Is it your dream to create a stylish home office?

It’s hard to feel inspired or to work efficiently in a dull office. You don’t have to spend a fortune to make small changes that can lift your space from drab to fab with these tips and tricks.

Declutter

Clear your workspace from piles of random papers and folders, books you are not using and other clutter that has made its way into your office. If you have not or will not use the item in 3 months, put it away.

Get organised

There will no doubt be folders or books you will need at hand. Use magazine file holders or stylish boxes to neatly store them. Open rattan baskets available from Bed Bath n’ Table also look great.

Light it up

Add a table lamp to your workspace. It will lift the mood and with the great range of lamps out there, you’ll be sure to find one that can become a feature.

Extra seating

If you have space why not add an occasional chair and create a reading nook. Perfect for off-screen work, you can position the chair to maximise natural light. Pop into Focus on Furniture to choose the perfect chair.

Add more colour

Using an accent colour against a neutral palette can make the room ‘pop’. Denim blues and lush greens are the colours forecast for the year ahead.

Style it

Your bookshelf has so much styling potential. Work it right. While there are no hard and fast styling rules, some great tips are to stack books horizontally and vertically, add a collection of objects, layer objects and incorporate some artwork.

Looking to the achieve that hotel feel right at home? Get started with these 4 tips:

1. Vary the sizes, colours and textures of decorative pillows

Different sizes and colours provide interest and variation. To achieve thatt hotel feel, go all out with layers of European pillows, multiple standard pillows and at least three decorative cushions to finish it off.

The result is dramatic, plush and polished.

2. Play with colour and patterns for a more casual look

Simple, clean white bedding can be offset with a highly patterned coverlet for an artistic feel. Adairs have a beautiful new range of quilt cover sets and throws this Autumn to help add colour to the bedroom.

3. Invest in good sheets

The easiest way to snazz up your bedroom is to outfit your bed with a gorgeous set of sheets. To keep the hotel room look, go for a crisp, white set of sheets that are at least 1000 thread count. Hotel rooms tend to use sateen or percale sheets, but you should choose the material that feels most comfortable to you. The experts at Bed Bath n’ Table will be able to help you put together the perfect set to fit any look.

4. Consider the lighting

You’ll notice that almost all hotel rooms have lamps or sconces on either side of the bed. This always helps pull the room together visually and also allows you to turn off the overhead light and create a warm and cozy mood in your space.

1. Have a place for everything

This means your keys, your wallet, your office supplies, etc. If everything has its place, it’s pretty hard to lose anything once you learn where that place is. Files are in the file cabinet, my keys hang by the door, and my wallet goes on the little table in the hall.

There is no mad scramble to get out the door as I know where everything is!

2. One thing in, one thing out

When you get new bright cushions, get rid of the old faded cushions. When your kids get a new toy, help them pick out a toy that they’ve outgrown.

3. Purge twice a year

Make it a point to spend a day or two twice a year doing nothing but purging.

4. Keep a basket in every room

Despite your best ongoing efforts, stuff from one room inevitably finds its way into another. Keep a small basket in each room of the house. Each evening, put the out-of-place items in the baskets, and each morning, return them to their proper place.

5. Limit storage

The more storage you have, the more stuff you’ll keep. Instead, have limited storage and if stuff doesn’t fit in there, get rid of it.