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.
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.
Home design trends on the rise in 2022
If 2021 taught us to explore the potential of every corner of our homes, 2022 promises to consolidate the trends that make domestic spaces increasingly versatile.
The growing concern for well-being and the right balance between dedication to work and one’s mental health will be the main protagonists this year. Therefore, solutions that expand the spaces and make them more versatile become the most sought after by those who want to create a home that welcomes, in the same place, the different needs of its inhabitants.
If you are planning your home, or are simply looking for inspiration to give your home a new look in 2022, here are our tips:
Islands with sliding tops that help delimiting, without limiting, open spaces
Solutions such as the Twice and Twice Top systems allow you to use both sides of the kitchen island according to the needs of each moment: pull the top towards the kitchen when you engage on culinary activities or simply slide it towards the living room when you want to have a table available to study, work, or make a video call that does not feature the kitchen as background.
Other solutions, such as Top 33 and Sestante, help to keep the space organized: when closed, these tops completely or partially cover the worktop and hob, thus helping to keep the house visually cleaner and tidier.
Retractable desks help establish when the working day is over
Pull-out desks or folding desks are effective solutions to officially declare when the working hours are over. In a few moments it is possible to store the entire workstation in a wardrobe, on a shelf or even in a drawer, transforming the same space into a reading or meditation corner where you can take care of your health and well-being.
The great advantage of solutions of this type, such as Lunch, Desk or Evolution, is that they can be installed in the furniture already present in the house, since they apply to standard measures.
Let the sunshine in and enjoy the most of natural light at home
The power that sunlight has on our mood, health and well-being is indisputable. So use and abuse of solutions that allow light to circulate more easily through the different rooms, such as sliding glass doors.
Ghost Glass – sliding system for glass doors
Speaking of glass, renovations to use outdoor spaces even during the coldest months have grown a lot in 2021 and should continue in 2022. How about having lunch on a nice table on the veranda all year round?
Consult our catalog of aluminum extendable tables, suitable for both indoor and outdoor use, and choose the model that’s right for you.
Did you like these ideas?
Click here to request more information on where to find Atim solutions.
Summer, vacantions and freedom: the growth of the RV market and new surprising furnishing solutions
A traveling house offers all the comfort, freedom and safety. Lately the number of vanlife supporters has increased exponentialy, boosting the continuous research of the sector for furniture that make spaces even more practical and comfortable.
Caravan, camper and motorhome trips were among the most popular forms of vacation in summer 2020. According to a survey conducted by Erwin Hymer Group in Europe, the sector has seen a 20% increase compared to 2019 and almost half of the vacationers who were on the road on a four-wheeled home were new to this kind of travel. The trend promises to be reconfirmed in 2021 and to continue to grow in the coming years: Germany, for example, has just recorded the best half-year in its history regarding the sale of caravans and motorhomes. There were around 63,000 new registrations from January to July 2021 in agreement with the CIVD (the German Association for the Caravan Industry).
The health security measures dictated by the pandemic certainly gave it a great boost, but it is also true that it was not the only one: the vanlife style has been gaining more and more supporters around the world for a while. People who want a roving and independent holiday, dedicated to discovering the natural, historical and cultural treasures of the area with the utmost comfort.
Oplà +39 applied to Eila Edition One motorhome
For those who still think of recreational vehicles (RVs) as a symbol of a hippy era or an icon of the 1980’s, it suffices to say that some motorhomes can actually be compared to yachts, both for the organization of their spaces and for their high quality finishes. Some luxury models, such as the Morelo Grand Empire, presented at the last Dusseldorf Caravan Salon, can exceed a cost of 600,000 euros, for example.
Ultimately, holidays on a caravan or motorhome are more than a simple alternative to the anti-COVID precautions. It’s an actual travel philosophy.
Transformable furniture for motorhomes: collaboration between Atim and Tecnoform
The RV sector in Italy
Tecnoform, Italian company specialized in designing furniture for high-end recreational and nautical vehicles, is constantly looking for innovative and high quality solutions, able to surprise and satisfy even the most demanding customers.
So it recently signed a collaboration with Atim for the creation of furnishing solutions that make the interiors of motorhomes even more versatile, using the space in a practical and intelligent way for to the different activities that people may carry out during the day.
“Our furnishings shape the RV interiors making them seem more spacious, modular and easily transformable. Whether using the vehicle to travel or to work, our goal is to enable a unique experience. This is why we have entered into this strategic partnership with Atim, integrating their ingenious sliding and folding mechanisms to our production, thus creating a furniture capable of making RV environments more dynamic and, at the same time, aesthetically satisfying”, explains Renzo Kerkoc, CEO of Tecnoform .
“I nostri arredi modellano gli interni facendoli sembrare più spaziosi, modulari e facilmente trasformabili. Sia che si utilizzi il veicolo per viaggiare o lavorare, il nostro obiettivo è consentire un’esperienza unica. Per questo abbiamo stretto questa partnership strategica con Atim, integrando i loro ingegnosi meccanismi scorrevoli e pieghevoli alla nostra produzione, creando così un arredamento in grado di rendere gli ambienti più dinamici e, al contempo, esteticamente appaganti”, spiega Renzo Kerkoc, CEO di Tecnoform.
Atim and Tecnoform work together to make vanlife even more comfortable
The partnership will bring to Tecnoform’s furnishing solutions the technology of Atim transformable furniture hardware, specially adapted to the characteristics of RVs: the ease of use and the stability of the mechanisms, the lightness of the aluminum guides and the safety of their locking systems guarantee the safety and usability of the furniture even when the vehicle is in motion.
“It doesn’t always happen that we find partners who fully share our values, our desire to create, innovate and transform. But, when it happens, the feeling is truly unique. This makes me believe that many surprising solutions will come from this collaboration, the benefits of which will be indisputably experienced by those who will later enjoy the comfort of a real traveling luxury home ”, adds Stefano Del Prete, CEO of Atim.