12 Space-Saving Small Home Office Ideas

Even if you don’t have much space, you can still create a stylish and practical home office space. These ideas are perfect for turning small rooms or corners into productive work or study areas.

Key Takeaways:

• Compact desks, tall, narrow storage and open shelving are perfect for smaller home offices.
• Keep decor limited but purposeful and prioritise small ornaments, faux plants and wall-mounted pieces.
• Use a few purposeful lights for a mix of ambient and task lighting, such as a desk lamp and a flush ceiling light.
• Position your desk by a window to take advantage of the natural brightness, with sheer curtains to control strong sunlight.

If you’ve been dreaming of a dedicated home office or workspace but don’t think you have enough room, think again! We’ve collected some ideas that can turn even compact spaces into productivity-boosting offices by using the right furniture and decor.

You don’t necessarily need a full, dedicated room to create an effective home office. Separating out an area within an existing room, such as a guest bedroom or living room, can create the perfect small workspace for your home.

1. Choose A Compact Desk

Unless you need to spread out with a lot of physical documents for your work, you likely don’t need a huge desk or work surface.

Instead, choose a more compact option to save on floor space. Make sure it’s wide enough to fit your laptop or any notebooks that you regularly use.

If you do want to add some decor or lighting to your desk, choose just one or two pieces to prevent overcrowding. Wall lights can be a smart choice with a small desk, as they free up the surface for work while still providing task lighting.

2. Define The Space With A Rug

If your office is a space in another room, one simple way to separate the two is by placing a rug under your desk and chair.

This creates a visual divide between your work area and your living area, helping you switch off when you want to sit back and take a break.

If you have other office furniture, such as a bookcase or cupboard, try to keep them close to the rug. They don’t necessarily all have to be on top of it, as this might look too cluttered, but keeping everything together can create a cohesive aesthetic.

3. Keep Lighting Minimal & Intentional

Normally, you only need a few lighting sources in a small home office, such as a ceiling light and a desk lamp.

Make sure you have some task lighting to avoid eye strain while working at your desk in the evenings. This could be a table lamp or wall lights, as long as they’re bright enough to illuminate your workspace.

Your ceiling lights can then work as ambient lighting when you really need the extra brightness. The mix of the two should be suitable for lighting a smaller space.

4. Go For Space-Saving Storage

If you don’t have a lot of floor space in your office, look for storage that extends upwards rather than out. 

Tall cupboards can fit in narrower spaces than wider storage options like sideboards, giving you more flexibility with your office’s design.

Think about what you’ll need to store in your home office on a day-to-day basis as well. You might not need as much storage as you think if you limit your workspace storage to only work-related items, and use storage in the rest of your home for anything else.

5. Create A Spacious Feel With A Mirror

Mirrors are incredibly useful in any small space in your home, since their reflections can make your room feel more spacious and open.

Pick a wall-mounted mirror rather than a freestanding one so that you don’t have to take up any floor space, and consider positioning it near your desk.

However, make sure you can’t see yourself while you’re sat at your desk! If above the desk is the only place where the mirror will fit, hang it higher than your eye level while you’re sat down to avoid this.

6. Let The Light In With Sheer Curtains

Controlling the natural light you’re letting into your home is important in a home office, as strong sunlight can cause screen glare, making working at a screen difficult. 

However, it’s still important to let in natural light, which can be a major mood-booster on sunny days and means you don’t have to rely on artificial lighting throughout the day.

If you don’t want to block out the light completely, consider using sheer curtains. They make sure less light comes into your office while not making the room too dark. They can also add an elegant, stylish feel to your room.

7. Add Wall Art For Texture

Wall art is a great decor option for small home office designs, as it adds visual interest without taking up too much space.

You can either prop up a frame on your desk or hang it on your wall. Wall-mounted art is a smart, space-saving choice, as it frees up valuable space on your surfaces.

If you can find wall art with textured, raised or painted elements, this can add some texture and depth to your home office.

8. Use Streamlined Flush Ceiling Lights

Pendant ceiling lights can look very stylish, but they’re often not practical in smaller spaces. Flush ceiling lights are a much sleeker option that can make your room feel more open, as they don’t hang down close to where you’ll be working.

Even if your home office is quite small, keeping the vertical space free with a flush ceiling light makes the room feel more open.

9. Combine Your Desk & Dressing Table

A combination bedroom and home office can be a great way to fit a workspace into your home, and a space-saving furniture choice is utilising your dressing table as a desk. 

You’ll need enough storage to keep your ‘getting ready’ kit out of sight once work starts, and vice versa when you’re getting ready in the morning. Dressing tables with drawers or cupboards can be useful for this, or you could put a small set of drawers next to the table.

However, bear in mind that most dressing table stools won’t have enough back support for long work days. Consider switching out the stool for a proper office chair during the day to make sure you’re comfortable.

10. Choose A Versatile Wheeled Chair

A wheeled office chair has the massive benefit of being easy to move, which can be really helpful in smaller rooms. 

If you need the space in front of the desk for a wider walkway when you’re not working, being able to wheel the chair to the side or into a storage area is really convenient.

Equally, wheeled office chairs are usually better for working from home in general. You can swivel and move as needed with little effort, so you can grab what you need without breaking your flow.

11. Brighten The Space With Small Plants

A compact home office isn’t the best home for large, towering houseplants, but a few small faux plants can brighten up your desk with a splash of greenery.

Faux plants are a smart choice for home offices as they have very minimal maintenance requirements: no watering, no repotting, just dusting and cleaning now and then. That means you can spend less time stressing about plant upkeep and more time being productive!

12. Consider Open Shelving Units

While cupboards are effective at hiding away clutter, open shelving is a clever choice if you want to avoid a cramped feeling in your home office.

It does mean you’ll need to consider how you arrange the items you put on each shelf, whether that’s decor, books or other work-related items, which can be more effort than stowing them in a cupboard.

For the best of both worlds, choose a unit that combines open shelves with cupboards so you can choose what to have on display and what to keep hidden.

Compact, Productivity-Boosting Spaces

Small home offices can be just as effective as larger workspaces if you plan the layout, furniture and decor carefully. They don’t have to feel like an afterthought, even when they’re tucked in the corner of another room, since intentional design choices can make them feel like their own distinct spaces.

For some more home office inspiration, check out our guides to home office lighting and creating a focused study space at home.