The right home office furniture can mean the difference between top-notch work and humdrum mediocrity.
That’s not hyperbole. It’s a plain fact. That’s why, at your home office, everything should have its place and purpose, including you.
Those of us who work from home have – like many forward-looking professional endeavours throughout the world –left far behind such traditional office fixtures as the big oak desk and the expensive, fully carpeted floor.
Those antiquated conventions are quickly on their way out in many functioning workplaces around the world today, anyway.
We don’t need the coveted “corner office” any more than we need the old break room or the water dispenser where employees gather to talk the latest office gossip. We just go to the kitchen to talk shop, if ever.
That’s because, when it comes to home office furniture, we have eschewed the traditional and embraced the functional over the old and familiar.
We have learned to work differently. Our priorities have changed along with the technologies and equipment we use every day.
That’s why we need and prefer different office furniture and peripherals around our workstations.
“We’ve become an information-based economy and it’s a whole different paradigm than the traditional office where you sat there all day and pounded out the work,” says Sheryl Smith of Herman Miller, a manufacturer of furniture and furniture systems. “It’s happening gradually, but the rate of change is picking up.”
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Factors to Consider When Buying Home Office Furniture
While you need to consider various factors when choosing furniture, your budget should be your first and foremost concern. You should put that squarely in your mind before you start shopping.
Sure, you might find a piece of home office furniture that seems perfect for you. It may be ergonomic, durable, professional-looking, and easy to maintain, but spending too much on it can put a strain on your budget.
This will likely lead to difficulties when it comes to meeting your other financial obligations down the line. Such burdens can cause you worries and anxiety that you could have otherwise avoided.
Setting a realistic budget before you start shopping helps you narrow down your options and make choices that are within reach of your finances.
This means you need to strike a balance between getting furniture that meets your requirements and staying within a reasonable spending limit. That’s not difficult to manage even given the wide variety of options in the home office furniture market.
For example, we think the NEO CHAIR Ergonomic Office Chair is the best office chair available to consumers right now. It’s durable, ergonomic, aesthetically pleasing, and quite reasonably priced at just a little over $100.
Our Top 6 Picks for Essential Home Office Furniture for Comfort and Productivity
Of course, you’ll need more than just a good office chair to furnish your office. You’ll need a full set of essential home office furniture to help you produce top-quality work.
Choosing the right furniture can be tough. We know because we have had to do it many times over the years. Selecting a few picks from a seemingly endless array of options can be time-consuming and often frustrating.
Lucky for you, we’ve dedicated weeks to researching and testing top-tier desks, office filing cabinets, and other basic home office furniture.
Below are six furniture essentials that your home office needs to ensure that you do your best work in comfort and style.
1. TOPSKY Computer Desk with Bookshelf
The desk is among the most important items on any list of essential home office furniture. The TOPSKY Computer Desk with Bookshelf certainly ticks off all the boxes on our list of what we require in a workstation desk.
If you work from home, one of the first things you look for in a desk is real estate. This desk has received excellent customer reviews for its spacious surface area, which allows ample room for a monitor, laptop, keyboard, photos, and notebooks.
We are frankly unsurprised. We love this desk. It provides enough space for all our necessary work equipment – and then some.
You’ll be pleased to know that this prime piece of home office furniture comes in three different wood shades.
These options should suit a wide variety of user preferences or room aesthetics. The desk is built on black steel legs that are sturdy and durable, too.
Overall, we think the TOPSKY Computer Desk with Bookshelf is – dollar for dollar, inch for inch – the finest home office desk in the market right now, and it is well worth the manufacturer’s reasonable asking price.
2. Tribesigns’ 6-Foot Conference Table
If you regularly hold staff or client meetings in your home office, then you should include a small conference table in your list of essential home office furniture.
We were quite impressed by Tribesigns’ 6-foot Conference Table. We loved its modern, elegant appearance.
This conference table and chair set should fit well in any contemporary office setting, whether in a home office or open-concept space.
This table creates an environment that is conducive to brainstorming and idea exchange, too.
This lovely piece of office furniture’s subtle but ingenious boat curve design allows everyone around to have good visibility, which should encourage participation in meetings.
The six-foot table also features thoughtful design elements like grommet hole cutouts on the tabletop and channels inside the legs. These little details permit discreet cable management, keeping cords and cables organized and out of the way during meetings.
The table is built with a boat panel and a metal frame, ensuring stability and sturdiness. The scratch- and stain-resistant laminate finish adds to its durability, making it suitable for daily office use while maintaining a professional appearance over time.
In all, the table weighs only 108 lbs. Our test unit required little assembly, requiring no more than a Philipps screwdriver.
If you want the table up and functioning within an hour or two, we recommend two people for faster, more efficient assembly.
“We bought this table for a radio and podcast interview studio we are building,” says one user review on Amazon. “Assembly was easy, and the instructions were straightforward. The quality of the welding and paint on the steel parts is excellent.” We are a hundred percent in agreement.
3. Laura Davidson Stockpile File Cabinet
For all our talk of the digital age, there are a few documents that still require hard copies for safekeeping and purposes of basic record keeping. These include deeds, contracts, bills, bank statements, and even a few important work files, among others.
So, for storage, you’ll likely need a good old-fashioned file cabinet like the Laura Davidson Stockpile File Cabinet. We think this filing cabinet is perfect for any basic home office furniture set-up.
This is the only file cabinet we know of that is equipped with just three wheels. But don’t let that discourage you. The engineering of this piece of office essential home office furniture emphasizes versatility. This filing cabinet outshines all others in terms of mobility.
The smooth caster wheels make it suitable for various locations, like under a desk or even tucked away inside a large closet.
The cabinet’s aesthetic appeal is undeniable. The Laura Davidson Company offers no less than 15 colour schemes for this single item on your list of basic home office furniture. That’s why we’re sure you’ll find a colour scheme that suits your home office’s overall design.
The cabinet is solid, well built, and features one large drawer for letter-size hanging folders and two smaller drawers for other important records.
But what we liked the most about this piece of office furniture is that all three drawers are lockable. This guarantees the security of any stored items.
The Laura Davidson Stockpile File Cabinet is also quite affordable. You can buy two and not do too much damage to the wallet. Even better, Laura Davidson provides a two-year warranty for this superb product.
4. TW Lighting IVY20-40BK Ivy LED Desk Lamp
“Let there be light,” we said, and TW Lighting responded with the TW Lighting IVY20-40BK Ivy LED Desk Lamp, the fourth item on our list of best essential home office furniture for your home office.
This desk lamp is designed to offer concentrated light that you can easily direct according to your needs. We found this particularly helpful for tasks requiring focused illumination, such as reading reports, catalogues, writing, or working on the computer.
The lamp’s overall flexibility is remarkable, thanks mostly to the gooseneck design. The gooseneck allows you to adjust the lamp’s position by twisting and turning it in any direction. This permits personalized lighting exactly where you need it most.
The USB charging port in its base adds convenience, of course. This feature allows you to power up your devices directly from the lamp, reducing the need for additional power outlets. This helps to keep your workspace neatly organized.
Overall, we loved this lamp’s versatility, adjustability, and added functionality. This is our top choice among adjustable desk lamps for those seeking focused, customizable lighting along with the convenience of a built-in USB charging port.
5. Serta Colby Recliner Sofa
If you have the space and the budget, and you want a sofa on which clients can lounge before and after a meeting, we recommend the Serta Colby Recliner Sofa.
We think this piece of home office furniture offers a perfect balance between an affordable price point and good quality design and comfort.
The sofa serves a dual purpose. It’s a seating option as well as a bed. You can fold the back flat to create a sleeping surface for those power naps you sometimes take.
This Serta sofa comes in brown, black, grey, blue, and more. With that much colour from which to choose, we are quite certain this essential piece of home office furniture can address different preferences and home decor styles.
The Serta Colby Recliner sofa will comfortably seat three people. The frame is made of hardwood, ensuring sturdiness. Serta made the cushioning with high-density foam, which provides sufficient comfort for both sitting and sleeping.
While the cushion covers aren’t machine-washable, you can easily keep this sofa spotless with some vacuum spot-cleaning every once in a while. You may have to consult an upholstery cleaning professional for deeper cleaning.
That said, we love this sofa and think it would be a fantastic addition to any home office furniture set-up.
6. OHill Cable Clips
With as much home office furniture around your home workstation, as we’ve recommended, you’ll need some smart cable management to keep your home office neat and orderly.
Our new all-time favourite cable management solution is the OHill Cable Clip, which users have praised for its simplicity, versatility, and utility in cable management.
The OHill Cable Clips in our own home office prevent dozens of cords and cables from getting tangled or causing accidents.
The cable clips are black, easy to conceal, and lightweight. They come in packs of 16. The quantity makes it easier to manage multiple cables across various devices or areas.
Each clip is designed to securely hold different types of cords, such as phone chargers, computer chargers, TV cables, and even power strips.
This versatility permits you to use them for various electronic devices and cords around the home or office. Frankly, we couldn’t keep our home office from descending into chaos with these small, unassuming organizers.
Investing in the Right Office Furniture for Your Home Office
Choosing the right home office furniture means finding the best match between your budget and comfort that promotes better posture; chairs, desks at the right height, and proper lighting contribute to a healthier workspace, minimizing issues like back pain or eye strain.
Ideally, your home office furniture must also improve your productivity and agree with the design aesthetics you prefer.
Buying home office furniture online without physically seeing or trying it out often feels like a leap of faith.
In many ways, it is. Office furniture pieces are significant investments, both in terms of money and the impact they have on your workstation.
The variety in styles and sizes adds to the challenge because what might be perfect for one person could be entirely unsuitable for another so much so that it wouldn’t hurt for you to invest in an online course in the basics of interior design.
With options ranging from classic, formal designs, the sleek and modern, the avant-garde, and the ultra-functional, there’s no universal “best” choice. It all boils down to your budget and personal preferences.
Nonetheless, we’ve researched and tested the gamut of home office furniture in our time.
We are pretty confident that each item on our list of top picks for essential home office furniture is an excellent starting point for your further research, if not exactly to your liking.
Ultimately, it’s about finding furniture pieces that not only fit your space and budget but also match your taste and comfort requirements. Those are things that you know more than anyone else.
What do you think?
