Home office in the bedroom?

[Misty9]

Has anyone done this? How did you separate the office part? Disadvantages?

We did it for a while while we didn't have enough rooms with plaster etc to do any different. The huge disadvantage for us was that DH (whose office it was) found it really hard to switch off and sleep - he associated the room with work and couldn't stop thinking about work. So I guess it depends whether you are prone to that sort of problem, and whether you could divine the office part off well enough that you weren't reminded of it when you went to bed.

That was the downside I thought of - dh is hard enough to drag away from his work at the best of times! Part of me also thinks that as this is the business which keeps us fed and clothed, it should be given a bit more importance than a desk in our bedroom.

Not sure how we'd divide it off? The alternative is a garden office. A ten grand alternative though!

Anyone else?

Living room?

We've got a baby and pre schooler. He's currently in the baby's room having recently been deprived of his office when we needed it for her.

We are doing that too due to lack of space. I would never have thought it would work, but there is no other alternative so it's going to have to.

If you have a big room you could make one corner the work corner. What also helps I think is not being able to directly see the table when lying in bed.

What's the age gap?

My two are 5&2 and share a room (boy and girl). They love it.

Six months and just three. We think they will share, just not yet while she's still waking a couple times a night for feeding, and ds can be a very noisy sleeper!

mama does your bedroom office get used full time? Do you screen it somehow? We've got a big room but also a ginormous bed! So We'd definitely be able to see a desk from it.

If he finds it hard to switch off anywhere else would be better than the bedroom.
We did it temporarily whilst decorating other areas but it couldn't have worked for much longer.
It interferes with sex life as well because it ceases to be your bedroom any longer.

We put ours in together when dd was still waking. They get used to each others notices quite quicklyand sleep through when the other wakes!

*noices not notices

If the room is big enough you could put a screen between the areas. A nice screen not an office type screen.

It should be a last resort because it will adveresely affect your sleep and sex.

Do you have the room for a 'cloffice' then you could shut the doors and forget it?

I have my home office desk in my bedroom and think it works fine. There are the odd days when DH wants to sleep early and I'll work quietly for a bit, but generally he will watch TV whilst I work in the same room. I prefer it to working in a room alone in the evenings.

I generally do the more thinking work in the day time when DH is out at work and save the admin/easy tasks for the evening shift.

We do it - DH either works from home or works away, and has a desk/shelves/office storage etc in the bedroom. It's mostly OK - there have been times I felt it's less of a bedroom with a desk and more of an office with a bed, IYSWIM. I've worked quite hard at reclaiming my territory at times.

on the landing? under the stairs? breakfast bar in the kitchen?

Its supposed to really disturb ones sleep as others have said. Why don't you see if your kids can share before moving the desk into the bedroom.

We did this in our old house.

We had an IKEA Pax wardrobe fitted out with shelves and a pull-out computer desk, so the whole lot could be shut away when not in use. I think that made all the difference.

I do like the wardrobe idea cointreau - did you customise the pax yourselves, or get someone in to do it? Dh and I are pretty awful at diy....

I'm now really unsure about him working in our bedroom, so I've just checked and our enormous bed will fit in the middle bedroom (not much else will though) so maybe the kids could share... I'm just not sure about still doing 1-2 night feeds if she's in with ds?? There's no easy way to test it and changing the bedrooms would be a huge reorganisation. Argh!

Oh, and as for the adverse effect on our sex life....having two kids puts paid to that one already!

I've had both a home office and a work area in my bedroom. I much prefer it in my bedroom, but it is a very large bedroom and I don't share it with DH (he sleeps really badly and we disturb each other). When I had an office, I hated it, because it was a tiny box room and impossible to keep tidy (mainly because I am not very tidy!).

I think its very individual what works for you. I often get up early to work a bit before the rest of the family gets up and I also work late in periods. I often can't switch off, but it was the same when I had an office, so for me it makes no difference.

DP's office is in our room, although I hate the hum of the bloody two outer all night and the heat it puts out, it means I at least see him occasionally, when we had it in another room, he'd shut himself away and we'd never speak.

Anyway, what we've found effective is to have a big Ikea KELLAX unit across the room to act as a divide, it does mean a tiny sleeping area and a tiny office area but it gives a sense of division of the 2 spaces and it means the light from the screen isn't keeping me awake all night, as for distraction, invest in some decent headphones to block out the rest of the household noise.

If he's running a business and you are not planning on moving in the short term, I agree with you that the office needs to be more than a corner of the bedroom. It either needs to be back in the babys room or in a garden room. If he's working in the bedroom he's going to spend 16 hours a day in the same room. Thats not good for him or the business.

Misty - no skill needed to convert the Pax wardrobe - Ikea sell all the bits and bobs in a standard size, and you just screw it all into the predrilled holes.

Can you rent a room or garage from someone in your street, like a sort of working hours lodger? It's not as convenient as your own space but means you get a proper room and can still enjoy working from home benefits such as no commuting and a proper lunch.

Or rent a deskspace from a local business, they often have spare office space which they're happy to share with someone whose trade doesn't adversely affect their own. Gumtree and Streetlife are good places to look.

Was just going to make same suggestion as thesaurus girl. There are an increasing number of office hubs all over the place where you can rent a desk. Alternatively companies like Regus offer desks by the day/week/hour etc. Means you can't leave your stuff there (Regus, I mean) but does mean you can concentrate for the time you are there. Let us know what you end up doing as I'm in process of deciding where to locate an office at home especially as I know I'll have to fight for it with DH who's increasingly working at home!