HOUSE v GARDEN BUILD WORK FROM HOME by Jo Simms
You’ve finally decided: you are going to work from home, be your own boss. The business plan is complete, the bank manager is as happy as they’re ever going to be. You had a round of leaving parties at the office and walked out with enough stationery to last for six months. Now comes the really hard choice; the one that will subtly shape your work-life balance, even your relationship with your family...just where are you going to work? Working from home also means that your family now has to share their home with a workplace. Look at it from their point of view: mum or dad isn’t just going into the spare bedroom to do some stuff on the computer - they’re going to work. Welcome to the big decision: home office or purposebuilt garden office. Wow! And you thought the biggest decision was behind you. If you are a designer, craftsman or woman and actually make things, it’s an easy choice. You need the workspace for materials and to work in. Simple, just make sure that the workspace you build in the garden or convert your garage into has enough space for office admin or things will trickle between a desk in the house and your workbenches and no matter how hard you try it will get messy. But if it’s just you and a computer against the world then it starts to get tricky. One of the biggest difficulties with an office in the house can be convincing your family it is. Ironing baskets do not cross the threshold, neither does spare sports kit. The desk draws have not given an open invitation for all to rummage. The easiest way to persuade your family that it is an office
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is to make it look like one. Gut the room and refurnish and most importantly get some extra plug sockets and phone sockets in there at the same time and defeat the sad, dusty undergrowth of cables and adaptors behind and under desks full of plugs from day one. There is something naff about a bog-standard steel filing cabinet in a home; check out alternatives. Design and decor can make the contrast between home and workspace distinct yet with a subtleness, so that the room does not jar with the rest of the house. You aren’t renting premises so splurge a little on the room and call in an electrician, joiner and designer and it will repay you. A new build in the garden is an idea that just works for so many people and you will be amazed at what can be achieved in the size below planning permission. There is a whole new market of off-thepeg, customisable buildings just waiting for you to discover or go the whole hog and bring in an architect. Some clever design work at the start will create a multi purpose space that will add value to your home, if you sell. Your home office might be the next owner’s guest suite or sauna. But in house or in garden just remember the golden rule: think of how much storage and plug and phone sockets you will need - and then double it.
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