Aim to create a space that is as calm as possible to work in. Pale yellows, ochres and blues are all soothing for the walls and furnishings, and keep the flooring simple no wild patterns to make your eyes dance. Then plan your furnishings so that as much as possible is to hand and the desk positioned so that your view isn’t of a blank wall (too dismal), although equally you don’t want to be too distracted by the view through the window if it is a busy spot. Keep window treatments unfussy and practical and ensure that fresh air is to hand, especially on hot days (if you don’t have too much paperwork, you may want to install a fan somewhere), so that the room doesn’t become too soporific. Finally, always make sure you have some flowers on your desk they will be guaranteed to give you a lift, even on the darkest of days.

All the gray-looking equipment and piles of clutter hardly lifts the heart when it comes to decoration of home office. All too frequently in the past, filing cabinets and shelves have been dismal looking objects, but they are becoming less and less so. They can be both functional and attractive and shelves needn’t be unforgiving planks covered in Melamine balancing on angled brackets. Look around for pieces of furniture that fit into your color scheme and consider some of the extremely flexible shelving units that are available in every material from reclaimed pine to metal.

You may well feel that you are spending so many hours in this room each day, it is worth having custom built shelves made to meet your own specifications. If this is the case, take time to work out exactly what your needs are.

Lighting is the next important element. A traditionally lit room probably won’t have a good enough light for working, but the addition of an Anglepoise-type lamp at the desk is all you need. As well as checking that you have enough light to see clearly, you also need to ensure that it doesn’t shine onto the screen and cause reflections. The same is true of strong sunlight if you sit near a window, you may have to add a blind – vertical, roller or roman are the most versatile – to stop glare.

Storage is a more difficult part to plan. If your home office is simply a central place for running household affairs or a homework zone, this will be fairly straight forward. If, however, you are creating a working home office from scratch, having only worked in an office before, it is almost impossible to tell what you will want to hand and how much storage and filing you will generate. Start with listing what you think you will need and then treble it.

It takes a smart handling in the arrangement of the things in a small home office. With a good planning little effort you can hide these things away from everybody’s sight and create a clean and tidy home office look. This neat environment will help you to enhance your work performance and give the best result.

If you are installing a PC into an often used room, such as a kitchen, and you want to be able to put it away, then consider converting a tall cupboard. It will have to be deep enough to take the computer with the door closed, but you can incorporate a pull out or pull down surface for the keyboard and work. You will also need to make sure that the shelf is strong enough to bear the weight, and that it is the right height to sit at, with room underneath for your knees once the desk is pulled out. Check, too, that you are not in everyone’s way when you are actually using it.