How to Work From Home Without Your Spare Room Looking Like a Spare Room

Working from home is no longer a temporary arrangement for most people. It's just how life is now. And yet the spaces we're working in often haven't caught up with that reality. Across Norwich and Norfolk I visit homes where the "home office" is clearly an afterthought: a fold-out table in the corner of the bedroom, a spare room that still doubles as a dumping ground, a kitchen table surrounded by cables that gets cleared every time someone wants to eat.

You deserve better than this. And so does your work.

The space you work in directly affects how you feel about working, how productive you are, and how clearly you can separate your working self from your home self at the end of the day. A chaotic, unconsidered workspace bleeds stress into the rest of your home. A well-designed one does the opposite.

The spare room problem

Most people's home office is a spare bedroom that's been given a desk. Which means it still has a single bed in the corner, a wardrobe full of things with nowhere else to go, a carpet that's slightly the wrong colour for everything, and a general feeling of being neither one thing nor the other.

The solution isn't necessarily to remove the bed. You might genuinely need a guest room. But the priority order matters. Design it as an office first, a guest room second. That means the desk is in the best position, facing the window for natural light where possible. The storage is proper office storage rather than a wardrobe full of miscellany. The aesthetic is deliberately chosen rather than defaulted into.

A sofa bed instead of a standard single is a practical solution that immediately shifts the room's identity from "spare bedroom with a desk in it" to "home office that can accommodate guests." The bed becomes background rather than the dominant piece of furniture.

Lighting for focus and video calls

This is something almost nobody thinks about until they're on their fourth video call looking like they're in a cave. Natural light is ideal. Position your desk so the window is to your side or slightly in front of you rather than directly behind you, which creates silhouette rather than illumination.

For artificial lighting, you need task lighting at your desk — a proper desk lamp, not just an overhead light — and something warmer in the rest of the room so it doesn't feel like working in an office block. A small lamp on a shelf or side table behind you also helps enormously on video calls. It separates you from the background and makes you look more professional without any effort.

If you're in Norwich or Norfolk and working from home regularly, a ring light is a small investment worth making if video calls are a significant part of your job. Used directly they're unflattering, but bounced off a wall or ceiling they make a real difference.

Storage that doesn't look like storage

The thing that makes most home offices feel chaotic is visible clutter. Cables, stationery, papers, equipment. The answer is storage that looks intentional rather than functional.

Closed storage hides the chaos. Open shelving can work beautifully if it's curated — books arranged by colour or size, one or two beautiful objects, plants — but it requires commitment to keeping it that way. If you're the kind of person whose desk accumulates things, closed storage is your friend.

In Norwich's Victorian terraces and Norfolk's older homes, there are often alcoves either side of a chimney breast that are perfect for built-in shelving or cabinetry. If you have these in your office room, use them. A run of floor-to-ceiling joinery not only provides enormous storage but makes the room feel considered and permanent. Like a room that was designed to be an office, not one that accidentally became one.

Make it somewhere you actually want to be

This is the part that gets forgotten in the rush to be practical. A home office should be a room you feel good in because you're spending a significant portion of your waking hours there.

Colour on the walls rather than default white. A plant or two. Art that you actually like looking at. A chair that's genuinely comfortable. A rug under the desk that makes the floor feel less cold and the room feel less clinical.

Some of my favourite home offices I've designed have been in what seemed like awkward spaces. A small box room, a wide landing, a converted garage. They became genuinely lovely rooms because they were treated with the same care as the living room or bedroom rather than as functional afterthoughts.

The dual-purpose challenge

Many Norfolk homes, particularly in Norwich, are Victorian terraces with a fixed number of rooms and an increasing number of demands on them. The office has to be the guest room. Or the playroom. Or both.

The key in these situations is zoning. Creating clear visual and physical distinction between the different functions of the room so your brain knows when you're in work mode and when you're not. A rug under the desk area and a different rug under the sofa. Lighting that's different in each zone. Storage that's specific to each function.

It takes more thought than a single-purpose room, but it's entirely possible to create a space that genuinely works for both. I've done it many times for Norwich and Norfolk clients navigating exactly this challenge.

When to get help

Home offices are one of those projects where people often try to figure it out themselves, buy a few things, find it still doesn't quite work, buy a few more things, and end up spending more than they would have done getting it right first time.

My e-design package is particularly well suited to home office projects. You get a full layout plan, a curated shopping list and storage recommendations from £695. Or if you'd rather start with a conversation in your home, my Style Session covers Norwich and Norfolk for £225 and gives you immediate, actionable direction.

Because your home office should be a room you're proud to be in. On and off camera.

Image Credit: greensnooze.com