Everyone is struggling with maintaining their productivity during this pandemic. Converting your garage to a home office might be the solution for some of us.
It was January of 2020 when the virus arrived in the U.S. Currently, we have over 10 million cases in the country. With increasing COVID-19 cases comes stricter social distancing directives. A lot of big companies are encouraged to transform their operations remotely Companies move from office-based business procedures to work from home schemes.
Working from home is good news. It sounds like a very convenient switch from hating that alarm clock and dragging yourself to your office. However, it’s actually bad news to a lot of people who never tried it before. Working from home is actually more difficult than you think. One of the reasons is the lack of a similar environment that a conducive office have. Informal walls of the home just make it difficult to focus on working 6 to 8 hours a day. Especially if you’ve got toddlers constantly asking for your attention.
Remember the viral video of a BBC interview last 2017?
A home office is a great strategy if you want to sustain that professional drive of working at an optimum level. However, not everybody is lucky to have an empty room just waiting to be converted into workspaces. A simple life-hack is converting your garage into one.
Here are what you need to know about converting your garage into something smart.
The Verdict: Temporary or permanent home office?
Before anything else, anyone who is planning on a renovation/remodeling must be sure with his/her purpose. Is this a temporary office? or are you considering permanently renovating it to be a home office or a study room?
Even if vaccines are soon to be available, work from home systems would be the next trend. After the pandemic, companies would have seen that there is little to no difference on progress of remote operations. Operations like administrative, finance, and other result based jobs would be seen as additional costs for office space and expenses.
Deciding whether you want a permanent office space or not would define the time, money, and effort you would be spending on the project.
The Crucial Parts
Let us say you’ve decided what kind of home office you want. The next thing you need to understand is most home garages are built for cars and storage. In the first place, they are not built for people — living and working in them constantly. Putting your desk and computers after vacating the garage is a no-no.
Most garages have bad insulation. You won’t get any work done when you’re perspiring the whole time. Make sure that the ceiling has insulation, add windows if necessary, and install an air conditioning unit if you have to. Put in mind that your home office should be comfortable on any season for the whole year.
If you have clients coming over, consider changing your floors. Most garages only have rough concrete floors and that can be off-putting. Install vinyl flooring or carpet tiles for a temporary office or consider ceramic and marble flooring.
DESIGN
When it comes to design, it has always been about making spaces pleasing for the eyes while increasing its overall utility. Do you want a lot of sunshine to come in? Installing glass panels would achieve that. From simple to ambitious, here are some of the stunning garage transformations that you can get your inspiration.
Generally speaking, designing your new garage depends on your own aesthetics but it would be very advantageous to get professional help.
AHR Design Solutions has been remodeling homes around New Jersey for more than a decade so if you are looking for someone reliable and will work within the time frame and budget so don’t hesitate to give us a call.
Do you have a project in mind? Ask for a quotation!