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Working from home is quickly becoming the new normal. Many of us won’t be going back into an office for a while yet. Setting up a space where you can sit, concentrate, and get work done is incredibly important. Not everyone is lucky enough to have a whole unused room that can be turned into an office. Still, there are ways to create a space in your home that best suits your working style, feels comfortable, and promotes concentration.

Natural light

It should come as no surprise that we love light - we manufacture the things after all. But our favorite light by far is sunlight. Setting up your workstation in a place that has plenty of natural light has various benefits. First, aside from upgrading all your fixtures to LED, the best way to save on energy consumption is by keeping the lights off as much as possible. Look to stake out a place near a window to take advantage of natural light throughout the day. If you have multiple exposures in your home, consider an east-facing window if you do your best work in the morning or a west-facing window if you work best later in the day. If you have neither eastern nor western windows, a south-facing window will allow the most sunlight to come into your space and illuminate your work surface throughout the day.

Ambient light

Of course we’re going to extol the virtues of layered light when it comes to any room and the home office is no different. As the weather gets cooler and the days grow shorter, light sources other than the sun are going to become increasingly more important. Consider hanging a pendant light near your desk, using recessed lighting, and setting up some floor lamps around the room. If you find that the light is casting shadows on your desk, you can move the light causing the shadow, or, if it’s immovable, add a lamp in the opposite direction of the shadow to help eliminate it.

Task lighting

Light that helps you accomplish your work is of utmost importance in your home office. Desk lamps are a great way to direct light precisely where you need it on your work surface and are the first lamp many think of when considering how to light a home office. In the case that your setup doesn’t allow for a desk lamp, for example, if you’re working on a shared surface or your desk is too small to accommodate all the things you need to do your work along with a lamp, consider installing a swing-arm sconce. These sconces come in a variety of styles. Some must be hard-wired into your wall while others can be hung on the wall and plugged into a wall outlet. Alternatively, a well-placed pendant light can also serve as task lighting.

Color temperature

Most offices have traditionally been lit with horrid fluorescent tubes. Thankfully many buildings are upgrading these old, ugly fixtures with modern LED fixtures which cause much less eye strain and are more energy-efficient. Many of these LEDs are at the higher end of the color spectrum: 5000K daylight and up. These “cooler” bluer colors are good for promoting alertness but can feel very sterile in a home setting. A traditional incandescent bulb, which is what most people are used to having in their homes, has a color temperature around 2700K. That may be too warm and homey for a work setting, especially as the sun goes down earlier in the fall and winter months yet we’re still expected to work in these darker conditions. We recommend light in about the 3000K - 4000K color temperature range for the area around your home office. You’ll find these lights are a good balance of warm, comfortable and cool, invigorating light. Not quite so glaring and sterile as a traditional office, but not quite so inviting as your living space where you retreat to unwind at the end of the day.

Dimmers and zones

Being able to control the light in a room is very important - and that goes for home offices too. Dimmer switches and lighting zones are two of the best ways to ensure you’re getting exactly the light you need where you need it. Consider grouping different sections of recessed lights into distinct zones, putting a pendant or chandelier on its own switch, and plugging floor or table lamps into outlets controlled by dimmer switches as well. These elements of control will ensure you can adjust the light to the perfect levels as the natural light changes throughout the day.

Bulbs

No matter your home office setup, SunLake lighting has the lights you need to get the most out of your space. Our high-quality LED bulbs come in a variety of color temperatures and an industry-leading 10-year warranty. Below are just a few of the bulbs we love for home offices. You can also click here for our full LED product catalog.