Alicia's advice for planning a home office: "Before you buy anything new or decorate a room, take time to work out what you need from the room. In our case, we needed plenty of storage for my husband’s teaching resources and aids, and for my design books, portfolios and art supplies. I also wanted to maximize desk space, so finding somewhere else for the printer and scanner was a must. We ended up building a custom desk from Ikea kitchen cabinets. It’s wonderful: it fits the space perfectly and holds everything, including the printer and scanner. Overhead floating shelves add extra room for storage plus decor items so it doesn’t feel too much like an office.
It has worked well for a couple of years but it’s time for an update as I now work from home and require space for inventory, work in progress and packaging."