Apartment Office Ideas for a Stylish and Productive Workspace
If you work from home, you know how important it is to have a dedicated office space. Having an area that’s clear from clutter, organized, and calming can help lower stress and boost productivity during the workday. However, some apartment-dwellers find it challenging to find the space to create an office in their unit.
To help you find some apartment office ideas, Redfin put together a list that’ll inspire you to create a stylish and productive workspace – even if you’re low on square footage. Whether you’re renting an apartment in New York or a condo in Seattle, you’re sure to find a way to incorporate an office space into your apartment.
1. Create a dedicated office space
Make sure you have a dedicated space for your office to separate your work mindset from your home mindset. If you start every day with your laptop at your kitchen table, move to your couch, and finish up emails in your bedroom, you won’t have a place to get away from work. We recommend a desk or workspace, no matter how big or small, where you can fully focus on your day job, so you can leave that work behind at the end of your day.
2. Utilize closet space
If you have a small rental home, don’t worry – big home office dreams can still happen in small spaces. “Hook” your next client as you set up shop in your coat closet. Add a drop-down desk, some lighting, and shelves, and hang those coats on hooks by the door.
Closets aren’t just for clothes anymore. Save space and build a desk, shelves, or whatever else your home office needs inside your closet. This way, it’s hidden away when you have guests, but you’d be surprised how much you can build inside a closet. Paint it a fun color and leave the doors open – you’ll get tons of compliments.
3. Keep your space clutter-free
For ultimate productivity, always keep your desk and work area clean and free of dust and clutter. Arrange your work area efficiently by keeping items you use frequently like your printer, phone, inbox, and working files within easy reach. Personalize your home office space by adding a few family photos and plants, but don’t go overboard as your goal is to keep your work area professional, orderly, and clutter-free.
4. Maximize your office storage with a tall bookshelf
Add decorative storage boxes to hold printer paper and supplies, a desktop file box for important papers, and an inbox for incoming papers. This frees up your desk (or dining table) for work and helps create a system for handling paper in your home.
5. Choose simple decor
When designing an office space in your apartment, consider placing your desk in front of or by a window. This maximizes productivity and improves focus. While it might be tempting to fill this space with all manner of mementos and knickknacks, sometimes these items can compete with our attention and create unnecessary clutter. Instead, furnish your office space with a single inspiring quote, air-purifying plants, and an oil diffuser to reduce stress.
6. Invest in ergonomic equipment
Comfort is important and ergonomics is equally as important. Spend a little extra on ergonomics; a good chair that has your back, a combination of an ergonomic keyboard and mouse (even when using your laptop), and a standing desk are all great investments. And as a productivity hack, get a second monitor — it’s worth its cost.
7. Choose multi-functional furniture
It’s rare for people to have enough space to reserve an entire extra room to be an office. The trick? Furniture that transforms or hides what’s inside.
Have you ever thought about pulling a whole workstation out of a bookshelf? Or keeping a whole table inside a standard drawer?
Transformable furniture is an amazing way to grant more versatility to any home environment. They are much more than space-saving: they’re a functional, smart, and elegant way to make our homes more resourceful and able to support our different daily activities.
8. Find the perfect location
When designing a home office in an apartment, consider the location carefully. Will you enjoy sitting in this space all day? Consider how you orient the desk for both comfort and productivity. And last but not least, don’t allow your home office to be the dumping ground for clutter. Clutter negatively affects your focus, making you less productive.
9. Personalize your space
Pick a statement item such as wallpaper, a unique light, or a fun piece of furniture, and build off of it!
Click here to check out more tips and ideas on Redfin’s blog!
Besides Atim, also Porvata, Ohmeohmyblog, Das Keyboard, Office Skills, Smallish Home, Caroline Solomon, Indefinite Loop, Pixies Did It, Simply Enough, Simple Modest Mom, Home Style Harmony, Midwest Commercial Millwork Inc., Artful Agenda contributed to the original article.
How to furnish a small house: solutions for space-saving and functional furniture
How to choose the right furniture for a small apartment? Here are some ideas, tips and advice on how to furnish small spaces. Find inspiration with many examples and photos of space-saving furniture solutions.
Light colors, adequate lighting and the application of mirrors certainly work well to make spaces feel wider, but it is furniture the key element to make rooms actually more spacious, functional and well organized.
The golden rule for furnishing a small house or a small apartment is to take advantage of every useful corner to make it highly functional, as well as aesthetically satisfying. Using space-saving furniture equipped with transformable solutions is the ideal solution to have a more versatile home, able to quickly change, transform and adapt to the dynamism of modern life.
Tips for furnishing small houses
Equip the walls with shelves and pull-out tables
Optimizing the spaces in the living area may seem like a challenge, but it’s actuallty quite simple with transformable furnishing solutions. You can easily pull-out a desk from a library compartment, for example: Oplà +39 adds an extra table that opens and closes with a simple movement, in order to engage or free space as needed.
Have an island with a sliding top at the open space
With little space available for the kitchen and living room, having an open space is often the preferred architectural solution in small appartments. The island becomes a great ally of aesthetics and functionality, acting as a separator between the two areas.
But what if it were also an aggregator? Sliding tops can totally or partially cover the surface of the island, allowing it to be used for both kitchen and living room activities. With a single movement, the island expands or becomes compact, adapting to the needs of the moment.
Solutions such as the Top33 can hide the induction or electric hob as well as the sink, which are revealed only when it’s time to prepare the meal and have a large table to enjoy the dishes. When dinner is over, just put the top back in its original position to free up the space, making the house more spacious, tidy and aesthetically pleasing.
Optimize the space in the kitchen
Expand the kitchen surfaces as needed
Kitchen surfaces never seem to be enough – even more so in small homes. The transformable furnishing solutions give more versatility to the kitchen at the same time as they optimize the available space.
You can use a standard drawer to store a pull-out top extension: Oplà Top positions itself flush with the top to increase the useful surface of the kitchen whenever it’s necessary. The system is also easy to clean and to put back in its drawer with a single movement.
Choose a space-saving pull-out table
A standard drawer compartment is enough to hide an entire table: thanks to surprising space-saving systems, such as the Lunch model by Atim, a table can be extracted from inside a drawer, useful for a quick snack or to place ingredients and utensils necessary for the preparation of food.
Innovate with multifunctional solutions in the kitchen
Maximize every space of the kitchen using multifunctional furnishing solutions, which make life much more practical.
Systems like Cook create a true chef’s corner, even if they only require the space of a standard drawer. Cook brings together 3 functions: cutlery holder, cutting board and snack table – with the addition of a convenient aluminum basket for collecting what has been cut and blend the ingredients.
Install glass sliding doors for extra light
In confined spaces, it is worth evaluating the advantages of sliding glass doors. Why? Because the sliding glass doors not only serve to divide spaces without cluttering, but also allow natural light to easily circulate among the different rooms. An illuminated environment increases the feeling of spaciousness of the house and directly affects the well-being of the inhabitants.
Atim sliding door mechanisms can add that right touch of design to the environment.
The right furniture to create a space-saving Home Office
How to create a space-saving home office
The Home Office has become the protagonist of interior design since remote working entered everyone’s lives. But is it possible to have an adequate Home Office in an apartment of a few square meters?
Of course it is! Once again the transformable furniture manages not only to create a dedicated workstation, but also to optimize the available space to welcome other activities after the workday is over.
There are plenty of solutions to design the ideal Home Office: from the most discreet, such as equipping a piece of furniture with fold-away or pull-out tables, to the most surprising, like hiding a complete workstation behind the door of a cabinet.
ATIM participates of MEDWOOD 2022 and kicks off its operations in Greece
Medwood 2022, the leading furniture component fair in Greece, ended this Monday (April 4). The eighth edition of the event was Atim’s first as an exhibitor, with a dedicated stand and team to personally present the potential of top quality transfomable furniture to hundreds of people.
Medwood was a great opportunity not only to get to know new customers but also our Greek team, who excitedly presented the Trasformabili solutions to manufacturers coming from all the country.
The surprise of discovering what was hidden inside each drawer – a countertop, an extension to the top or even an entire dining table – struck the visitors, who gathered around the stand to see how ease it is to use the Trasformabili mechanisms and Atim’s extendable tables.
In addition to Atim’s booth, it was possible to find other Trasformabili in the stands of partners who have already embraced the technology and design of Atim mechanisms: Glycos exhibited Top 33, while Lygnos applied a Snack Top to its peninsula.
We are very proud of the team that made it all possible and we want to heartly thank Athanasio, Maria, Vasiliki and Drielle, who presented Atim for the first time in Greece. With enthusiasm and sympathy, they welcomed all visitors and demonstrated the versatility of the Trasformabili solutions to each and everyone, making Atim’s presence at the fair a great success!
Medwood officially marks the start of our collaborations in the Greek and Cypriot markets, in order to offer surprising furnishing solutions, of the highest Made in Italy quality, with that extra touch of design even to the most demanding customers and manufacturers.
If you want to find Atim solutions in Greece and Cyprus, write a message to marketing@atimspa.com.
Sliding tops: the solution for a functional, tidy and elegant kitchen
To furnish a modern kitchen, before even starting to select its materials, colors and appliances, the main concern should be the search for the best solutions to organize its space.
Those who want to create a functional kitchen which is, at the same time, aesthetically elegant, can innovate by applying a sliding top, such as those proposed in Atim’s Trasformabili line. Among the different models available, the solutions surprise for their ease of use, great resistence and that evident touch of design.
Striking sliding tops for the open plan kitchen
The trend of the openspace kitchen, connected to the living room, puts the kitchen island as protagonist of the whole room. To facilitate its organization, cleaning and use, it’s possible to apply a sliding top that completely or partially covers the worktop.
When closed, Top 33 conceals the whole worktop, giving the kitchen a clean and modern design. The elegance of the top’s minimum thickness (only 33 mm) is combined with the aluminum guides that make up its sliding system, guaranteeing a 60kg load capacity.
But why stop at the worktop, when you can add a design top that embelishes also the side of the island? Flap creates a sliding snack counter. Thanks to its guides, recessed laterally and under the island top, it is possible to enjoy a convenient snack angle placed at the end of the cabinet.
The sliding top that extends the kitchen peninsula
Both enthusiasts and design professionals are increasingly falling in love with the peninsula at the kitchen. There are several good reasons for that: it is the right compromise between the linear kitchen and the kitchen island, it adapts to either larger or smaller rooms and it often proves to be the key solution to take advantage of the available space in the best possible way.
Also in this configuration, Trasformabili sliding top solutions are an ally to improve the use of space, combining practicality with the “wow” effect of a design kitchen. Breakfast Top, for example, extends the island, creating a snack corner or hiding the worktops at will.
One more thing to keep in mind: the top doesn’t have to necessarily slide linearly. Solutions such as Corner add a surprising effect to the kitchen especially for its diagonal movement.
How to apply the sliding top in the linear kitchen
Is it possible to have a sliding top in a linear kitchen? If you’ve ever asked yourself this question, here’s the answer: yes, it’s possible to optimize even the top of a linear kitchen with a sliding mecchanism.
The different sizes of Atim’s Corner system allow the application of a top that slides diagonally.
This solution not only creates a comfortable snack corner in the kitchen, but also helps to expand the worktop when preparing meals.
To learn more about our solutions, download the catalog of the Trasformabili line or contact us for commercial information: marketing@atimspa.com.
How rising energy prices impact the Italian industrial production in 2022
The rise in energy prices will cost the productive world an extra 17 billion euros in one year (an increase of + 600%) and will affect almost all sectors of the Italian industry. A situation that further weights down on the already compressed operating margins of Italian companies, which have been facing enormous difficulties in sourcing raw materials since 2020.
The scenario for Italian industrial production begins 2022 with great challenges ahead.
How rising energy prices shall slow growth in 2022
It is precisely the cost of energy that forces not only the Italian, but the European industry as a whole, to revise their growth estimates downwards. In fact, the forecasts released by the European Commission indicate that “growth deceleration has been more acute than expected particularly due to the recent surge in Covid infections, the increase in energy prices and the prolonged interruption of supplies’ procurement”.
In the recent report published by the Confindustria Study Center (CsC), the institution indicates how the rise in the price of gas was rapidly
reflected in the price of electricity in Italy, causing an exponential growth of energy costs for industrial companies: such costs are expected to reach € 37 billion in 2022, against € 8 billion in 2019.
CsC also points out that, to date, the actual impact of such increases has not yet emerged in the prices of Italian consumer goods, which indicate a sharp erosion on the operating margins of industrial companies. It underlines that, despite having raised their price lists, industries have not been able to fully transfer the increase in their production costs.
Forecasts and measures against the rise in energy prices
The good news for Italy, according to the European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Paolo Gentiloni, is that economic growth could resume faster than previously imagined, thanks to the successful implementation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (Pnrr). The European Commission expects that “supplies will normalize and that inflationary pressure will be contained” along the year. This would mean that the price increases, reflected throughout the whole Italian production chain, could be temporary, falling again in 2023.
Despite that forecast, however, the uncertainties and risks for the recovery remain quite high, “considerably aggravated by the geopolitical tensions in Eastern Europe” between Russia and Ukraine, intrinsically linked to the supply of natural gas throughout Europe. Moreover, according to a World Bank analysis, mentioned in the CsC study, even under the most optimistic conditions, the gas supply should remain at high prices until the end of 2022, almost double compared to 2019.
After much pressure from all economic sectors in Italy, the government confirmed it’s intention to intervene to further reduce the bill costs. Prime Minister Mario Draghi has recently announced an upcoming Energy Decree, which is still being defined. The decree shall regard the Industry as well as other sectors of the Italian economy, but the actual reach and impact of the intervention will only be known when the available finantial funds are confirmed.
For now, the Energy Decree is expected to offer solutions that mitigate the increases in electricity and gas in order to accelerate the recovery and make the Italian industrial production more competitive at an international level.
Atim finalist of national Innovation Enterprise Award
Create, optimize, update, transform. Innovation is essential to keep up with market demands and to offer the best solutions not only in terms of products and services, but also of processes. It is an essential condition for any company that intends to reach excellence.
On 3 December the importance of innovation was celebrated with the ceremony of the XII Edition of the Enterprise Award for Innovation. The initiative, promoted by Confindustria, the Italian Quality Award Association (APQI) and the Giuseppina Mai Foundation, selects the Italian companies deemed capable of strengthening their competitive skills by leveraging the innovation achieved not only on their product and process, but as a whole on their business organization and company culture.
We participated for the first time this year and already Atim was chosen as a Finalist among 12 companies from all over Italy selected in 2021.
Receiving this award, especially in the year in which Atim celebrates its first 25 years, shows us that we are heading towards the right direction. We implement new solutions not only in the furnishing systems we create, but we do everything possible to feed the innovative attitude in every aspect of our company: in the active engagement of staff, in the implementation of the latest 4.0 production technologies, in optimizating the use of raw materials and sustainable energy resources, in the creation of omnichanel services, such as the recent We2You, to bring us closer to our customers all over the world.
The Enterprise Award for Innovation promoted by Confindustria is the first in Europe to have adopted the parameters of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) and participates, for the Industry and Services category, in the Premio dei Premi, a recognition established by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers mandated by the President of the Republic, whose ceremony will take place in 2022.
Time to celebrate 25 years of innovation
Farsightedness, ambition, creativity: principles that have marked the history of these first 25 years of our company. History we share with you: after all, if we celebrate today it is above all thanks to the trust that our partners and clients have had in us, the space we’ve created for an honest and open collaboration, as well as to the challenges we have undertaken together.
In this short video, our founder and CEO, Stefano Del Prete, talks about the key elements for the success and continuous growth of Atim over the years:
We are proud to have given our contribution to the furniture sector, bringing design and innovation to the homes of many people around the world. But this is just the beginning!
We intend to continue doing it, with the same enthusiasm and for a long time to come.
Stay tuned and let’s keep building the future of furniture design.
A surprising SICAM: Atim’s new products and services for the furniture industry
SICAM 2021 turned out to be a nice surprise. The presence of so many visitors at our stand confirmed once again the ability that our sector has to reignite, to innovate, to do its best to create solutions that solve even the most complex projects.
We strongly believe that combining our ideas and skills is the key to success. We2You was born from this conviction: an opportunity to participate in exclusive personal meetings in Atim’s showroom without leaving your own office. A new service we presented at the exhibition and which you can discover here.
We also presented a new line of aluminum extendable tables, with different finishes, openings and designs, about which we will give you more details in the coming months.
The Atim Trasformabili could not be left out of the event, especially now, when the use we make of our domestic and work spaces has been completely re-evaluated.
Click here to see the latest arrivals of the Trasformabili line, such as Blade, a multifunction cutting board system, and here to discover the thousand applications that make our Trasformabili protagonists in all spaces: kitchen, living room, laundry, study, home office, bathroom, bedroom, office, shops, etc.
We thank all those who managed to come and, for those who couldn’t be there, here’s a special video that might interest you.
We look forward to meeting you at our showroom with We2You as soon as possible, wherever you are!
Best regards,
Atim Team
The most beautiful places to enjoy your holidays in Italy
From the sea to the mountains, from the countryside to the woods, from North to South: our team recommends some of the most fascinating places in Italy to discover the wonders of the peninsula
August is the month par excellence for holidays in Italy, a time to relax and enjoy the Italian wonders that allow the most diverse trips, without even having to face long transfers. There are many interesting places for those who love history, gastronomy, art or nature – which makes it difficult to choose only one place to go…
Proud to bring the Italian spirit to the world, we asked our team for some advice on the most beautiful places to visit at the peninsula. And here is the result: dreamy places for all tastes!
A boat ride to the Grotta delle Tre Porte
The sea is an instrinsic part of the Italian soul. How could it not be? Italy has over 8,000 kilometers of coastline and an innate maritime vocation. So it is from the sea that our first indication arrives (thanks Sebastiano and Antonella for the advice!): Salento. More specifically, the caves in Santa Maria di Leuca, at the furthest point of the heel of the boot, from where you can observe the meeting of two seas: the Ionian and the Adriatic.
The Santa Maria di Leuca is perhaps the most famous and the most photographed of the caves of Leuca. In addition to its impressive magnitude and the crystalline waters that invite you to take a dip, the cave is also the cradle of important archaeological discoveries that tell the evolution of the Italian territory over the millennia.
A refreshing bath at the Capelli di Venus Falls
In the woods of Cilento, the waters are extra fresh even with August’s high temperatures. There is our second indication, suggested by Katia: a pearl for lovers of greenery and walks in the nature.
The Capelli di Venus waterfalls form a particularly relaxing spectacle: the rumor and beauty of the water flowing between the leaves of Maidenhair fern attached to the rock and then forming natural pools act are quite soothing. In addition, the waterfalls are located within the Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park, in Campania, where there is no shortage of activities and attractions. There are trails for trekking lovers, picnic areas for an outdoor lunch and suggestive historical structures, such as a Norman bridge made of stone and old water mills.
Slow travel in the Marche hills
A good compromise between coast and hinterland, the Marche region does not disappoint! Indication of Renzo, who was born there and who continues to choose it for his holidays. It’s easy to understand why: from the beaches of the Conero Riviera to the endless hills, from fortified cities to churches built into the rock, from cultural itineraries to nature walks, there are many attractions in a single destination.
Perhaps the best way to capture these landscapes is to do it slowly: how about discovering them by bike or on foot? There are itineraries of several days in the Marche hills. One of the most evocative is probably the Path of the Terre Mutate, which runs through municipalities hit by a big earthquake in 2009, telling first hand the phases of their reconstruction.
Breathe the mountain air
The Dolomites are perhaps the most impressive fraction of the Alps. An ideal place for a holiday that includes both adrenaline-pumping sports activities and family walks at high altitude. So much so that his region has been chosen by 3 of our collaborators – thanks Giorgia, Alessandra and Stefano!
One of the most popular destinations in recent years is the enchanting Lake Braies. It looks like a fairytale place: located at 1,496 meters above sea level, it is surrounded by fir forests and majestic mountains, including the Twelve Apostles and the Croda del Becco. It is breathtakingly beautiful, with turquoise-green waters and wooden boats that seem almost suspended on the surface.
And here’s a plus: while you’re there, try to participate in one of the Sounds of the Dolomites shows, a festival that takes place during the summer and combines the symphonies of music with those of nature.
Unforgettable sunsets at Giglio
Finally, we could not forget to mention the breathtaking summer sunsets. We move to Tuscany, to the Giglio Island, to tell you about one of the most impressive sunsets in all of Italy, indicated by Drielle.
While enjoying a drink at the Baia del Sole, let your eyes marvel at the immensity of the Tyrrhenian Sea with its crystal clear waters and deep blue tones. Notice how the sky quickly gains yellow, orange, rosy and red shades as the sun sets on the horizon and reveals the coasts of Corsica in the distance. Framing the scenery, on one side there’s the Island of Monte Cristo and, on the other, the Island of Elba. A show that will remain engraved forever in your memories.
We admit that it was quite hard to select only these 5 wonders of the Italian territory, but we hope you liked them.
We would also like to know which are your favorites: in your opinion, what is the most beautiful place for holidays in Italy? Leave your suggestion in the comments below.
Inspiring Design Books to Read on Vacation
Here is the list of our favorite titles, meant to inspire you during the Summer holidays
If design is your job or your passion, these are books for you to read, to keep at hand or to add to your collection. We have selected a few titles to inspire you during the summer, but which will surely find a place in your library as a design enthusiast.
*Some of these books may be available only in Italian
25 ways to drive a nail, by Enzo Mari
“I am convinced that designing corresponds to a deep human drive, such as the survival instinct, hunger, sex. We are a species that wants to change its environment“. Thus Enzo Mari opens his autobiography. In addition to collecting the main moments of the life and career of this Italian design guru, the book is a true artistic and architectural manifesto that makes us reflect on contemporary civilization.
Enzo Mari is probably the most brilliant and innovative Italian designer of the twentieth century. Growing up in pre-war Milan, he lived in poverty for a long time before starting his artistic career at the Brera Academy in the post-war period. In the years of the economic boom he revolutionized the concept of design, creating what he himself calls a democratic utopia: designing and producing beautiful and useful objects for ordinary people, hitherto excluded from an art considered luxury.
Very difficult to say, by Ettore Sottsass
A collection of unpublished texts and letters that reconstruct the universe of the brilliant architect Ettore Sottsass. An invitation to travel with him to the places he has visited, but also inside his mind: “Communists, Africans and navigators”, “The ceramics of darkness”, “The impassive containers”, “Due to the delayed arrival of the aircraft”,“The ritual to make a Sumerian house”. The titles Sottsass chose for his texts could be enough to illustrate his world.
In this book, Sottsass speaks of his loves, of his profession, of the restless world in which he found himself. But in the meantime he travels – to Greece, India, Egypt -, designs, experiments, photographs, each time moving, as if it were the first, in a delightfully eccentric way.
The living house. Repairing spaces, learning to build, by Andrea Staid
An irresistible title for all those who believe that the home is more than just a place where we carry out our daily activities but, above all, is a physical place that represents what gives meaning to our life.
The book seeks the profound meaning of living, from the Peruvian Andes to the Indian mountains, passing through Vietnam and Mongolia. The living house combines anthropology and personal experience, travel and ethnography and invites us to rethink our way of imagining ourselves in space.
Mobitecture: Architecture on the Move, by Rebecca Roke
With this book, Rebecca Roke celebrates mobile architecture in all its forms, presenting a taxonomy of nomadic, portable and moving structures of all shapes and species.
The book lists a very rich and entertaining repertoire of all the possible types of structures that can be moved and transported: homes built for life on the go in deserts, oceans, on the beach, in the woods, in the mountains and in the city; to be moved with cars, bicycles, skis, motorcycles, tractors, mules, sledges, even with hands and feet. For lovers of transformable furniture and the infinity of applications it allows, this is definitely a book that triggers the imagination.
Big Book of Design, edited by Andrea Branzi
An ideal book to follow the creative path of the great masters of Design, from the 1920s to today: from Giò Ponti to Philippe Starck, from Ettore Sottsass to the Castiglioni brothers. Composed of essays that tell the story of each designer, it provides the main interpretations of their work.
An atlas of the objects also illustrates some of their most famous objects, through short cards, drawings and photographs. The intention is to offer accurate disclosure, intended for anyone interested in learning about design, be it a student, professional or simply a lover and enthusiast, offering basic information but also guidance for any further information.
Did you like this list? Did you already know these books? Would you like to add some other to the selection?
Leave us a message in the comments of this post… and enjoy your reading!