What items and decor are essential for a home office?

How do you layout a home office?

While there are no “rules” for how to design your home office decor, the layout should maximize your productivity and inspire you to keep grinding. Since we all have different work styles, this is going to look different for everyone!

A good place to start is to choose a location and layout that is free from distractions. This may mean setting up your desk in your bedroom where you can close the door, or choosing to face the wall instead of the window to avoid too much daydreaming. Ultimately, you want your home office to feel like your own private oasis!

The next key? Good lighting. Natural light is ideal, so try to design your home office decor around a large window. But if that’s not an option, some cute lamps or string lights will go a long way to brighten up your space!

What items and decor are essential for a home office?

No matter which layout you choose for your home office design, there are some essential items and decor that you can’t pass up. Here are our must-haves!

A functional desk: Sure, you could work from your bed or the couch (guilty!) but setting up a designated desk for working at home will help your mind and your body in the long run. Since this is the basis of your home office decor, choose a desk that’s practical for you. If you use tons of paper, pens, and planners, you may need one with lots of storage. But if a laptop is the extent of your gear, then you can keep it simple!

A truly great chair: When you’re sitting in it all day, every day, you can’t settle for just good. Your home office chair has to be great! To us, that means it’s comfortable, supportive, and, of course, cute. From there, the design is up to your personal style!

Cute and practical storage: For many of us WFH-ers, storage is a must. You need filing cabinets for documents, jars for pens, and boxes for all your other miscellaneous items. Luckily, these practical pieces can often double as cute home office decor, so take time to choose storage that fits your vibe! (This floating shelf is definitely sparking joy!)

Some fun and cozy items: When it comes to home office decor ideas, it’s important to have a little fun with it. After all, there’s nothing like a really funky mouse pad that instantly makes our day better!! Liven up your home office design by hanging inspiring artwork or photos, adding a plant (or five), and upping the cozy factor with a fuzzy rug.

For some extra inspo, we wanted to share one of our GWS home offices (pictured above)! Before, we had two desks that didn’t match and a carpet that was too small-plus lots of piles of junk! SO not inspiring to work.

But by updating our desks to these gorgeous matching Floyd desks, adding a large jute rug to complete the space, and investing in this bench with drawers (plus the cute pillows on top), it feels much more productive!

What decor should you put on the walls of your home office?

Now for the fun part: cute home office decor ideas for your walls! This is where you can truly make the space your own and create a vibe that inspires you. So, choose decor for your walls that speaks to your unique style and showcases a bit of your personality!

Create a gallery wall: Here at GWS, we’re suckers for a gallery wall. Get the look by framing several art prints (Urban Outfitters has some of our faves!) or a few of your favorite photos, then hang them in a cluster on your wall. There’s no right or wrong way to do this — you can mix and match frames, choose a single color scheme, design the photos in a grid….all that matters is that it inspires you!

Make it productive: If productivity is the name of the game, a dry erase board, cork board, or calendar is a total life-saver. Use it to jot down notes, keep track of deadlines, and hang important papers (or cute photos!). You can even add it to your gallery wall!

Add some storage: Whether you’re looking for extra storage or just want somewhere to display your plants, shelves make for functional and cute home office decor. You can use them to stack books, show off your favorite knick knacks, or even rest picture frames!

These are just a few of our favorite home office decor ideas to liven up your walls, but the options are truly endless! You could hang a tapestry for a bohemian vibe, go retro with peel-and-stick wallpaper, or add a mirror to open up the space…try out a few different styles (or even mix and match some of these!) to find your perfect vibe.

How can you make your home office feel cozy