It hurts every time we step into our office and it feels like a jail cell. It will probably be years until we work our way up the company ladder and get ourselves one of those huge ones. Until then we can just get on with it and wait until it happens. Have you ever noticed how it can sometimes feel soul destroying when you look around and can’t stand the look of where you are? It means your productivity is not as great as it should be, which you need it to be if you’re ever going to get that big corner office. Something needs to change.
If you ask your boss to knock a wall down to increase the size of your office, I really don’t know what he’d say to you. Maybe he would just laugh and tell you to get lost. But luckily you don’t need to get the sledge hammer out just yet. It’s pretty easy to make your office appear bigger without touching any walls. You just have to alter it so you think it looks bigger. If you have no clue how to get started and what needs to be done we can have a look now and go over the 4 easiest ways to do it.
Make your room lighter
When your room looks lighter it automatically makes it look bigger. That maybe sounds crazy, but it’s not. When you walk into a room that’s dark it always feels smaller. This is just the opposite. The best thing you can do is make sure as much natural light as possible gets in. That means always having your blinds open which isn’t hard to remember. Maybe you can change the bulb so it’s a higher wattage, although this might not be possible depending how your office building. The last thing you could do is to buy a table lamp to add more light yourself. This will work well on dark mornings.
Start using mirrors
Mirrors aren’t just for vain people to look at how pretty they are. They actually serve a great purpose by making a room look bigger than it actually is. When you look in a mirror it is obvious the room isn’t actually bigger because of what’s on the other side, but when you subconsciously see something out the corner of your eye, the brain can easily be tricked. Have a few hanging up in your office and see what happens. Only enough that it will make your room look bigger, but it won’t make your colleagues think you love yourself too much.
Use smaller furniture
When you have a small office there is no point cramming it will huge pieces of furniture. If you need a massive desk for all your paperwork it’s understandable, but if you have one that stretches from one corner to the other and you don’t even use it, that’s stupid. Have a desk that’s large enough for your needs. This is the same for all the other things you will have in your office. Don’t have too much filing cabinets if they’re all empty. If you want to waste space on anything it should be a comfortable chair.
Call the maid
Lots of people seem to think everything needs to be kept and never thrown out. Hoarding is something that gets you strange looks when people visit your home, yet when an office is filled with crap it’s somehow OK because it could come in useful. If you have any crap lying around you should definitely get rid of it. It won’t become useful, ever, and it’s just making your office look tiny. If there really is some important documents that need to be kept they should be boxed up and stored away.
Thomas Brown is a home decor blogger and also works as a interior designer who designs office and home space for his clients. He advocates the use of Habitat1 Office Fitouts Melbourne for office remodelling.
