Welcome to my office!

Working from home has its challenges, among them, being:

• Staying Focused
• Separating Home/Work Life
• Having to avoid working 24/7 because your office is always there

That’s why, for me, it’s so important to have a designated space for my office. Now, I’ve been very fortunate to have space in our home to use an entire room for my office, but you can take my ideas and carve out any nook in your house for yourself! If this means placing a small desk in your living room, or around the corner somewhere, get creative! Make a space where you live that is where you go to work, and then be able to step away from it at the end of the day. I promise it will do wonders for productivity.

I’ve never been able to effectively work from the couch or bed for an entire day. My back starts hurting, first off, and then I start to get too cozy, find myself turning on Gilmore Girls in the background, and slowly but surely my productivity lessens. So, first things first, make sure you have a desk! A desk with a chair that is comfortable and gives you the support you need.

I went to the wonderful world of Ikea for my desk! They have so many affordable options. I admit, I splurged a bit more on mine than what I had originally intended, but I love the storage of this desk so much. I’m able to quickly put things in their place so my desk can be cleaned fast and I can stay focused.

This is the desk I got ($299), and this is the chair ($75). You could easily change out the knobs on the desk! 

A white desk was important to me, I take a lot of pictures and am filming video content consistently for work, so I knew that was the look I wanted to go for. Plus, I love how bright it makes my office feel! When I first went to Ikea my intention was to get this white tabletop and legs for just $70! So if you want an affordable white desk, check out Ikea.

My rug, 7×10 for just $124. Gold Lamps from Amazon.

I knew that I wanted a bright, fun rug for my office! Pink was a must, if you have seen anything I do with Thrive, you know why. I went back and forth on several rugs that have pink in it and settled on this one. Blue is my favorite color and I loved that this was feminine but not over the top, so I could use it in other areas of our home if need be. I love how a rug transforms the way a room looks. I wish I had learned this lesson in our first home, I would have started getting rugs much sooner. Don’t be like me, get rugs, you don’t have to spend a fortune, and they change your room so much.

*Final Rug Tip* Make sure you don’t get too small of a rug for your room. Here’s a great guide from West Elm on picking the right type and size of rug for your room.

I was going to edit out that breaker box, but we’re keeping it real. This was how my office was set up in our apartment and there was a lovely grey breaker box that didn’t quite hide behind the door. If you’re dealing with this, you could cover it with an art piece, paint it, or cover it with contact paper. We were only staying in our apartment for 9 months, so I chose to ignore it.

Moving on… I knew I wanted a small gallery wall area, so I started collecting things here and there. I got the pink letterboard as a gift from Jane.com during Thrive. I picked up the cream bulletin board on Target clearance, the picture on sale at Hobby Lobby, and the pink clipboard was a gift from a friend! I’ve linked some similar options and things I’d like to add to my office here:

Add in your personality. I like to have things around me that inspire me! So that means a stack of colorful books, a cute unicorn I grabbed at Target, a container full of colorful pens, and flowers, always flowers. I’m currently writing this in my office and my flowers have died so I need to get some fresh ones quickly! There’s just something calming and grounding about them. a $5 bundle at the grocery store is all you need! Plus, I find that those $5 bundles last me a good 2 weeks. Crazy, right?

The last thing in relation to my home office is my planner. I’m planning on doing a full post on it, but everyone always asks me what planner I use. I used to be a notebook hoarder! I would buy them all, use 1/8th of the notebook, have 3 going at the same time, and some random cheap planner I had found that was cute. The problem was, I didn’t have a system. I was writing notes everywhere, and the planner I picked up at the store wasn’t working for me.

Insert, Golden Coil. Again, I could do a whole post on this, so just go check out the website for yourself. I don’t get paid commission, and I’m not an ambassador, but I tell everyone about them! It’s 100% customizable, and I was able to add in extra note pages so now, I never use notebooks. Yes, I spent $70 on my planner, but I’m saving $$$ every time I go to the store and don’t buy a notebook, which was constantly. Now, I never lose my notes, because I only write things down in my Golden Coil, so seriously, go check it out. It has been a game-changer for me.

QUESTION: Do you have a home office? Whether you do or don’t, what colors do you like to decorate your workspace in? I always love to hear about people’s color choices!