Here’s how to give your home office a glow-up
A midweek lay-in, Zoom meetings in your comfiest tracksuit and sitting in a stylish and comfortable office chair you’ve personally selected – working from home has its perks. It’s no surprise that a bunch of us are continuing to do so in 2023.
If your home office is giving ‘cold and corporate’ but you want it to give ‘comfy haven of productivity and style’ then it turns out, this metamorphosis can all be done with a little help from our favourite online decor destination, Wayfair. We have the receipts to prove it.
Gone are the days of sitting on the sofa with our laptops on our knees, getting crooked backs and clicky necks in the process. Instead, we’re embracing the professional within us and devoting an entire room (if we’re lucky) of our homes to aid the vibes of our working day and we’re here for it. We’re thinking office furniture, trendy lighting, chairs that feel like clouds, decorative desk organisers and anything else that distracts you from staring at the clock and inspires you to get work done.
Wayfair, with the help of resident style advisor Dee Fontenot and organisation duo The Style Sisters and showed GLAMOUR HQ exactly how you transform your office space from dull and boring into a fun, cosy and productivity injecting space that inspires you to be the very best version of yourself as an employee and as an individual. The GLAMOUR office within Vogue House, London was a basic and lifeless space, that unfortunately for the team, had zero personality, unlike all the vibrant and outgoing editors it hosts. It didn’t reflect our team one bit, so Wayfair wanted to change that for us.
“The GLAMOUR offices had become a little tired over the years and it needed a little bit of style injected back into the four walls, making the office a fun and vibrant organised space for all the staff to be in,” said The Style Sisters. The office vibe we hoped to achieve was cool, sophisticated and fun with lots of modern furniture, wood textures, plants and pops of colour to bring the space to life, Wayfair certainly delivered.
"We landed on a cool, contemporary design that paired sleek yet comfortable furniture,
with fashion-forward touches like statement art and accents. The palette was
sophisticated yet understated. Think: cool neutrals, soft sage greens, with accents of
black, copper and pink, while motifs were kept subtle with line art and other sleek
touches making their mark," said Dee Fontenot, Wayfair's resident style advisor.
This kind of makeover, believe it or not, had zero structural improvements, so whether you're renting or own your own house, a transformation like this is absolutely possible. If you’re looking to completely reinvent your workspace you firstly need to consider office furniture. After all, we spend over 1600+ hours a year (ugh!) sitting at our office desks, so it’s almost as crucial of a decision as your sofa choice. Take a look at your existing home office furniture, is it functional and does it spark joy? If the answer is no to both, then it might be time to start shopping for some new furniture.
Your desk is what defines the style of your home office, whatever your interior personality whether it be minimalism, maximalism or anything in between, choose a desk that defines your personality and build upon that. Opt for a desk with built in storage if your space is limited. Otherwise, choose storage that compliments your desk’s style, without being too matchy-matchy, an error lots of people make when transforming their homes.
Storage and organisation were not something GLAMOUR HQ had a grip on, take one look at our office and beauty cupboard pre glow-up.
The beauty cupboard was probably one of our most problematic spaces at GLAMOUR HQ, brimming with product, zero floor space, you literally couldn’t enter the room unless you wanted to trample and ruin a hundred lipsticks and mascaras in the process. It wasn’t functional and was becoming a real problem for our beauty team. The Style Sisters took on this mission and tackled it at full-speed.
“The beauty cupboard lacked any organisation and had become a bit of a dumping ground for products, making it hard for the GLAMOUR team to find any items they needed. We needed to make it a lot more functional for them to work from and implement a structure to the shelves and room,” said The Style Sisters.
“The large baskets running along the bottom of the shelves are for overflow and once the three months had passed items from the shelves would be placed into the basket making way for the new items on the shelves. An easy to keep on top of ‘in and out’ system. The shelves now have clear acrylic box drawers and turntables in categories running down the shelves, for body, face creams, makeup etc. Everything is labelled, and it is now so easy for items to be found and used,” they said.
“The beauty cupboard has a history of causing complete chaos," commented Deborah Joseph, GLAMOUR's European Editorial Director. "To have such a practical organisation system implemented in the cupboard is going to make such a difference to the beauty team. Having such a clear space gives them time to think straight and allows the team to continue being brilliant.”
Everyone has a dumping ground in their space, whether it’s a beauty cupboard like at GLAMOUR HQ, a wardrobe with piling singular shoes at the bottom (guilty), a drawer of cables or the dreaded clothes chair, whatever it is, if you spend just a small amount of time giving it a bit of organisation, it can go a long way.
“Once you have tackled a few smaller places you will feel the benefits and how good it feels being all tidy then you will want to move onto the larger cupboards and wardrobes. Remember it’s not a race, so take your time and be thorough. Once you are on a roll your home will be all detoxed and organised and we promise you will feel amazing," said The Style Sisters.
Once you’ve got the desk of your dreams and your storage is organised, it’s time to find an office chair. The most important thing about a chair is comfort. Comfort comes before aesthetics, always, our future retirement spines will thank us. Some people love ergonomic chairs, some people love chairs you can put your legs on, some people love chairs with a swivel, whatever your vibe, Wayfair has got you covered.
You’ve checked off all the furniture you need for your home office, next comes the fun part, styling. This can be anything from curtains, plants, lamps, cushions, mouse mats, rugs, stationary, keyboards, glassware, the list goes on. This is a space to think outside of the box, to make your office an extension of your home and personality. Just because it’s where you work, it doesn’t mean that it has to have a corporate and clinical feel, unless that’s what you want of course.
Taking one look at our office before pictures, you’d never dream that such a welcoming and homely space could be created. Consider what you really want from your office space. The luxury of a home office is that it can double-up as a makeup room, gaming room, coffee/cocktail station or just an additional room to chill TF out.
At GLAMOUR HQ, we loved to eat our lunch in the office (especially in the winter) but we often ate at our desks, which is no real break. We also loved to have casual meetings with colleagues, that again had to happen at someone’s computer. Wayfair took this need and created multiple lounge areas spotted around the office, allowing us to have those casual discussions and eat our lunch over a weekend catchup without still feeling like we’re in the office.
"In the communal area, we layered rugs in understated neutrals for a comforting living
room-style effect and created a cosy corner with plush seating, then gave the space a
jungle-like finish with a medley of potted plants, creating the perfect little escape," said Dee.
One of the simplest tricks in the book to make a space feel more homely is to add a touch of paint. Since sage green was one of our favourite colours for the new office, the Wayfair team painted a gorgeous arch on the wall using COAT paints that provided the backdrop for the beautiful new bookcase.
“It has made such a difference to the office as it has given the team a space to hang out away from their desks," Deborah says. "The decor gives the feel of a home away from home which also attracts members of the team to come into the office.”
Another thing that boosts our mood at GLAMOUR HQ is that we are able to bring our pet dogs into the office. Nothing gives you that little serotonin boost like a cuddle from a puppy. Wayfair spotted this about our office and created a little haven for dogs, with a dog bed, bowl and some toys, so the dogs are just at-home as us.
“One of my favourite things about working at Vogue House is that we are able to bring our dogs into the office," says Deborah. "The fact that they now have two dog beds and their own area in the office feels befitting for prince and princess Joseph!”
Wayfair has shown us that really no matter what your space is like, corporate, your own home, a rented property or even just a small corner of your bedroom, there’s inventive and creative ways to spice it up. Shop some of Glamour’s HQ’s favourite Wayfair office furniture and accessories below…
Best wicker baskets
Best ergonomic chair
Best throw
Best desk lamp
Best desk
Best coffee machine
Best lumbar cushion
Best diffuser
Best clear storage
Best coat rack
Best bean bag
Best bookcase
Best scatter cushion
Best boucle side chair
Best bookends
Best floor lamp for reading
Best pegboard
Best decorative bowl
Best floor lamp
Best console table
Best serving tray
Best side table
Best LED mirror
Best dining table
