11 AWESOME DESIGN TIPS for a Stylish Minimalist Home Office

An important part of working from home is being able to focus. But if your office space is so cluttered and overwhelming it can be easy to get distracted. So with some areas of your home, in order to increase productivity, less is more! But when a lot of people hear the word minimalist, they think of bare, stale, and without style. But I disagree! I think you can have both! So here are my best tips to achieve a minimalist home office design that still has some pizzazz!

Need more ideas? Check out 7 Genius Ways to Organize Blankets and 7 Essential Elements for Creating a Cozy Patio

Define Your Space

The first step to designing any room is to define the space. This means that you need to set aside a specific place designated just for an office. That may seem a bit obvious but if you take the time to create a specific place for your home office, you can finally get your computer off the dining table!

You don’t necessarily have to have an entire room devoted to an office, but designating a specific place for some sort of office will really help you to keep things clean and organized.

Declutter

After you have decided where you want to put your office, the next step is to declutter. Paper seems to be a huge culprit of office clutter but it doesn’t have to be! I use every opportunity that I can to get rid of paper, or even sign up for online billing only.

I have a rule of thumb that I use when it comes to paper clutter. My rule is that I only touch that piece of paper once. When you get the mail out of the mailbox, go through it right then and decide what goes in the trash, and what you need to keep. If you have bills that come in the mail, put them in a specific folder and make sure to go through the folder frequently so it doesn’t get overwhelmingly full.

Decluttering your office space will really help you to see what things you really want to keep in that room. Get rid of things that you don’t use anymore or that don’t bring you joy.

Decide on a Budget

Interior design can get expensive really fast! So decide on a budget for yourself so that you don’t go overboard. Interior design doesn’t always have to be expensive though. Get creative with the ways that you decorate or where you buy your supplies from. There are tons of tutorials and ideas online for making budget friendly shelves, decorations, and office organizers. The good thing about designing a minimalist home office is that you won’t be needing as much ‘stuff’!

A Minimalist Home Office Doesn’t Have to Be Boring

The definition of minimalist is a person who is interested in keeping things very simple. I believe that simple and beautiful can go hand in hand! ‘Minimalist’ doesn’t always have to mean boring or bland.

Sometimes when I look up minimalist designs on the internet I see very white, plain designs. And while this is the definition of minimalist, I think that you can add style to your office while also keeping things clean and orderly and simple. Most of all, I think it means being intentional about the things that you use and making sure that you love the decorations that you’re using!

Be Inspired

If you’re having difficulty getting some ideas for your home office, I really love going to Pinterest or Google Images for ideas! Gather a bunch of ideas that you like and see what the common threads are throughout those photos. Does it seem that you like black accents? Do you like gold better than silver? Do you like a big bulky desk or a simple tabletop?

These are the types of questions that you should ask yourself in order to help you define what style you love. As you ask these questions, write down your answers! This will help guide you as you are choosing decorations or furniture. You could even create an inspiration board!

Get the Right Furniture

After you have gotten some inspiration, pay attention to the types of furniture that you were attracted to in those photos. Are you the type of person that loves a big fluffy white office chair? Or do you want a modern chair made out of walnut with padded black leather?

You also need to pay attention to the number of things that you need to store in the office. If you have a lot of stuff still left over after your declutter session, then I suggest buying a desk that has a lot of storage space.

If you are just fine with your computer and a few sheets of paper, then maybe a simple desk would work just as great for you! Either way, think through what you will be using your furniture for and that will help guide you towards what you need to buy for your office. I am assuming that because you are reading a post about designing a minimalist home office because you either already have one, or you want one! So keep that in mind, too!

Add Some Storage

As you can see in my husband’s office, We have a very simple design because we really don’t have much to store in this room other than computer accessories. For that reason, I chose this desk that came with a pouch that attaches to the side of the desk. It has been plenty of storage space for my husband to store his coasters, headphones, and anything else he needs.

In my office, I always need lots of storage so I made sure to buy a desk that had tons of drawer space. This would also be a great time to declutter and organize the office closet if you have the luxury of having a closet in your office. This will really help you to keep things straight!

Industrial Charm

I really love this Industrial shelf that I found from MyGift. It fit perfectly into the theme I was going for in his office. The color was exactly what I was looking for and the industrial pipe definitely added to the masculine feel.

They also have a coordinating Desktop Paper Organizer that is great for holding his papers. It even has a small drawer to hold his pens and other small random items.

Bring in Nature

Without fail, whenever I am looking at the space that I have designed, and I feel like it is “missing something” it is almost always greenery! There is something about plants whether fake or real, that really finishes off a design space. It’s almost like magic!

I am certainly not one of those plant people that have live plants all over their house. But I’m really great at keeping the plastic ones alive! 😂 So if you feel like your space needs more of a homie touch instead of a sterile home office feel, I definitely recommend adding in some fake plants! Plants are an essential part of the design, even in a minimalist home office.

Because I wanted this space to remain masculine feeling, I also had to be careful with what kinds of plants I chose for his office. I ended up picking up a ‘mat’ of greenery at Michaels and just cut it up into several sizes to fit all of the individual planters.

I am pretty obsessed with plants so when I saw these White Rectangle Wall Planters, I was sold! The best part about these is that they don’t take up any more space on the actual desk, so there is more room to work. I am also a huge fan of terrariums so these Pyramid Terrariums were a must. I just filled the bottom with white rocks (from Dollar Tree) and then put in small pieces of that greenery mat that I bought from Michaels.

Add Your Personality

Sometimes offices can get a bad rap for being a place that people don’t want to go to because they usually correlate it with work. But if you take the time and effort to put your own personality into your office design, then it will make you significantly more excited to work from home! This goes back to the Pinterest ideas that you used to inspire you for your office design. But now it’s all about adding in the finishing touches or the decorations that fit you!

My husband is a pretty manly guy so I wanted to make sure that his office wasn’t overtaken with my female ideas! I really tried to put in masculine undertones in the decor by using industrial shelving, and brown leather! If I was really personalizing this to my husband, I would have put his Traeger Grill in the corner of the room! But I guess we better keep that outside! Ha! 😂

Cognac Brown Leather Accents

I added the coordinating brown leather into this space and it went so well together. His desk mat is such incredible quality and it is in place of a mouse pad. That way his keyboard and mouse don’t scratch off the finish of the new desk. I am also really high maintenance about water stains ruining the furniture. My husband drinks excessive amounts of water so I knew that leather coasters were a must if I was going to protect this desk! You wouldn’t believe the quality of these two items…these are going to last us forever!

I also picked up a matching cognac brown leather glasses case where he can put in his glasses and a leather coin dish.

Have a Space to Keep Your Ideas

It is super important to have a space where you can write down your ideas, inspirations, or motivational quotes. This is your creative space where you are free to dream, work, write down your goals, or even stay organized!

My husband wanted a really large whiteboard where he could do all of these things! He chose this whiteboard and he especially loves it because the board is glass so it looks really high-end and it is also magnetic! It also came with a magnetic eraser that he was hilariously excited about. 😆

Commit to Keep Things Clutter-Free

My last and final tip for keeping a minimalist home office is to keep your office clutter free. Take 2-3 minutes at the end of each work day to put any papers where they need to go and clear off the top of your desk. At the very least, straighten all paper clutter and put it into a pile or an organizer. It’ll make your office much more inviting the following morning. Happy decorating!