Home meets office: Four furnishing concepts to make you feel good

Practical tips and space-saving solutions for every type of work

A question of work-life balance


In the search for a healthy balance between home and office, the design of home workplaces is becoming a test for contemporary working models. Thanks to digital communication and cloud applications for online collaboration it is now theoretically possible to work anywhere. The home office enables hybrid working models that promise flexibility and more quality time: but how can this requirement be met spatially when the office is in the living room and the job suddenly takes up too much space? Many home officers consequently ask themselves the following questions:

  • How can concentrated work succeed at home - and how do I switch off again?
  • How do I recreate the office in your living room or bedroom at home without the office electronics and office swivel chair getting in the way?  
  • How many square meters do I have to plan for the home office and what furniture fits in?


Fortunately, practical multi-purpose furniture, space-saving designs and clever furnishing concepts offer numerous ways to draw the line between work and private life, even in a small space. We present 4 home office types with specific setup examples and work situations: for parents, for creative people, for managers and for IT staff.

Home-Office Guide: What type of work are you?

For many people today, work means non-physical work. Modern job descriptions not only define our way of working, but also our working environment. Large computers and mountains of files are relics of the pre-digital world.


Thanks to the new technology work can also now largely take place outside of the primary workplace. What's more, laptops and other mobile devices are just as much a part of our private lives as they are of everyday working life. The spatial boundaries are blurred. In this way, mobility within the home is also becoming the leitmotif of modern work.


If the home office becomes the (or one) centre of work it is worth dealing in depth with the spatial dimensions of everyday work. Put the way you work to the test: How are you most productive and what opportunities does a home office offer you?


Home office does not necessarily mean a study. Some people just need an optically shielded area, for others working at the dining table is ideal. Laptop, smartphone and wireless networks make it possible. In addition, everyday life provides the framework for working in the home office. What type of work are you?

Quickly switch between family and work

Working with child: Organisation is everything


Whether part-time or full-time working parents are always busy. The home office acts as an opportunity to combine childcare and work. The two areas of life often run parallel to each other. Fluid working time models and multitasking can best be realized with a mobile workplace concept.


If most tasks can be completed on the laptop, working is possible flexibly at different locations in the apartment. Depending on the daily rhythm, you can quickly convert the kitchen table or dining table into a workplace; however, plan a fixed place for storing work materials.


Tip: Choose a home office chair that matches the style of your other chairs, but is particularly comfortable on account of special features.

Home office at dinner table smow tnpx
How do I stay focused at home?

Manager: 24/7 Availability


Working in management, as, for example, CEO or Art Director, you move in a large radius: office, customer appointments, business trips. The home office serves primarily as a retreat for reflection and for completing urgent tasks, even at the weekend. The job is omnipresent, the home office automatically becomes part of the living area.


Retreat to a lounge corner to work and use a high side table for your laptop. Alternatively, a secretary serves as a flexible workplace. A clever option is a fold-out desk top. Integrated into a wall unit system, this variant also offers plenty of storage space.


Tip: Round off your work area visually and functionally with a high-quality reading light.

relaxed working at home smow tnpx
Creative in the home office

Freelance creatives: In search of inspiration


Whether in communication design or in the fine arts, creative people need an inspiring working environment. The home office becomes a studio. An attractive work surface, natural materials and a comfortable chair set the stage for the creative process.



When setting up your home office, consider whether you need a work corner with a full-fledged desk or whether you would be better off working freely in the room, for example at an easel or a standing desk.



Tip: Colourful decoration with pictures and indoor plants as well as an extravagant lamp make the inspiring ambience perfect.

creative working at home smow tnpx
At home in the office

Specialists: Concentrated at the desk


Especially in digital fields of activity remote work in the home office is standard in many companies. Anyone who works long hours at a time in the home office needs an ergonomic office chair and a fully-fledged workplace with a large desk that offers space for several monitors. The possibility of attaching the monitors and desk lamp directly to the table ensures order and space on the table.


Pay attention to firm, clear structures to create a solid basis for concentrated work. When it comes to furnishing, functionality can take precedence over aesthetics.



Tip: A height-adjustable table ensures a varied working posture and relieves the back.

fully equipped home office

Technology, storage space, flexibility: Four space-saving furniture tips for working at home

Space is often scarce in the home office, consequently smart room planning is the aim if living and working areas are to coexist in a good balance. First, reflect on how many devices and what storage space you need for your job, and how important flexible use of space is to you.

There are essentially two ways of structuring the home workplace: as a permanent place or multifunctional with flexible multiple use:

  1. Static solutions such as the compact work corner or the full-fledged complete desk form the centre around which various activities revolve.
  2. Flexible solutions such as the mobile or integrated work station, on the other hand, are characterised by the fact that they can be assembled and dismantled quickly - for example the bureau that disappears completely into a shelf or the work station at the dining table. Such dynamic, situation-related solutions are ideal, especially in small city apartments, because they are space-saving home office furnishings.

Mobile working

The flexible workplace is created at the dining table or in the lounge area

How much space does a mobile workstation need? Definitely not a specially created one, because working on the move means integrating the work into the available space! How about working at the dining table? Or in a comfortable (lounge) chair? A mobile workplace only requires an average of 1.8 square meters and can simply consist of an armchair, side table and floor lamp.

Our recommendation:

Integrated work

The wall secretary or the hinged shelf serve as a temporary workplace

A desk and permanent workplace are a must, but space is limited? An integrated workstation is the solution: space-saving, it only takes up 1.2 square meters, and can be cleverly inserted into shelf modules. Add a chair and a lamp, done!

Our recommendation:

Compact work

The desk and its cohorts form the working corner in a small space

Small but welcoming: The compact work corner offers everything a workplace needs, but takes up very little space. A desk, chair, lamp and even shelf or cabinet modules fit in just 1.7 square meters. Compressed study flair!

Our recommendation:

Complete workplace

The fully equipped setting practically brings the office home

The structured office at home! Desk, mobile container, cabinet modules, shelves, chair - everything that a home office needs has its place and justifies its claims. The deluxe office ambience succeeds on 4.5 square meters.

Our recommendation:

Designer furniture combinations in a single download

For all four furnishing types you will find picture collages with suitable products that you can download, print out and also take with you to your local smow Store - or simply enjoy as inspiration, so that your own "home" with three pieces of furniture (table, lamp, chair) becomes a stylish "office". (All sketches and renderings: tnpx)

Furniture combinations at a glance: free guide

More inspiration for your feel-good interior

Working together with String
USM Haller shelving with desk
String shelving with desk
Vitra Home Office
Classic Eiermann
Thonet Minimalism
Magis Office Atelier
Workplace by Muuto
Ergonomics with Montana