How to Decorate a Home Office in an Open Concept Apartment
Wondering how to decorate a home office area in an open concept apartment? I get it! Because fitting a workspace setup in your small apartment decor can be tricky - how do you make your small apartment layout look cohesive with the workspace design? How do you keep it from looking like a hodgepodge?
In this video, I’m showing you how our home office decor is coming together in our new apartment decorating process AND I’m sharing my home office design ideas and tips!
So if you’re looking for desk decoration ideas, small apartment tips, and advice on how to create a cozy home office for yourself, you’re in the right place!
Video Transcript ↓
Let's talk about creating a workspace you love so that you can feel inspired, cozy, and ✨vibey✨ while you work from home, regardless of the work you do.
…Which is exactly what my boyfriend Kobee and I have been working towards in our own workspace in our new apartment!
Now, if you watched the last couple videos on my channel, you know we haven't really done that much in terms of styling the new apartment. But our workspace area is one of the spots that feels like it's starting to come together.
So in this video, I'm going to give you some of my home office decor tips based on what we've done with our workspace so far, specifically when having to incorporate a workspace area in an open concept floor plan.
Because our particular situation is that our living room, kitchen, and workspace area all share the same space.
And if you're new to this channel, my name is Steffi and I'm the creator of the interior style blog, Moda Misfit, as well as the online course, Small Apartment Styling School. And you're watching Living Pretty, the place for apartment styling tips!
And before we dive in, I wanted to let you know that you can now watch my free workshop, "Decorate Your Dream Apartment Without Spending Money on the Wrong Decor For You" whenever you want!
In this FREE, 1-hour workshop, I’ll teach you how to…
Discover your personal style so you can decorate a space that feels like YOU
Create mood boards to help you visualize what your apartment could look like before buying things
Shop for decor in a way that will save you money and allow you to buy things that actually fit your space and your personality
If all that sounds like exactly what you need to create the dreamy apartment you’ve been yearning for, click here to watch the workshop!
Home Office Decor Tip #1
Create invisible walls
So my first home office decor tip specifically pertains to incorporating a workspace area in an open concept space.
And that tip is to define your workspace area and create invisible walls around it!
When I'm creating a sense of separation in a space, I like to pretend that there are invisible walls dividing those sections of the space. This means that you define the living room area, you define the kitchen area, and you define the workspace. And you don't really allow any overlap visually between those sections because there are invisible walls separating them.
This allows your eye to land on certain areas of the space and be able to distinguish what those areas are without that hodgepodge feeling coming into play!
Now, a little disclaimer here, this is not a rule. You know, I've said this before: my interior styling tips on this channel are tools, not rules. So of course there are situations where there can be overlap of things in an open concept space.
But if you're struggling with making things feel cohesive in your apartment, think about how you can place invisible walls in the space. So that's how you create a sense of separation in the space!
Home Office Decor Tip #2
Unify the space with color
A great way to make your home office feel unified with the rest of the open concept space is to coordinate your color palette!
I won't go too in depth into my approach to color because I lay it out completely in this video:
But basically, if you're having to incorporate your office area in your open concept apartment, (rather than putting it in its own room) think about how you can use color in your home office area to make it feel unified with the rest of the space.
I personally love sticking to a limited color palette.
This is where my Color Code comes in, which again, I talk about again in this video. But basically my Color Code (this is my approach to using color in an open concept space) is one base color + one accent color x repetition = color cohesiveness.
I like to choose one base color - this is the color that is in the larger items of the space - then I like to choose one accent color, which is kind of a work in progress right now… Like I said, we haven't really done much in the styling department in the new space yet, but in the case of the studio apartment, the accent color was green-goldish.
And then you take the base color and the accent color, and you just simply repeat it over and over throughout the space. Repeat your base color, repeat your accent color, and that pretty much creates visual cohesiveness.
Again, this is a tool, not a rule! You can definitely use color more liberally if that's more your style. But if you want a trick that basically guarantees cohesiveness in a space in terms of color, my Color Code makes it just super easy and approachable.
Home Office Decor Tip #3
Limit clutter
Another key way to make your home office area look cohesive and visually pleasing in an open concept apartment is to really limit the clutter.
Now, I know that’s hard! Kobee and I have been struggling with this because, if you've been keeping up with these past few videos of us moving into this new apartment, storage is a big struggle in this apartment. Because there's barely any closet space.
And I'm gonna make a video in the future about how we have been overcoming this issue. But for now, I'll just tell you that…
Clutter is the enemy of style.
You could have a perfectly designed apartment, but if you have clutter everywhere, that immediately negates the style. And I know that sounds harsh, but it's true!
So if you have a beautifully decorated workspace, for example, but there is clutter on your desk, that is going to make it less inspiring and less visually pleasing.
Basically, if this were a game of rock/paper/scissors, clutter always trumps style, unfortunately. Clutter is just so powerful!
So Kobee and I are trying to overcome this clutter conundrum by using various storage solutions in here. Again, it's not done yet, but for example, we have to have our dresser out here instead of in our bedroom, because it just simply won't fit in our tiny, tiny bedroom.
So this dresser, in addition to housing some of my clothes, also houses some of our home office stuff. It's basically like a de facto filing cabinet.
And this is really what you kind of have to do in a small apartment. You have to get creative and be open-minded about the way you use furniture. Sometimes you have to put a dresser in the workspace!
Home Office Decor Tip #4
Try a minimalist desk aesthetic
My next home office decor tip is one that might shock some of you… And that is to try having a minimalist desk!
Now, I know this might be shocking to any of you who are familiar with my style and my YouTube channel. It is well known that I am a bit of a maximalist when it comes to decor, and my desk situation in the studio apartment was very maximalist. And I loved that! But it also felt a little overwhelming, and even a little oppressive, which is not what you want to feel when you're sitting down to get work done.
So I decided to take a totally opposite approach with my desk area in this apartment, and only having three pieces of decor. That's it. Part of this is that Kobee and I both got really small desks, so there isn't really a lot of room for decor anyway.
But I'm finding that it feels really nice only having three pieces of decor on my desk!
And this has been really refreshing! So while I'm definitely still a proponent of the more maximalist desk - a desk that just is a bit more glamorous and a bit more decorated - I also wanna put forth the option to you that a minimalist desk is quite nice. And that's saying a lot coming from me!
Home Office Decor Tip #5
Romanticize your workspace
And my final home office decor tip is to establish a romantic vision for your workspace.
Let's romanticize the workspace!
Your office area doesn't have to feel corporate, stuffy, uninspiring… No, let's make your home office feel like a cozy oasis.
Because now that so many of us are working from home, shouldn't every piece of our home make us feel good?
Even if you are not passionate about your work itself, or even if you downright hate your work (which unfortunately, a lot of us do), an inspiring and beautiful workspace can be so uplifting and elevate your work experience.
So think about a romantic vision for your workspace. For example, Kobee and I have a very specific vibe and story that we have placed on our ideal workspace area. We haven't quite achieved it yet, but I feel like we're really, really close.
And that romantic vision is one that is sort of an artist's loft. It's industrial. It's cool. It's also a little bit glamorous. It's a little bit goth (that might be more my touch than his), and we've really sort of attached a story to what we want our workspace to feel like.
And that story, that visual reference point, makes us feel more inspired and productive as we work.
My romantic vision for my workspace in my studio apartment was kind of this glamorous French boudoir vibe, which of course is completely unrelated to the idea of a workspace in a conventional sense. You don't really associate French boudoir with home office. Usually. 🙃
So think about what your romanticized vision for your workspace can be. Just whatever makes you feel inspired and vibey in your space!
So those were my workspace decor tips, specifically when it comes to incorporating a workspace in an open concept apartment like a studio apartment or a more open one-bedroom apartment.
But even if you have a workspace in its own separate room, you can still apply these concepts to that as well!
Update…
So here's a fun little update! After recording the majority of this video, I have actually moved my office into the bedroom!
All my tips in the video still stand, but I thought I would share with you that this is how the decorating process works! You try one thing and then when it doesn't feel quite right, you try another thing.
And there was nothing really wrong with the configuration that we had going on in there. And like my past self said, it was coming along nicely compared to the rest of the apartment decor.
But the one thing that was kind of just not working for me was the fact that our workspace was forming a straight line. There was just something about that straight line that I found to be not very visually pleasing.
Generally when it comes to interior decor, you want to avoid scenarios that create straight lines like that. Now again, tools not rules, but there's just something inherently uninteresting about a straight line.
So I suppose this is just my little bonus tip for this video that I have learned in the last couple weeks!
And really, I am so pleased with my new little home office arrangement. I love that it's kind of tucked away and it's my own little corner. And this desk, and this whole vibe, looks really good with the rest of the bedroom decor.
I have previously stated that I don't like mixing my bedroom area with a work area just because a bedroom should be relaxing and work should feel more productive and active, but this is a different apartment.
Each apartment comes with its own needs.
My studio apartment had its own little nook that was perfect for a workspace. We don't really have something like that here.
So in this case, I am actually really happy to have my desk right next to the bed! It gives my workday a nice cozy vibe, and it also doubles as a nightstand, which we were gonna have to buy eventually. So it kind of kills two birds with one stone, pardon the expression.
So that's my little update and bonus tip! Let me know in the comments below, how do you make your workspace pretty and inspiring? For daily glimpses into my studio apartment life, you can follow me on Instagram @moda.misfit.
And for regular doses of apartment styling tips and small space decor inspiration, subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell to be notified when a new video goes up every week.