If you are working from home, it’s really important to get a great office space set up. This is somewhere where you can retreat and focus on work, and not be distracted by chores or leisure activities that you do in other areas of the home. Whether this is just a desk in a corner of the room where you work alone, or a suite where other employees come in to work, having this space is crucial.
When setting up this home office space, be sure to have the best quality furniture, home office storage and lighting. The right lighting can really increase your productivity, as well as prevent migraines, eye strain and depression.
Best Lighting for your Home Office
Natural Lighting
The best kind of light for us is natural lighting, just how nature intended. Choosing a bright room for your home office will help you feel more awake in daytime hours and make you subsequently more productive.
But it’s important to choose the right window position. A window facing your screen will create a disturbing glare, whereas if you face the window you might find that at certain times of the day the sun will be in your eyes.
There is no one size fits all answer for where to position your desk to make the most out of natural light. There might be some rooms where the sun never glares in the working day – and others where this is really noticeable. It all depends on the position of the room and the house, where in the country you are located, and what time of year it is.
But what if you work often when the sun is down, which is the case for most of us in winter, or the only place where you can have your home office is in some kind of basement or cellar, or a room with little natural light? Luckily, there are plenty of lighting solutions for home offices. Let’s look at some of the best!
Ambient Lighting
Too much glare can feel harsh and unnatural, and can cause some of the health problems that we listed above. Instead, choose for a general ambient lighting, coming from bulbs in the ceiling. Lampshades help to scatter light across the room, and a dimmer switch is a good idea to create exactly the light that’s right for you.
Desk Lamps
While it’s not advisable to just have these installed in your office – they can be too harsh – desk lamps are good for particular tasks. If you are doing something complicated or fiddly and need to focus on that specific thing, desk lamps can be useful to hone in on that.
If your home office has different work stations, it might be a good idea to have a seperate lighting system for each. These can be put on the desk or, if you are short of space, attached to a wall. You could also look at hanging a light bulb down from the ceiling.
Accent Lighting
This is a different type of lighting, but is commonly used as decoration in home offices. Accent lighting adds emphasis to wall hangings, whether they be certifications or artworks. Make sure that this kind of lighting compliments any pre-existing lighting in your office, and that the use of such does not make it too harsh or overwhelming.
LEDS
While more commonly used in traditional offices, if you are going to be using your home office 40 hours a week for years to come, you might want to think about installing some professional lighting.
LEDS provide a good light quality and do actually save money; so it could be a worthwhile return on your investment. LEDS took over from fluorescent tubes, which were the old favourite lighting solution for offices. Fluorescent tubes were cheap to install, but would commonly flicker, make a buzzing sound and dim with age. When LEDS were invented, many people quickly turned to them as a reliable alternative.
LED tubes need to be installed, but then they are very cheap to run and are much more environmentally friendly; using less energy and also not using elements like mercury. LED panels are also known to eliminate glare, which makes offices more comfortable and productive!
Adaptable Lighting
If you will be using your home office for a long time to come, consider making use of adaptable lighting. Spending too long in artificially lit rooms can muck up our circadian rhythms and give you issues with insomnia.
The answer to this is making use of lighting that changes; using systems that give us more light in the mornings and less in the evenings. These are fairly costly to install, but are really worth it for your health if you are planning on working at home continuously.
Conclusion
There are many lighting solutions for your office, lots of which can be adapted for home offices. It’s definitely a great idea to draw on natural light as much as possible, which will enhance your mood, increase your productivity and make working from home feel natural.
If you can’t make use of good natural lighting, adaptable lighting might be the answer; this costs more than the other options but is a good option health-wise.
LEDS are a cheaper alternative, as is using ambient lighting; this is just a fancy way for saying use a lightshade to scatter the lighting across the room. Desk lamps are great for focusing on particular tasks, and may want to be used for individual desks.
There are many ways to install lighting in your workplace, some which will benefit your health and some that could cause problems further down the line. Make sure you pick the right one for you!
