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50 Best Home Office Ideas to Inspire You While You Work

You’ll be excited to get to work.

By Anna Logan and Madoline MarkhamUpdated: Aug 29, 2024

Whether you’re full-time WFH or simply needing to spot for paying bills and organizing family activities, when it’s time to get work done at your house you need just the right clutter-free space to sit and focus. To help inspire the design of your home workspace, we’ve rounded up 48 both pretty and practical home office ideas for you to peruse.

These rooms are filled with ideas for small spaces and large rooms, for him or for her, for modern farmhouses to cozy cottages. With countless ways to setup a desk and other furniture, they’ll help you think through the best design for either a room fully dedicated to an office or for tucking a functional workspace into your kitchen, family room, or bedroom. And don’t forget the styling, too. There are lots of simple additions you can make to any workspace setup, like these farmhouse decor ideas that are sure to create a happy space that will get your creative juices flowing (and all the antique finds in these images might have you ready to go out hunting, too!)

Here’s to working from home in style!

For more decorating inspiration for more rooms in your home:

Add Patina with a Farm Table as a Desk

home office with table desk and tall bookshelves

Eric Piasecki

This home office’s rustic-meets-refined poise is accentuated with a spindle-leg farm table in lieu of a standard desk that makes for a cozy workspace. Walls clad in silky, patinaed cypress salvaged from rice ponds surround it in this South Carolina Low Country property. “There’s a natural calmness that comes when you step inside a room blanketed in rich wood tones,” explains interior designer Barbara Westbrook, who teamed up with Historical Concepts on the home’s design.

Float the Desk

home office kids workspace with peg board and floating desk

Max Kim-Bee

To eek out every last inch in this nook, the homeowner made a desk by floating the top of an antique wallpaper prep table between two
white bookcases. Just above, a magnetic mint green shelf from an old pharmacy serves as a happy backdrop for mini masterpieces. It all makes for a creative craft space in this new-build farmhouse.

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Look to the Ceiling

David A. Land

Shelves full of books and antiques give this small study nook almost as much character as the fabric storage on the beams in the farmhouse's ceiling. “I love my little nook—it has the proportions of a great room on a tiny scale. It’s a library, study, and fireside lounge, all inside 120 square feet,” says homeowner and designer Hadley Wiggins-Marin.

Make the Most of a Small Corner

home office dresser desk with plaid chair

Annie Schlechter

This petite antique dresser desk painted by the homeowner after its discovery makes the perfect perch for the vintage portrait painting atop it. The desk’s small size makes it just the right size to tuck into a bedroom or another small space. The homeowner used a Ralph Lauren fabric sample for the back of the French chair to add a bit of plaid.

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Use Suitcases for Storage

home office with table desk, leather chair, and suitcase storage

David Tsay

Who ever said desk chairs can’t be comfortable? In this home of antiques dealer Jeni Maus, a large leather chair makes for cushy seating paired with an antique table-turned-desk. The antique suitcase below creates additional storage space with character to boot.

Make Use of a Blank Wall

Victoria Pearson

You don’t need a lot of space to have a functional office! This petite workspace was tucked into the blank space between the front door and the refrigerator of a renovated ranch. Barnwood to the right of the desk dresses up the stainless steel “wall,” and the desk is painted the same shade of white as the walls to help it blend in.

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DIY a Memo Board

enamelware tray memo board above a wicker desk

Becky Luigart-Stayner

Add character above a desk by using enamelware’s magnetic properties to display odds and ends.

To make: Simply hang an enamelware tray on a wall using Command strips or double-sided Velcro, hang items with a variety of magnets, then step back and admire your resourcefulness.

Get the Look:
Enamelware Tray: Enamel Butcher Tray from Amazon

Create a Double-Duty Room

antique trestle desk in a home office with blue bookshelves

Stacy Zarin Goldberg

In this farmhouse family room designed by Cameron Ruppert, an antique trestle table is at the ready as a desk or game table. The patinaed piece pairs perfectly with antique chairs with upholstered seat cushions for a pop of pattern. Custom strawberry vine needlepoint panels add flair to the the blue-painted bookcase in this historic farmhouse.

Get the Look:
Bookcase Paint Color: Stone Blue by Farrow and Ball

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Put it Beneath the Stairwell

home office desk under stairwell in a barn home

Emily Followill

Here’s an idea: Transform the traditionally overlooked space beneath a stairwell into a home office. Here the desk was handmade by a friend of the homeowner, and the display case is filled with turkey calls.

Close it Off with a Pocket Door

John Ellis

This pocket door not only closes off the home office behind for privacy, but also adds a pop of orange to white walls.

Get the Look:
Door Paint Color: Pomegranate by Dunn-Edwards Paints

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Display an Inspiration Board

home office workspace with table and green walls

ALI HARPER

An office can be a great spot to show off your professional or personal passions. In this home office of landscape gardener Anthony Brewington, he shows off the antique tools he has been collecting for nearly three decades on the right wall. Above the antique desk is a collection of wall of tear sheets (“what we had before Instagram,” says Anthony) of favorite pages from old magazines.

Get the Look:
Wall Paint: Clover Green by Benjamin Moore

Warm it Up—Literally!

Max Kim-Bee

This simple and sophisticated desk space is tucked into the cozy corner of a living room right near a wood-burning fireplace to keep things warm in the winter. A white Bertoia chair adds a sleek, space-saving element to the desk setup.

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Add Built-Ins to an End Wall

cottage bedroom home office with desk and window

David A. Land

A built-in desk can easily tuck into a bedroom, and all the better if it has a great window view. Here, floral designer Deborah Herbertson greens up her home office space with a row of succulents in a vintage gutter, dried thistles in old apothecary bottles, and various other plants in vintage ceramic planters.

Get Organized with a Mail Sorter

office desk with antique mail sorter on top

Brian Woodcock

For an office desk with little or no drawer space, an old mail sorter is a storage option worth writing home about. The piece doesn’t take up much room, and its divided sections keep small items neatly contained, leaving the work surface free of clutter. Plus, unlike a messy drawer, its contents are always on view and easily retrieved.

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Make Use of an Entry Nook

home office with desk and storage cubbies

David A. Land

Homeowner Helena Ernst transformed the entry nook of her busy family home into this cheery home office, complete with storage cubbies for organizing many useful objects.

Repurpose an Antique Sign

home office floating desk in grain silo guesthouse

Wynn Myers

Practically any flat surface can become a floating desk. Here a antique wood floral-stand sign was transformed into a clever desk in a guesthouse that was formerly a grain silo.

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Have Fun with the Seating

home office desk with carved mushroom stools

David Meredith

These carved-wood mushroom stools add fun flair to a workspace in a kids’ bedroom. A simple wood desk makes a great surface for crafting too. Try an antique printers cabinet drawer for a cubby display space on the wall.

Layer Antiques On Antiques

Victoria Pearson

In Lindsea Dragomir’s office space, the antique jeweler’s desk takes on even more character with a collection of antique signs and other pieces above it. To save surface space on the desk, her husband, Danny, rewired a vintage cage light with cloth cord and swagged it down the wall.

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Add a Bold Wallpaper

home office with desk, couch, and blue wallpaper

Christopher Dibble

Add pizzazz to a workspace with a bold wallpaper like this blue bandana pattern in the home office of designer Max Humphrey. Hi punchy office also features a vintage-inspired desk in the perfect school bus yellow, a bold 1930s Navajo rug, a graphic window treatment, and a sweet blue-and-white vintage quilt atop a modern day bed.

Replace Your Bedside Table

blue bedroom with small home office desk and bed

Brie Williams

In lieu of bedside tables, this homeowner prioritized WFH convenience with a multipurpose desk topped with a striped lamp. It’s paired with a comfy barrel-style chair the homeowner Victoria Ford of PrepFord Wife found years ago at a flea market.

Get the Look:
Wall Paint Color: Dutch Tile Blue by Sherwin-Williams

Anna Logan

Senior Homes & Style Editor

Anna Logan is the Senior Homes & Style Editor at Country Living, where she covers design and decorating trends, home features, and gift guides. She also produces home features and styles content for the print magazine. When she isn’t working, can often be found digging around antique shops for the perfect find. Follow her adventures on Instagram!