Here are a few home office design ideas you can put to good use in your own workspace: they’re simple to do and suitably cheap to execute. Home offices, as a rule, come with smaller supplies budgets than your typical cubicle farm, but even with a limited budget, you can implement home office design ideas that strike the ideal balance between good-looking and budget-friendly.

Choose a productivity-friendly color. The colors you see in your workspace can make all the difference in your productivity. Choosing a bright color like yellow or bright green can ease the monotony of repetitive tasks. Pale blue or green can add a calming effect to the home office. And plain white tells everyone you mean to do serious work in your workspace.

Or you can toss the rules and settle on a color that has great personal significance to you alone. “Different hues resonate with people in a certain way,” says Suite101’s Victoria Foley. “A bright red might make you think of lipstick, or hearts/love, or even stop signs…However, take that shade a little bit darker, to a deep cherry-maroon, and it could make you feel empowered.”

Choose a chair with comfort in mind. When you’re shopping for a chair, do prioritize its comfort over the long run – don’t just get the cheapest butt-rest available. Many home office design ideas look good, but fail the comfort test. Make sure your home office doesn’t go the same way. If you’re not sure where to start, check out our ergonomics checklist to get a clue.

Lighting should be easy on the eyes. You’re not a coal miner – you get to choose just how much lighting you need to get the job done. Make sure you pick an area of the house that gets ample lighting. You can also get a lamp for your desk that ups the light quotient, and reduces eyestrain too.

Put a motivating artwork in plain sight. A reproduction of your favorite painting? A vase your mother gave you? Something your child drew in art class? Get something motivating in your office space, and keep it somewhere that’s easy to spot.

Image © Nathan Searles / Creative Commons.