Up-cycling interior design ideas for your home office

With many of us now working full or part-time from home the necessity for office space has become more than merely a room, or part of a room, that houses a computer and printer. If you're fortunate to have a room you can dedicate as a home office you can up-date the look and up-cycle many soft furnishings and accessories.

Making Distinctions If your home home office is shared with another room, making the distinction between the two areas will help you to separate work from leisure. It can be extremely difficult to work from home and that's why you need to have an area which allows you to work without household life get in the way and of course, vice versa.

Fit for Purpose Each of us will have our own criteria for what constitutes work from pleasure. The design and style of your home office should reflect the type of work you do. For example, if you're working at a computer all day then a more formal setting is required, on the other hand if you hand-make clothes or crafts the style can be more informal and relaxed.

Light The amount of natural light you have in the room should be at the top of your priority list. If you're working at a computer you should try and avoid screen glare as much as possible. Ready made Roman blinds are ideal as you can adjust the amount of window they cover throughout the day. Make your own Roman blinds by up-cycling old clothes or even duvet covers which no longer match the colour scheme in a bedroom.

Accessories You may make a conscious decision to go paper-free, you can also up-cycle many other of your accessories. For example, transforming plain tin cans is easy and effective and can save you money as you won't have to buy pen holders and storage trays. To turn a used tin can into a pen holder simply wash and dry the can thoroughly. Make sure that there are no sharp edges where the lid has been removed. Use scraps of wallpaper or cheap curtain fabric to cover both the inside and outside of the can.

It may be a good idea to keep the inside plain and the outside patterned, but it really doesn't matter. If you want to add a fun element use faux fur for the outside – for a more formal look faux leather or suede are great options. There's plenty of ways to get creative when furnishing a home office – think about each item you need and ways of making or up-cycling existing items to save money.