Design Strategies From Our Home Offices to Yours
As the days meld into weeks during the COVID-19 quarantine it’s easy to lose motivation. Stay focused and productive at home with a few style tips from our design team at Rachel Reider Interiors.
Tip #1: Declutter your space
Working from home brings many challenges, especially if you have children who require homeschooling. School papers, a myriad of electronics, and unread mail starts to infiltrate your work area. It’s important to start tidy when setting your space, and clean up at the end of each day.
You might have enough space for a dedicated office, or perhaps you’re setting up your laptop for virtual conference calls from the kitchen table like our Senior Residential Designer, Tricia Luong. Either way, removing distractions like unfinished projects and piles of magazines you have been hoping to read is the first step to staying productive.
Tip #2: Personalize your environment
Once you’ve paired down your desktop it’s time to layer in some inspiring accessories. Houseplants are the easiest way to bring a cheery vibe to your office and they can easily be moved near your laptop like our Project Coordinator, Lauren Petkus, did here. If you are lucky enough to find flowers at your local grocery store a little goes a long way. For immediate gratification, urbanstems.com offers fresh flowers with overnight delivery right to your door. Or perhaps you have some forsythia blooming in the backyard or daffodils that can easily be snipped. Either way, bringing the outside in is a surefire way to boost your mood and your productivity.
After you add a natural element, consider styling your desk space with a picture of your favorite loved ones to remind you of why you work so hard. Artwork of all sizes can be repurposed to your office space to change things up and create a fresh perspective for the weeks ahead.
Tip #3: Add some warmth
It’s early spring in Boston right now and that means days of cold wet rain mixed with some sunshine when we’re lucky. Consider bringing some warmth into your office setting with cozy scented candles, like our Senior Hospitality Designer, Kristina Rinaldi. Treat yourself to some calming aromatherapy candles online and perhaps a pretty new notebook and pen to pamper yourself a bit.
Self-care is essential right now and surrounding ourselves with something special helps to lighten the mood. Even a warm blanket over your office chair or a stylish furry throw might be just the thing you need to freshen up your work space this week.
Tip #4: Adhere to schedules
We all started the quarantine process with the best intentions but it’s hard to stick to a schedule when working from home. Our Office Coordinator, Katie Sullivan, likes to set phone alarms for all of the meetings that happen throughout the day. Both kids and parents right now have their own online commitments and it’s hard to keep everyone on track. Maintaining a schedule keeps the days moving forward and every day is one day closer to getting back to the design studio.
Our team still has weekly project status meetings, although they are via Zoom right now. We have kept our design process much the same, though we all miss seeing each other on a daily basis. Trips to the office are done one-by-one to gather fabric and finish samples for presentations. Life has definitely changed for us recently, but adhering to a similar schedule has been reassuring.
Things will get back to normal, it’s just a matter of time. Until then, please feel free to reach out if you would like to schedule a virtual meet and greet to discuss your future design goals.
Until next time,
