Create a multifunctional home office

Making a home office multifunctional

Sometimes a home office needs to have more than one purpose, like a guest room, so our interior designer told us where to start and some tricks to maximize space.

TAMPA, Fla. - Suzanne Chawk's home office has undergone a renovation since she retired.

She still needed a desk and space for personal business but she also needed a guest room.

"It was a totally functional office. There was very little that was pleasing aesthetically," said Chawk. "The whole family's here and some of them do not live in Tampa. I needed to accommodate guests as well as friends who were going to come and visit."

Part I: What to consider when renovating the home office
Part II: How to create a relaxing atmosphere for your home office

Her interior designer, Karen Post said measuring is the first thing, and possibly most important, to do before planning a multi-purpose room like a home office/guest room.

Once you know the exact size of the space and the items you want to include, consider the style of the rest of your home.

Turn your home office into your dream office

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Suzanne's style is mid-century modern, so she's looking for refurbished and vintage items.

"We found a mid-century desk, it was a writing desk that we repainted, put new hardware on it, which is great," said Post.

She said rugs on hard floors can help with noise control. For Suzanne's space, she used carpet tiles.

"That's basically is a tile that comes in squares. You can have an unusually shaped room and you don't have to spend for a custom rug. You can just create the size that you need and you can cut the tiles," said Post.

Temporary wallpaper added the finishing touch to make Suzanne's space pop.

"To make the room feel larger we used a vertical pattern. Vertical lines will make the room feel larger, same thing with window treatments, the long, clean vertical lines will make the room feel larger," said Post.

Post added some decorative touches to finish out the room. They decorated a cardboard sleeve with spare wallpaper to cover the printer, added ceiling lights plus a desk lamp, and created a conversation area with a couch that turns into a guest bed.

"Instead of doing a big large coffee table, where moving it for the guests might be a hassle, we did these small tables and the nice thing about these there's storage in here," said Post, pointing out the opening in the smaller tables.

And for multipurpose storage, she transformed the closet.

"We removed the doors and put in the sliding doors the glass ties in nicely with the mid-century style and we have great storage both for home cleaning supplies and office supplies," said Post.