One of my New Year’s Resolutions was to create an upgraded family office. Once my first grader started to get homework, she had a hard time finding a place to do it. Her younger brother and sister would always distract her, so it was hard to find a quite spot that didn’t make her feel isolated. She wanted me close by while she did her homework, but her younger siblings also wanted me close by while they were playing. The best spot I could find was the office in the front of the house. This space is perfect because it has French doors with windows which she could close for privacy. The ability to look outside the room helped her to feel like she was still part of the “action.” That’s when I decided our family needed an office for the entire family.
Our office set-up at that time wasn’t working for the adults and wasn’t child friendly. The office was filled with random pieces of furniture from our move three years ago that really hadn’t found a place in this house. The desk was our old breakfast table and the chairs were from our old formal living room. I loved the chairs, but they really just took up space in the office and they were never used except for the kids to hid behind when they were playing tag in the house. The office was the first room you saw when you walked into our house and it was clear we never put any time into making it beautiful. It was time for an update.
The key things I wanted, was an office where:
-My children can individually do homework or work on projects close to me, but away from their siblings.
-If we wanted to, all of my children and I could work together
-I can easily access, organize and store their educational games and supplies.
-The children could easily access their things.
-I can store and organize family bills, records and office supplies.
-We felt calm both looking at and being in the office because it was a beautiful minimal design space
We had other small projects to get done in our house, so we contacted a friend/designer (Great Living Company) to pick out some new pieces and below are the results. I hope it gives you some ideas for your home office.
A New Family Office
A place for every one.
A quite space if any of us needs a smaller place to focus
Easy access storage for Kiddos and Parents
A place for office supplies and kids art work.
Oh… this is the before office…
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you were inspired…
Bree