Sarah writes about all things shopping for Apartment Therapy, The Kitchn, and Cubby helping you find the best deals and the best products for you and your home. A Brooklyn-born Jersey Girl, she loves a good playlist, a good bagel, and her family (but not necessarily in that order).
Kelly Dawson is a media consultant based in Los Angeles. She is a prolific writer for notable publications including Cup of Jo, Vox, AFAR, Dwell, Martha Stewart Living, McSweeney’s and Architectural Digest. Kelly is the three-time guest editor for Refinery29’s “Voices of Disability” series, two-time guest host of “Call Your Girlfriend,” and deputy editor at Apartment Therapy.
The family home is a place for you all to work, rest and play. Establishing a separate study area for your children to do their homework is important for a number of reasons.
While their bedroom is possibly the first choice, it might be more conducive for the study space to be created in a different area. Your child’s bedroom should be a space where they can rest and relax, play, talk to their friend, and, most importantly, sleep. By having a study space in their bedroom, it may be a constant distraction which places silent pressure on young shoulders.
Consequently, if you have the room try and partition off an area which is dedicated to your child’s studying. If this space is in a communal family area, it will help your child not to feel isolated and mean that you are on hand to help out when necessary.
Create a separate space using partition boards and an aluminium angle that can be folded back when not in use to hide or camouflage the space.
First and foremost, the workspace needs to be sufficiently large enough to include a tablet, laptop or PC. All schoolchildren these days need access to technology to do their schoolwork. Indeed, during the pandemic, it became clear that those children who did not have access to smart technology are the ones that were most at risk of falling behind in their education.
Alongside the technology, enough plug points need to be included to ensure that the battery life of the technology does not diminish before your child can complete their schoolwork.
If possible, put a shelf up to hold some books and maybe a couple of inspiring pictures or photographs. Include a dictionary as a reference book. Although everything can be found online, encourage your child to verify spellings via a different source as well to broaden their scope of research skills.
A comfortable chair is essential. If you can invest in a proper office chair. Not only will this last longer, but it will make your child feel more grown up and treated with more ‘adult’ respect which will encourage them to concentrate on their schoolwork with more discipline.
There’s something cosy about studying in a defined space by the light of a desk lamp. If the rest of the room is quite dark, it helps your child to focus on the work in front of them. Make sure that you include a funky light that has several settings so that it doesn’t interfere with any screens.
If your kids are quite young, it is particularly important to make that study time a family affair. Switch off any other disturbances in the house, such as the TV or radio, create a separate space for yourself as the parent, and use the homework time to catch up on your own admin or other work tasks. The companionship of sitting quietly together for a short period of concentration will create warm and fuzzy memories for your child that will take them into adulthood.
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Sarah is a staff writer at Apartment Therapy. She completed her MA in journalism at the University of Missouri and has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Belmont University. Past writing and editing stops include HGTV Magazine, Nashville Arts Magazine, and several outlets local to her hometown, Columbia, Missouri.
I am so excited to share my Christmas decorating ideas for a home office in collaboration with Very because I don’t usually create a lot of Christmas content. Normally, I am far too busy planning and celebrating all the family birthdays that fall in November and December and then frantically trying to get Christmas organised in the remaining two weeks. It’s a very stressful and busy time of year. But I couldn’t resist the opportunity to work with Very on this Christmas campaign and share how I have decorated my office this Christmas.
As many of you will know, I own a small, boutique coworking space in Devon for female entrepreneurs. What makes it different from other coworking spaces is the fact that it is really small and feels more like a home office. There is absolutely nothing corporate or commercial about it. So all the ideas that I share in this post are perfect for decorating your home office this Christmas.
It may seem unusual to decorate your home office for Christmas but considering how many of us are now working from home due to the hybrid model that arose from the Pandemic, it makes sense that we may wish to add some festive cheer to our workspace. After all we could be spending up to eight hours a day in this room so why wouldn’t we want to make it feel a bit special as we approach Christmas.
When implemented, these Christmas decorating ideas for a home office should hopefully provide a much needed wellbeing boost to get us through the dark and miserable days on the lead up to the festive break. I know I feel so much better when the sparkly lights and shiney decorations go up.
When Very asked me to take part in their Christmas campaign I was really happy to see what a lovely selection of Christmas trees and decorations they had and more importantly how many of them worked perfectly with the style and aesthetic of my office. The office is very pink, so the traditional Christmas colours of red and green were out of the question. I wanted something that would add even more warmth to the space and work seamlessly with the existing decor. So I was looking for dusky blush pinks and warm metallics and that is exactly what I found.
So let’s take a look at how I created this gorgeous winter wonderland in my office.
If you have space, a full size Christmas tree is the most obvious way to bring that festive feeling into a room. Standing tall, it makes a big impact in the room and really draws your attention. To keep costs down, I chose a 6ft Flocked Emperor Pre Lit Pencil Christmas Tree because I knew that this would still look pretty without all the decorations to hang on it. Baubles can be costly and I didn’t really want the added hassle of having to store them throughout the year so I decided to keep it simple.
Also as the office is really very small, I couldn’t spare the room for a tree that is too wide so instead I chose a pencil tree. I still have height, but it fits really neatly in the corner and doesn’t impact too much on the flow of the room.
I also dressed up the tree a little by adding a beautifully soft Christmas tree skirt in faux fur. This helped to disguise the stand and make it look a little more finished. I’ve never used a Christmas tree skirt before but I am now converted and won;t be without one again. It’s the small details, right?
If a full size Christmas tree is not an option, opt for a table top Christmas tree that you can place on your desk or on a pedestal or sideboard. Even a small tree adds a lot to the room and makes it feel extra special. As my office is large enough I chose to have both a full size tree and a table top one.
If wall space is limited, you can always take down some of your existing decor and replace it with the Christmas decorations. I didn’t want to put up any new hooks so I used what I already had. The normal artwork has been packed away for a few weeks and instead I have hung a beautiful pre-lit wreath in it’s place.
Choosing a pre-lit wreath gives it that extra bit of sparkle and you simply need to add batteries to light it up. It’s super easy makes a real statement on the wall.
I also chose a flocked teardrop Christmas wreath which also comes with battery operated lights. I hung this beside the fireplace because I had a space hook there but it could have replaced any other bit of artwork in the room.
If you live in a period property, you may be lucky enough to benefit from a fireplace in your home office that you can decorate for Christmas. For me, this is an intergral part of the Christmas decorations. I think it adds so much to the room and can be used to make a really big statement. I chose a frosted rose swag Christmas garland to place on the mantle piece. This was a very easy choice, partly because the colours work so well with the fire surround and tiles but also because I like Christmas garlands that are big and full. I also like the way it doesn’t hang down too far on either side.
If you are not be lucky enough to have a fireplace in your home office that you can decorate at Christmas, don’t worry. You can get a very similar effect by placing a garland on top of a sideboard or cupboard. You could even suspend one above a window or simply hang one on the wall above your desk. Try to get creative if you don’t have a fireplace to use.
In my opinion, you can never have too many fairy lights. I used to put fairy lights up in my office when I was employed and not just at Christmas. They create such a lovely soft light and a really cosy atmosphere and they help to brighten up those dark winter days.
I chose this LED snowball light Christmas garland which I hung up around the fireplace. It is really long at 1590cms so I was able to take it around the corner of the room and then also hang it around the window. I intend to keep this up even after Christmas so I’m really pleased that this is mains powered so I don’t need to keep changing batteries.
Another easy Christmas decorating idea for a home office is to decorate your shelves and window sill. Whether you have a shelving unit, built-in shelves or wall-hung shelves, these can be used as a place to display your Christmas ornaments.
Again, you can remove some of the things that you would normally have on the shelves and pack them away until after Christmas. I took all my books and a terrarium down to make room for more festive decorations. I also removed some of my plants on the window sill and rehoused them elsewhere
I chose a pair of ceramic deer ornaments, two fairies with dangly legs and battery-operated light-up wings, a set of battery-operated Ho, Ho, Ho room lights, and a gold light-up tree topper. The tree topper proved to be a little too heavy for the Christmas tree so I placed it on the shelf and it looks fantastic.
I also chose a Christmas gonk with retractable legs, which my daughter has named Gerard, and I have positioned him next to the fireplace.
So there you have it. Those are my easy Christmas decorating ideas for a home office. Nothing groundbreaking, but I hope that seeing how easy it can be will inspire you to decorate your own home office this year, particularly if it’s not a room you have thought of decorating before.
Very has a great selection of affordable Christmas trees and decorations so it needn’t break the bank, but I guarantee it will make the drab winter days in the run-up to Christmas feel a lot cosier and more fun when your home office looks this good!
