Our homes have now become our new office space, Zoom our new conference hall, and our beds are now our preferred spot for taking a lunch break. This is the new normal, and we’ve pretty much adjusted to it. However, the new normal can become dreary at times, and hence it’s important to boost our motivation and productivity through new and improved ideas. Amping up your home office furniture is one such idea that can really rejuvenate your work spirit, and create an environment that is conducive to efficient and productive work. And, we’ve curated a collection of innovative and interesting workspaces that are the perfect home office solutions! These workspaces are the ideal setups to help you reach your ultimate work potential. No more procrastination or boredom in these refreshing home offices!
Nils Holger Moorman has designed ‘der Vorstand’ – a slim wall cabinet that hides a functional home office! The black slender cabinet opens into a multifunctional work setup that creates a space for productivity while respecting your interior layout. The minimal structure features a back wall on wheels that rolls out with a simple pull and just like a pop-up book you get a work desk that comes with integrated bookshelves and top light. The convenient workstation maximizes your floor space and minimizes distractions. The fold-out ceiling creates a sense of a private cabin with essentials. The back wall is mounted on wheels for effortless movement with a magnetic exterior. Every element has its designated place which is a Moorman design principle – from pens to the books, even electronic devices can be charged with hidden cables which helps maintain a clean visual aesthetic.
The transform box is a space-saving platform that can transform into a lot of things, mainly your own manufacturing office, simply by unfolding it! Not only does it function as a workspace with a desk for you to work on with your laptop, but it even functions as a workbench wherein you can build a variety of things! Amped with nifty storage spaces for your tools and other supplies, you can set up Re-SOHKO TRANSFORM BOX anywhere, and get some hands-on work done. When folded, the box is roughly the size of a standard distribution pallet making it extremely easy to move around. Not to mention you can build the portable workspace all by yourself! The designers have shared the schematics for free, allowing you to easily set up and build the DIY box, and also customize it according to your preferences.
A winner of the “Innovation Center” award, the SecretAir is a magical wooden block that transforms right into a completely detailed workspace whenever you need. The design brief for the SecretAir was simple: A high-end home office solution that’s comfortable and practical during working hours, invisible after work. The office space finds a way of being both discreet as well as feature-rich at the same time. The main flap stays closed to keep your important papers and your laptop/desktop enclosed when you’re not working. However, open the flap up and secure it using its built-in magnets and you have a large, customizable workspace that accommodates all your belongings and needs without eating too much into your room’s floor space. As a winner of the “Innovation Center” award, SecretAir’s designer Wouter Myny will receive a prize of $4000 to help build a prototype of his winning design.
Dubbed the House Naka Secret Base Tent, the contraption could be your reading space, solitary workspace for ultra-productive work regime, or simply a place to take a short nap on a stressful day. Having a well-ventilated airy feel, there are ample curtains and meshes to create a peaceful personal space indoors for those kinds of times when you need one. The self-supporting frame of the tent is designed to keep it sturdy over any surface and the fact that it has no base makes it ideal for keeping on the carpet or a soft fabric base anywhere you desire to. Use-case scenarios with the House Naka Secret Base Tent are endless and it all depends on how you want to make the most of it.
Designed to help maximize space, occupy a small footprint, and more importantly be safe, the Pandemic Work Desk Concept (the name may sound more somber than intended) fits right into a wall, occupying practically no floor real estate. Designed to retrofit into any wall, the Pandemic Work Desk Concept helps turn regular spaces into workspaces. Be it a small room in your home, a coworking space, or just anywhere in a coffee shop… the Pandemic Work Desk Concept is a simple, full-featured working zone that opens up in mere minutes, and folds flat into the wall when you’re done. The clever, foldable work desk comes with a flexible chair and 180° table that gives you space to place your laptop, a couple of desk accessories, and even a cup of coffee/tea by your side.
Pith & Stem describes its DropTop workstation as fully integrated and plug-and-play ready, meaning that it comes kitted out with a pair of 24-inch full-HD monitors and USB/USB-C cables for charging and connecting to Windows and Mac laptops. Beneath these monitors are two storage areas for said laptops or other odds and ends. The workstation itself is made from thick birch plywood that can be finished in either black or white satin, with the front folding down to form a desk measuring 120 x 60 cm (47 x 24 in) that is held in place by custom hinges, which appear to be rather strong.
What appears as a simple computer desk setup turns out to be so much more. For starters, Couto’s workstation setup, “Future of Work,” features a retractable display screen that detaches into a foldable tablet/laptop. The simple OS desktop functions as the workstation base, where files can be created and stored. Then, when Couto needs a tablet or laptop for easy portability, the same files will be made available on the go. In addition to the desktop’s detachable screen, Couto’s design features another tablet that can attach itself to the desktop for an extended display, offering quick file sharing and supplemental portability. Finally, Couto’s “Future of Work” setup comes equipped with VR compatibility, providing a headset that turns into a dashboard where all of the workstation’s appliances are connected.
I can’t begin to say how insightful and innovative Co/Studio’s design is. Small enough to fold up and fit right into your backpack, the Co/Studio gives you more freedom, functionality, and productivity than working in a coffee shop with your laptop. Its nifty foldout design, and the inclusion of a whopping 25,600mAh power bank, means you can turn any table into YOUR table. The pad, a folding ‘yoga mat for your laptop’ provides a great surface to lay your tools out. It opens out onto any surface, giving you a singular place to rest your laptop, phone, wallet, keys, and other belongings. It even folds to turn into an angled stand for your laptop, and if you’re in a particularly crowded space, it works as a partition, letting you set up your own private space for focused productivity. It offers you the ability to ‘set up your workspace’ in a way that’s uniquely personalized, organized, and brings out the best in you.
Workspaces have been forced to become increasingly flexible environments in order to meet modern styles of work, and for this reason, it’s important for the furniture to be able to adapt as well. This innovative product is neither a wall, shelving unit, or room divider, but rather a multifunctional backdrop for varied and situational use. Chart creates a multitude of functional zones aimed at casual yet practical use and takes into account the user’s privacy and personal space. The outer surfaces can be configured to meet the needs of the workspace as well as allowing the office’s personality to be expressed in the piece of furniture. The upholstered finish conceals the lightweight, paper honeycomb-filled, a framework allowing for the partition to be easily maneuvered around the room to suit the workspace’s ever-changing needs.
Frame CPH, a design team based in Copenhagen, recently debuted LastDesk, a modular desk that you can design yourself to unlock your ideal workspace. The aim was to create a desk that can easily adapt to today’s ever-changing technological and remote working developments. The desk itself is a classic interpretation of Scandinavian design, but it offers a more accessible approach to minimalism through the desk’s modular features. While the frame of LastDesk is as simple a frame as they come, the desktop comes equipped with changeable wooden trays and flat, slate gray slabs that can either provide extra storage for your workspace, a wireless charging station, or a means to rid your workspace of any unnecessary clutter.
