Picture by Toa Heftiba from Unsplash – CC0 License

If your home is full to the brim already, and each room already has a set, unchangeable purpose. Finding a quiet, organized location to work at home may be challenging.  Whether you’re having to work from home permanently due to COVID closing the workplace for health and safety reasons. Or perhaps you’ve decided to take the plunge and start a business from home. Either way, you need a location in your home that is purely for working.

A specified work area will enable you to concentrate on work much better and keep everything work-related in one place. Plus, it helps to distinguish each room’s purpose, such as the office from the bedroom. In doing so, you can prevent mishaps like working on your laptop in bed and getting a bad back. If moving to a bigger home is out the option, and building an extension too pricey, there’s another option that could work – the attic!

Right now, it may be a bit creepy and abound with a few cobwebs, a lot of dust, and appear a bit cold and drab. But if you own your home, you apply for the appropriate building permit and follow the health and safety guidelines; you can change your attic room. And create yourself the perfect working space to handle all of your tasks without invading other rooms in your home. To give you an idea of where to begin and what you’ll need to do to make your attic space habitable, below are some suggestions to help you.

Take A Peek

To start with, take a look around your attic and assess what does and doesn’t need doing. For instance, if the floorboards are rickety, or non-existent, or the attic is filled with stuff, you’ll want to note down these problems as issues to solve.

Clear Out

It’s not uncommon for attics to be overloaded with stuff. Stuff that we don’t use, and often forget about until we revisit it once a year a few weeks before Christmas to collect the Christmas tree.

And so, in the name of Marie Kondo, it’s time to declutter the attic and rid your office space to-be of all things that aren’t necessary or spark you with joy.

With a plethora of goodwill stores in need of your unwanted stuff, you could give some of your old possessions away. Otherwise, sell items on Craigslist, and put the money you make towards creating your new attic office space.

Insulation

Following the clear out, you may have noticed a chill upstairs in the attic. With winter around the corner, and every year following, investing in attic insulation installation in your attic is essential. To ensure your new office is somewhere you can comfortably spend time.

Insulation is essential before boarding up the attic floor and beams. Additionally, attic insulation is also beneficial for the energy use in your home. It can help to reduce heating bills by retaining heat in the house.

Each region has an R-value for the level of insulation required on a particular home. The R-value ensures the correct amount of insulation is installed for the climate in a specific area. Moreover, if the house is old, it may require additional layers of insulation.

Hiring a professional insulation company will ensure the correct insulation is fitted to your attic come office.

Flooring

This step can’t be missed. Walking along the attics’ beams is very dangerous. And if you fell, you would likely end up in the room below with some nasty injuries.

With your insulation in place, it’s time to instruct builders experienced in sourcing and fitting the appropriate flooring. It would be best if you had an attic floor that can withstand the temperature changes. And be strong and sturdy enough to carry your office equipment, such as your desk, chair, cabinets, and so forth. In some cases, you may require a subfloor. This step, much like the insulation, requires a professional to take care of.

Lighting and Electrics

Attics often have a limited amount of light, perhaps only accessible from a small skylight. Making use of natural light is essential to get your daily dose of vitamin D. But, it’s also crucial throughout the autumn and winter to avoid eye strain when working on your projects. Therefore daylight in the attic is sparse, you’ll require artificial lighting instead.

If you don’t have electric and sockets installed in the attic, instead of using an extension cord through the attic hatch, hire an electrician to safely install wiring into your home-based office. In doing so, you can easily power your lighting, PC, work mobile, and so forth.

Adequate wiring will make your office space much more functional.

Decorate

And, the most exciting part of your attic to office transition has to be the part where you get to decorate.

Picture by Toa Heftiba from Unsplash – CC0 License

As a tip, attempt to keep your new attic office space airy and fresh with neutral hues such as white and cream. In doing so, you’ll easily be able to reflect the limited amount of natural light around the room and give the perception the attic space is much larger than it is.

Using neutral paint and flooring means you have more scope to add some beautiful statement interior pieces to the office space. For instance, you could assemble a big rustic desk or fix-up a few Pop Art inspired cabinets for your files. Moreover, you could add some cozy textiles and soft furnishings, such as a sheepskin rug and a suede beanbag chair.

However, rather than cluttering your new office with lots of unique ornaments and pieces, take your time to find pieces you adore to add to your new space. Pieces that inspire you, make you happy and make you want to be in your office space working.

When designing your new office space on the top floor of your home, there’s much more you can add in between the sections above to adapt your attic to your liking. Of course, it mostly depends on how much time and money you’re willing to spend on your attic to office project. But other ideas include adding additional skylights and windows, installing a pull-down staircase opposed to using a ladder, and creating built-in storage in the nooks and corners of your attic.