12 Tips for Using Your Dining Room as a Home Office

If you’re looking for ways to create more office space at home, consider retrofitting your dining room. Dining rooms are already equipped with a table and chairs, and they’re often one of the most under-utilized spaces in a home. Here are some design tips to help turn your dining area into a pleasant workspace.

December 15, 2020

By: Mina Hochberg

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Add Task Lighting

Even if your dining room has ample natural light, it’s important to add one or two task lights to avoid eye strain. Interior designer Kristy Seibert converted her dining area into a full-time personal office space and incorporated a small, stylish desk lamp to ensure proper lighting.

Put Sideboards to Use

Stow your work gear in buffets, sideboards or other existing dining storage units. Tiffany Skilling, interior designer and owner/founder of Tiffany Skilling Interiors at the Indiana Design Center, dedicated two shelves of her china cabinet to store her work supplies. “It allowed me to clear pieces out that I didn’t even like anymore,” she says.

More Ideas: 30 Stylish Dining Room Storage Ideas

Stow Work in a Banquette

Interior designer Erica Van Slyke built a storage banquette in her dining area to create a functional workspace. A storage banquette is a convenient place to stow work gear at the end of the day. Thanks to its proximity to wall outlets, Erica’s banquette also allows her to power up devices without creating a tripping hazard.

Dining Table With Drawers

Relocate those place mats and cloth napkins and instead use table drawers for work supplies. Interior design team Cortney and Robert Novogratz, authors of Design Fix, used the drawers of their vintage apothecary dining room table to store office supplies. The impressive length of this table also allowed the couple to work and conduct meetings while their children finished schoolwork.

Spare Chair

A charming accent chair may come in handy if you need a break from the desk or if a family member stops by for a visit. Jennifer Glynn, founder of Space 10 Interiors, also recommends using accent chairs to create out-of-the-way nooks for Zoom calls. Photo by Helynn Ospina.

Table for Two

Elissa Morgante and Fred Wilson, the husband-and-wife team behind Morgante Wilson Architects, devised a flexible home office space by combining two small tables into one long dining table. They separate the tables for independent work and combine the tables for shared work. They also personalized the space with a gallery wall of framed family photos.

More Ideas: 20 Dining Room Wall Decor Ideas

Designate a Place for Everything

Keep your dining room tidy by returning every work item to a designated space at the end of the day. Interior designer Amy Peltier furnished her dining room workspace with file cabinets, wall file systems and patterned file folders that matched her black-and-white dining room. “Everything needs to have a home and be easily accessible but also just as easy to put things away,” she says. Photo by Bethany Nauert.

Neutral Zone

Pick neutral tones to bring an element of calm to your workspace. “My dining room is the most inspiring space in my home to work,” says interior designer Tina Rich. Tina’s work notebook matches the room’s neutral colors, and a branch from her backyard breathes some life into the space.

Hang a Chalkboard

Chalkboards are handy for brainstorming sessions and to-do lists for work, as well as grocery lists and family games. Leigh Spicher, National Director of Design Studios for Ashton Woods, suggests adding high-top seating to complete the look. “This is a place that could inspire creative thinking,” Leigh says.

Stowable Cart

If your work gear is taking over the dining room table, keep it contained in a small utility cart. Utility carts are ideal for small dining areas that lack the square footage for space-hogging storage solutions. At the end of the day, simply stow the cart in a closet or spare corner.

Touch of Nature

Decorate your dining room workspace with plants and flowers, especially those that are known to reduce toxins and improve air quality. Jessica Salomone, owner and principal interior designer at Lotus and Lilac Design Studio, recommends plants for their calming effect in potentially high-stress situations.

More Ideas: 20 Best Plants for Cleaning Indoor Air

Host and Hostess Chairs

If your dining room chairs are too uncomfortable for eight-hour workdays, invest in a set of host and hostess chairs, says Jessica Salomone of Lotus and Lilac Design Studio. Host and hostess chairs allow you to pick seating that is conducive to work but also complements your dining room design.

12 Tips for Using Your Dining Room as a Home Office

Related To:

Shop This Look

Add Task Lighting

Put Sideboards to Use

Stow Work in a Banquette

Dining Table With Drawers

Spare Chair

Table for Two

Designate a Place for Everything

Neutral Zone

Hang a Chalkboard

Stowable Cart

Touch of Nature

Host and Hostess Chairs

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