By ABIGAIL NEHRING
Many of Cape Cod’s seasonal homeowners have lingered long past fair weather this year. They are choosing the Cape as their domestic setting after American companies sent their employees home on lockdown, stationing themselves at their kitchen tables with laptops and power cords to conduct business from the respite of the Cape as the kettle ponds freeze over and winter’s tempests set in.
If you’re using your home as a virtual workplace this spring, you may be contending with a novel array of daily challenges—and you’re not alone. This February, Gallup reported that 56 percent of US employees were working remotely at least part of the time due to the pandemic. As a concept, telework predates desktop computers and the internet, but not until these past months has it been adopted widely enough to shape a new vision of the future of American workplaces. Americans brought their offices into their homes in 2020—and are now refashioning their lives to make it more comfortable to do so. “I think you’re on mute” is an apt slogan for the year.
It’s no coincidence that interior designers on the Cape have noticed an uptick in the number of home office projects clients are asking them to do. Some are turning guest bedrooms into offices or looking for advice on how to fit a workstation into a crowded home.
Zoom meetings with kids on their laps or in the same room and poor lighting can push the limits of old professionalism.
Laurie Anastos, the founder and principal designer of Interior Design Concepts in Mashpee, said she asks her clients to describe their personal needs and circumstances when designing workspaces in their homes.
“I always ask what the client does for work,” Ms. Anastos said. “Is this permanent or temporary? Some people thought they’d never have a home office. It could be a small space in a bedroom. I discourage them from using the kitchen because it’s a high traffic area and that can easily distract you. If they have ample space, some people are starting from scratch to build attached offices on their property. COVID has brought everybody back home together.”
Ms. Anastos said you need to consider the brass tacks in office design first—electrical outlets and WiFi.
“Nothing is more frustrating than setting up your furniture and then discovering you can’t use the internet, or you don’t know where the outlets are,” she said.
Commercial office spaces often have outlets on the floor, but a power strip connected to one next to or behind your desk will also suffice.
Molly McGinness, who founded a design firm in Falmouth 21 years ago, said your ability to be productive will vary in different locations in your home.
“It’s really important to have a separate space,” Ms. McGinness told On Cape. “Make sure you have somewhere separate, even if it’s in the basement. You want to make sure that when you’re on the phone, no one comes in.”
White collar workers are experiencing an eroding boundary between home life and work. Companies have used amusing strategies to reinforce the division, even introducing a “virtual commute” at the end of the day where employees wind down and reflect on the day’s accomplishments in lieu of a journey through traffic or dark subway tunnels.
Ms. McGinness said that she’s tried to create separation from the domestic surroundings in using several areas of her own home as a workspace over the years, first outfitting a shed in her back yard and finally converting the room over her garage into an office while raising her two children, who are now 14 and 17.
“I used to say I could work anywhere,” Ms. McGinness said. “But having a home office became important when my kids were young because I wanted to work and then meet them at the bus.”
A inexpensive ring light can greatly enhance you video image quality.
In 2021, working parents lack that alone time. With most schools on the Cape operating on hybrid or full remote learning models, parents are now conducting Zoom meetings with kids on their laps or in the same room, pushing the limits of old standards of professionalism.
“Ideally you want to work in one of your quieter rooms, maybe a room on the corner side,” Ms. McGinness said. She recommended positioning yourself next to a natural light source for videoconference calls, or purchasing a ring light to place behind the camera for a studio look.
Several of Ms. Anastos’s recent clients are teachers who have been leading remote learning sessions with their students from home. Even though they didn’t have a huge space to convert into an office, she used lighting and color to bring calm and a sense of organization.
If you’re repainting, you should look at color samples in both a daytime and nighttime setting. Ms. Anastos likes to recommend her clients use spa blue for office wall color, or a light shade of gray like marshmallow. Objects in the room like filing cabinets and printers, as well as desk items like paper clips and staplers will introduce color and run the risk of making the space feel cluttered, she said.
Ms. Anastos shares an office in her home with her husband. Her desk is near the corner of the room, pushed out from the wall so she has an L-shaped area behind her chair to store items and keep them out of her line of vision while working. She recommends using stackable trays or boxes from Room & Board or The Container Store to keep miscellaneous office items organized.
Celeste M. Curley, a certified feng shui master on Cape Cod, said in her practice, office furniture is usually oriented toward open floorspace in a room, the “grand hall” through which auspicious energy passes. The goal is to be able to see the door while sitting behind your desk without looking at clutter while you work, Ms. Curley said, adding that your back should be to a wall or another supporting structure. It’s best to be sitting next to a window rather than in front of it, especially if you work on a computer and will suffer from the sun’s glare. She also recommended using a room divider if there’s a television in the same room as your desk.
Ms. Curley’s own desk is floating near the center of a room on the second floor of her home. It’s perpendicular to the door on the left and is bathed in sunlight from windows to the right. On the wall behind her is a photograph of Mount Rushmore and pictures of Fuk, Luk and Sau, the three Chinese deities of luck, wealth and longevity.
“I have the support of those famous men and the mountain,” Ms. Curley said. “In choosing photos to put around you, the main thing is to make sure everyone seems happy in them. I have a compilation of my family from the time my children were young to the present. You can place them around you at your desk.”