Adventures in Creating a Home Office

Back in June, I had the good fortune to attend a Downtown Women?s Club workshop on creating a productive home office space hosted by Linda Merrill of Chameleon Interiors and Sharon Fisher of Come to Order Organizing. I am, like so many self-employed professionals, currently working mostly out of my home, and I was looking for ways I could organize my workspace more efficiently so I could be more productive. What I ended up realizing, however, was that what I really need in order to be more productive is a different space.

My current space is, essentially, an artist's loft located in the Brickbottom Artists Building in Somerville. When I first looked at it, I fell in love with it - although I was sharing the space with two roommates, the space that belonged to me was sheltered behind glass doors, and I had more than enough space to have a living room, bedroom and my design studio. It seemed like the perfect place.

But the minute I started working from home, the distractions started. First I realized that it was very difficult to set up my workstation in a way that would really work for me - the workbench that ran along the side wall was too high up, making things difficult to access when I needed them, and the glass doors to my space gave me a clear view of the mess that my roommates had been leaving in the kitchen. In addition, the washer/dryer was always in my peripheral vision, forcing me to constantly remind myself that it had been a while since I did laundry.

For the first few weeks, then, I ended up spending more time doing housework than work work in my home office. Then I had enough, and decided to purchase a new armoire desk from my mother's plentiful furniture garden (I honestly don't know why she needs all that furniture!), and some 10-foot-long curtains from IKEA to visually separate my workspace from the rest of my space.

I thought I had things set. Except for the fact that it was winter, and my space was inadequately heated (the baseboards run along a wall that is covered up by both my worktable and a large closet underneath the living room loft) and the windows and skylight, which take up a large portion of the space, were letting in ALL the cold air, as was the defunct air conditioner in my upstairs loft. I was freezing, and too cold to work efficiently, despite space heaters. Now that it's summer, the apartment is generally much cooler than outside (which was a tremendous benefit on the 100+ days we had), but the sun coming in from the skylight has been cooking me to the point where I can't concentrate.

Mind you, I'm still getting my work done on time (I haven't missed a deadline of my own volition since about 2001), but it drags, and I find myself working longer hours and ultimately getting less done than I would if I had a traditional "office" situation. And in the last few weeks or so, as issues with my roommates have reached the point of intolerability, I find myself in the position once again of looking for a new space, this time with a growing business to think about. 

Fortunately, life seems to have picked a good time for this situation to befall me, and within a weekend, I was able to look at half a dozen apartments that were reasonably within my price range, and on Monday, I got a call from a sweet little old lady who I'd spoken to about a one-bedroom on Sunday offering me an incredible deal on a two-bedroom she needs to do a little work to. The apartment is not only bedecked with insulated hardwood floors, a double parlor, a deck and plenty of windows, it has a second bedroom. With a door. That closes. So finally, I can move my studio into a new space, one designated for work, where I can be efficient and productive, and most importantly, LEAVE WORK at the end of the day. And not only can this new space offer me the separation between work and life that I so desperately need, every room in the apartment just screams "Dani's place" - more than just about any place I've lived in.

This is why I'm such an optimist - because every time I start to think life has let me down, a new opportunity presents itself. There's a lot to be said for having good karma. 

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Dani Nordin is the principal of the zen kitchen, a graphic and web design studio specializing in eco-friendly marketing materials, branding, and standards-based web design. The studio helps small to large businesses and non-profit organizations create a more consistent and effective image, while helping them send an environmentally and socially responsible message to their target audience. For more information, visit http://tzk-design.com.