Making the most of your office hours looks quite a bit different when you’re clocking in a short stroll from your bedroom, which has become the norm, at least part of the time, for many professionals. With the usual distractions—kids, pets, the regular household buzz—and spaces built before the ubiquity of telecommuting, many are still playing catch-up to optimize their home for productivity, but without sacrificing a room to resemble an I.T. hub.
According to Charlotte Green, of Mayfair-based design studio Sixty3 London, a proper home office is now “an essential, as opposed to a nice-to-have.” Multi-hyphenate designer and author Kelly Hoppen agrees. Her London firm has seen an uptick in requests for workspaces in the home “that are not only functional but also comfortable, luxurious, and balanced.” Today, architects and designers are creating more customized quarters brimming with advanced technology and bespoke furniture. Here, expert advice on everything from where to locate a home office to the high-end tech that will make your Zoom calls sound like you’re actually in the room.
Ground-up builds and full guttings mean you can choose the placement of your office, but think twice before defaulting to a central spot. “The floorplan from four years ago doesn’t work anymore,” says New York–based interior designer Nate Berkus. “The home office used to be in the middle of the home, off the kitchen or family room, but people are moving it down the hall to feel a separation between the home and the home office.” The physical remove helps delineate work from home, making the office a destination unto itself.
The need for silence while working—especially during video calls—has a big impact on how designers construct a space. “Privacy is paramount,” says Sergio Molho of acoustic-design consultancy WSDG. “Acoustic isolation ensures confidentiality and a pristine auditory environment.” Structurally, this means using high-value-STC (sound transmission class) doors and windows to keep the noise out. But noise inside must also be factored in. To prevent echoes, WSDG places sound-absorbing materials such as acoustic panels—which can be invisibly integrated into the ceiling—as close to the sound sources as possible.
The desk is often the room’s centerpiece, so positioning is crucial. “We don’t like to do desks that face a wall, as it makes them feel confining,” says designer Ali Budd from her Toronto studio. “[You want to look out] at an open space whenever possible.”
What you don’t want to see is a tangle of wires. To avoid unseemly cords stretched across the room, Budd has designed desks that run the power cable down the inside of the leg of the desk and directly into a floor outlet. This is where antique pieces prove problematic: It’s hard to hide much tech inside without retrofitting, which means you might want to consider whether it’s still the right workspace for your modern job.
“One hundred percent of our clients want [integrated] tech,” says London-based designer Katharine Pooley, who has designed castles, superyachts, and jets for royalty around the world. “They’re used to it, and they want it done better.” This means seamlessly integrating the technology in such a way that “none of our desks have computers or wires on them anymore—everything’s wireless, everything’s seamless.” A bespoke Pooley design allows for computers to be concealed within the casework, to be raised and lowered at the push of a button; these statement desks are made by hand and can take up to eight months, with prices running into the high five figures or more.
“Technology can’t be ignored, though sometimes it can be hidden,” agrees Berkus. But what if multiple large screens are integral to your daily work? In that case, he says, “there’s no point having a useless, beautiful office.” When tech can’t be dispensed with or covered up, designers turn to advanced options that require minimal amounts of space. Apple’s Mac Studio computer has powerhouse processing in a diminutive footprint, while Sony makes a tiny broadcast-quality camera, the FX3, that’s Netflix-approved for shooting movies. And it’s not just about looking good. At nearly a century old, Neumann produces reference-quality studio equipment including the TLR 170R microphone and MT 48 mixer, while Sennheiser’s out-of-frame MKH-50 mic was used on set for both Breaking Bad and David Fincher’s The Social Network.
If you spend hours sitting at a desk, choose comfort over chic. “Gone are the days of picking a home-office chair on the aesthetics alone,” notes Berkus, who has designed spaces for the likes of Ricky Martin and Karlie Kloss. “The request for decently designed, ergonomic seating is constant,” he says. Sergio Silva, vice president of design and innovation at ergonomic-furniture brand Humanscale, suggests keeping it simple. “Stay away from over-stylized designs,” he says. “Chairs that focus on function and simplicity tend to have a timeless aesthetic.”
Silva recommends Humanscale’s Freedom chair (designed by the late Niels Diffrient, the “father” of ergonomics) for a sleek, self-adjusting seat that adapts to the user’s movement rather than the other way around.
“The background of a video call has become a key element of design,” explains Hoppen, who designed Sydney’s lavish Sirius Building, while Berkus notes it has been “a consideration for every project in the last three years—we have conversations about camera and Zoom angles.” If a picture paints a thousand words, your backdrop speaks volumes before you ever open your mouth. At Pooley’s Château de la Croix des Gardes, in Cannes, the office features a collection of rare books that are beautiful but also functional: They diffuse the direct reflection of noise, thus improving the sound profile of the room. Berkus says that a successful project always comes down to balance. “You don’t want it to read as too opulent, too studied, too finished,” he says. “A properly designed home is always at the crossroads of function and beauty.”
