How to Create a Home Office Without the Office

My husband has a home office. I do not. Well, not before this weekend. However, this past Saturday I created a home office space in our Master Bedroom for myself (with the help of my thoughtful husband).

I am a writer for LifeHack.org and for my blog, but I often am doing it from my laptop in bed which is not especially conducive to working. I wanted a more formal office space in the house, but I wasn’t sure where to make this space, so here’s how I figured it out and you can too!

1. You more than likely don’t need a full room, just a corner or wall space. The first thing you will need is a desk. If you are able to fit more furniture in the space, like a bookshelf that’s great, but if not, it’s not as essential as the desk. First look for the space and then the furniture.

2. Is there an unsused corner or wall space where you could fit a small table, mini desk, or even a regular sized desk? Look through various rooms in your home, as you would be surprised to find hallway spaces can be useful, corners in a living room, etc.. After looking though our home I realized there was empty space in our guest room where I could put a decent sized desk. Then I decided I wanted a space in my Master Bedroom if possible, so I began looking there.

3. Is there a piece of furniture in your home that is more decorative than functional? If you removed this piece would you miss it? Would the space better be served by putting a desk there and making an office space? This is exactly what happened in our Master Bedrrom. We had an oversized chair in the corner that is never used. It is more decorative and only useful for tossing clothing that I need to hang up (so really not useful at all). At first I was going to just sell the chair, but some rearranging of furniture allowed us to keep the chair and I was able to put in the office furniture in the corner where the chair once existed.

The massive chair, which was never used.

4. Once you find the space the next step is to measure and find the furniture to fit the space and in the style that goes with everything else in the room. I shopped online first. I found some options on Wayfair, but before I placed an order I also looked on eBay and Craigslist. If you shop Craigslist, just use good judgement and be cautious about meeting with strangers. A public meeting place is always best. I found my desk, chair, and matching cabinet on Craigslist! It was the perfect size. There were not any measurements in the listing so I simply texted the seller and asked for them. Once I knew it worked in the space, my husband then went to buy the pieces from the seller. I am so glad we checked Craigslist, as I found some great Oriential pieces. They are exactly what I was looking for and you can’t beat a Craigslist deal!