be close by and have their own dedicated workspace, traditionally called a partner's desk arrangement. Carol can then invite several of her friends or colleagues for a co-working day.

In this arrangement, she can still create different multifunctional craft and work zones in the same room. She can have many chairs that can roll under the desk to keep them out of the way.

WHAT DID WE LEARN FROM Crafty Software Developer Needs To Work From Home Episode?

Here’s Some Great Advice For All Layouts And Best Practices

The Clean Desk. Clean Mind. Daily Clean Desk Ritual To Releave Stress

“The clearer the boundaries, the better the relationship.” Brené Brown (https://brenebrown.com)This also applies to setting the boundaries around your workspace at home. That’s why Dolores practises ‘a clean desk policy’ daily.

What is a clean desk policy? Simply: start the day with a clear desk and complete the day by clearing up your space from any work-related materials. This means, for example, disposing of Post-It notes, keeping written notes off to one side or placed in a drawer, and ensuring that any removable stuff isn’t just lying around.

This starts and ends your day mentally and spiritually. Practised daily it becomes a Zen ritual that helps relieve stress. Carol is very enthusiastic about this concept. She’s heard about it but never implemented it in her workday environment.

Paint Colours and Paint Placement

Carol is tired of the dark navy blue walls she painted 20 years ago, which are not conducive to work or reading. She wants to know how to choose a paint colour that is more conducive to work.

Najeeb and Dolores suggested light warm greys or parchment colours. A soft and coordinating accent colour can be placed at the window wall since that is the first thing you see when walking into the room.

The furniture can be painted white or a colour that compliments the existing wood colour.

Carol wants to repaint everything. Although a daunting task, it is doable.

Dolores also recommends getting rid of the existing curtain. If she needs privacy, cover the window with a Venetian or a mesh rolling blind for a fresher, cleaner look.

Doors, frames and baseboards can be painted the same colours as the wall. Giving you a monochromatic look that feels cozy and calming.

Cubbies Are The Answer To Looking Elegant And Organized

A cubbie is a small box-like storage space. Everything looks clean, tidy and elegant when placed in a cubby.

Although in view, objects are elevated from the common to looking like art. A place for everything and everything in its place.

Acoustics and Zoom

The room is so large that Najeeb suggested that Carol install plants and maybe a few small trees.

This has a variety of benefits such as: having nature close to you; plants cleaning up the oxygen, helping with sound absorption, especially if she has other people working with her.

Other acoustic aids are soft surfaces such as fabric-wrapped bulletin boards and cushions.

Najeeb's Zoom background consists of plants, sound-absorbing panels with LED strip lights surrounding them on a colour rotation. This adds a little bit of drama. Also, he has colour-blocked his books creating a professional-looking Zoom background.

Proper Planning and Furniture Follows Function

Think through the functions that your space will perform. Workspaces can be very versatile and multi-functional once you have a proper setup.

Storage On Casters For Maximum Flexibility

When tables are placed on lockable casters, then Carol can configure them to accommodate any situation and future growth for whatever suits her mood or activity. There is also lots of storage space under the desk that can be conveniently accessible with rolling cabinets.

Save Your Precious Eyes

A good practice is to look away from the monitor from time to time to exercise your eyes. Preventing eye strain and headaches.

Purging Stuff

Starting fresh usually means that you need to purge many unneeded items to produce an ideal home office.

Give yourself lots of time to accomplish this monumental task. Start with baby steps and mini purging sessions.

Why?

Eliminating items is emotionally draining. There are many micro-decisions that you will need to make along the way. Each decision can lead you down a rabbit hole consuming your time and energy.

It also takes time to research where to put these items. Do you trash them, keep them or donate them? And, who and where will you donate them to? Where do you trash them?

Although it takes effort for this worthwhile project. Feeling a huge weight lift off your shoulders once gone.

SO MANY OPTIONS – WHICH ONE IS BEST?

Najeeb and Dolores gave Carol many new ideas. Each layout option has its own benefits.

Carol is now excited and motivated to create a new chapter in her life.

Your Office Reflects Your Style

Ultimately, your home office is for you. You spend a lot of time there. Make it work for you. Would you like to have your very own home office reviewed by Dolores and Najeeb?

Dolores Pian is a Master Interior Designer who crafts luxury residences, penthouses and purse parking. Successful people seek her expertise to Design Reclaiming Time ©

Because time is their truest luxury.

Drop her an e-mail to say hello and let her know what you thought of this blog post.

Dolores Pian’s blog posts are meant to inform and entertain. Please consult Dolores Pian directly if you need any specific information for your specific spaces.

Carol Lee, Freelance Software Developer & Consultant - Episode 3 – Home Office Design For Success Series Video Recap