Back in March of 2020, the Covid pandemic hit Singapore just as hard as any other country. Due to the resulting lockdowns, most employers shifted to a work-from-home arrangement for their employees.

Even now, amidst efforts to dial down Covid’s status into an endemic, 34% of Singapore employees continue to work from home. The growing popularity of working from home has gone on to affect what new home buyers are looking for in their potential homes. Now, more people want homes that can function just as well as a workspace.

This new setup has seen an increased demand for the home office. Today’s home offices can be incredibly elaborate and complex. These rooms are where people work, play, or do their hobbies.

Unfortunately, in the realm of home staging, the home office is often overlooked in importance.

But staging these rooms doesn’t have to be such a complicated undertaking. With a few key pieces and sticking to some basic principles, you can highlight a particular room in your property as a home office.

Pick The Right Room

The process of staging a home office in your property starts with selecting the right room to place your office in. A lot of homes feature simple office setups tucked away in the corner of a living room or bedroom.

If you have enough rooms, you can even opt to designate an entire bedroom as a home office instead when you go about staging your property. Just take note that a home office in a smaller property with fewer rooms would change your target demographic. For example, placing a home office inside a unit with 2 or fewer bedrooms would instantly give it a bachelor pad vibe. So, if your property is in a popular area for single workers, this could work out really well for you!

A Home Office’s Best Friend

So, now you’ve picked out where to place your home office in. Naturally, the next step is figuring out what to put inside it. We’ll start with the most obvious item: the desk!

Desks are the fundamental building blocks for any great home office setup.

We recommend using as large a desk as possible for your home office. If you can place it right in front of a window, this is the perfect spot. Even if that leaves it a bit further from an outlet than you’d like, the view alone makes it worth it. However, if this isn’t possible, an empty corner of a larger room would work as well. The main principle here is to maximize the amount of space you have available. So whether you have an entire room or just a small corner to work with, make the most of it!

The Setup

With a few tasteful item choices, you can communicate to anyone interested in purchasing or renting your property the comfort and convenience of working herein.

Often, professional home stagers don’t do much to dress up study desks in home offices. They often just feature a notebook and pen. But if you have the resources, we encourage you to go the extra mile. These days, people do the majority of their work on computers. So why not show your potential buyers how their computer setup could look on your property?

We do everything on our computers nowadays. We might as well make our setups look good!

The only thing you may need to get is a PC monitor. If you have a spare one lying around, then this is the perfect time to put it to use! We recommend something at least 24” in diameter.

Place it in the center of your desk, closer to the wall than the front of the desk. Then you can place a keyboard and mouse at the base like so. At this stage, you can also start adding some accent pieces, like a classy leather desk mat.

The next item for your staged PC setup is a dock or stand for a laptop right next to the monitor. Once you have these items in place, you’re pretty much good to go!

Keeping it simple in this way isn’t just cost-effective. It also helps you stick to one of the core principles of home staging as a whole: leaving space for your viewers’ imagination.

As much as possible, try avoiding staging your home office in such a way that suggests a specific lifestyle. Specific hobby items like music instruments, or furniture choices like gaming chairs, are a huge no-no.

Accent Pieces

Keeping a keen eye for detail when staging a home office is key!

You can do lots of things to spruce up a home office. Just like with any other part of a home, accent pieces are a great option for this. Some popular accent pieces for home offices are plants, photo frames, and lamps. Plants, in particular, are very good for home offices. Now, you don’t have to deck out your staged home office with all of the accessories, but we have some suggestions for some small items you can pick up as accent pieces for an office setup.

1. Stationery

What screams ‘productivity’ more than some nice stationery?

Notebooks, pens, paper. Anything you recall using in your school days basically. We recommend you do some shopping at Muji for some tasteful-looking stationery. Just pair some of their notebooks with a pen holder and you’ve got yourself the bare essentials for staging a home office.

2. Plants

A little plant like this can go a long way for you.

Couple some plants with a home office placed in a room with great natural lighting, and you’ll have a workspace that avoids the trappings commonly associated with working from home. They’re a great way to add some color and life to a drab office space.

3. Small Light Fixtures

Don’t underestimate the power of a good lamp.

While it’s true that lighting matters when staging every room, for home offices lighting is mostly the result of picking the right accent pieces. Like desk lamps! They’re not just accent pieces that transform a table into a ‘study desk,’ they’re also a valuable source of light. Just make sure not to put a blinding fluorescent bulb into whatever desk lamp you choose.

In the modern age, homes aren’t just places where people live anymore.

For a growing subset of the population, homes double as workplaces. People’s homes will often reflect your lifestyle, and it’s in your best interest to accommodate those kinds of people.

That’s why we recommend you include the home office in your thoughts once you stage your home for sale. You’ll never know: that decision may very well turn a potential buyer into a sure one!