Workspaces · ROOM BY ROOM
A Home Office Setup That Fits a Small Room
You do not need a spare room. You need 120 cm of wall, the right light, and a way to hide the work at the end of the day.
In this guide
Get the desk height and depth right
Sit with your feet flat and your elbows at about 90 degrees. The desk should be at elbow height, roughly 72 to 75 cm for most adults. A shallower desk of 60 cm depth is enough for a laptop and a lamp.
If the room is tiny, a wall-mounted desk with no legs frees the floor and makes the space look bigger. Storage below is optional; a single shallow drawer is usually enough.
Position the screen to protect your neck
The top of the screen should be at or just below eye level, an arm's length away. For a laptop, add a stand and a separate keyboard rather than hunching.
Place the desk so the screen is perpendicular to the window. Facing the window causes glare; facing away causes backlight and eye strain.
Light the desk from the side
A task lamp on the opposite side to your writing hand, aimed at the work rather than your eyes. Combine it with a warm ambient light so the room does not become a bright island in the dark — see layered lighting.
If you take video calls, put the light in front of you, not behind. A window behind the desk will make you a silhouette all winter.
Design the room to hide work
Work spreads. Give it a boundary: a cupboard that closes, a screen, or a box that takes cable and paper off the desk each evening.
In a shared room, choose furniture that does two jobs — a desk that becomes a console table, or a cabinet that hides the printer. The storage approach in kitchen storage works here too: store by task, not by cupboard.
Measurements, product availability, and prices change. Check current details before ordering, and measure your own space rather than trusting a standard size.
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