Home Office Design Inspiration Often Falls Short
Home office design that looks beautiful, but is not functional. The desk chair and desk are out-of-sync.
This photo accompanied an article about a foolproof way to align your desk chair height for comfortable computer monitor viewing. This photo is an example of how difficult, if not impossible, it is to find an illustration of attractive home office design that is ergonomically savvy.
This home office design is very attractive with:
- All-white minimalist color scheme
- Retro modernist chair
- Vintage table
- 60’s Modern butcher-block desk top.
But, this home office design is not functional:
- Chair is too low for the desk
- Monitor is too high
- Keyboard is too high
- Chair arms are too long
- Chair is unstable with its four-wheel base.
And yet, you can have a beautiful home office and be comfortable and functional too.
The major problem in this home office design photo is the chair and the desk are seriously out-of-sync. This leads to a cascade of problems.
The chair is too low and the keyboard and monitor are too high. Unless you are really tall (in which case there is no room for your legs) you will be tilting your head back to stare up at the computer monitor. This leads to eye fatigue and neck strain. Reaching up to the keyboard means you hitch your shoulders up to raise your arms. This gives you neck, shoulder and back strain and pain.
…heck, executives who had a chair like this didn’t type, they had secretaries for that.”
The chair has several problems. It harkens back to an era before ergonomic awareness and, heck, executives who had a chair like this didn’t type, they had secretaries for that. The arm rests are too long – the arm rests bump against the front drawers of the desk. This prevents you from pulling the chair closer to the desk for easy access to your keyboard. Which in turn necessitates sitting on the front edge of the chair and depriving yourself of any back support.
The keyboard should be approximately where the top of your arms rests are, so your forearms are parallel to the floor. This prevents extreme flexion or extension of your wrists – which is a set-up for carpal tunnel syndrome. And hitching-up your shoulders to reach the keyboard, which gives you neck, shoulder and back pain.
Home Office Design Comfort Solutions
The way to solve this is to have an adjustable desk/table or a keyboard tray. Then fine-tune the height of the chair and the height of the computer monitor.
Click on the Links Below to Get Simple Tips on How to Make Your Home Office Comfortable:
3 Tips for Simple Home Office Design Ergonomics
How to Buy a Desk Chair: The In-store Sit Test
Standing Desk Ergonomics – Plus a link to Laptop Fine-tuning for Comfort
The Adjustable Desk: Who Says Your Desk Must be a Desk
Be inspired by the beautiful home office design you see online and in the media, but take an informed look at it for comfort and functionality. Use the best of those inspirations and adapt it to make it work for you.
Like these tips? Get Linda’s book The Smarter Home Office: 8 Simple Steps to Increase Your Income, Inspiration and Comfort. On Amazon in paperback and Kindle.
image by apartment therapy
