By Michelle Slatalla
Recently I let a houseguest use my office. An hour later I found her padding to the refrigerator wrapped in the cream-colored cashmere throw I keep draped over my chair. She helped herself to grapes and crackers, as if this were the Four Seasons, then cocooned at my desk to conquer email.
I had intended the throw as a prop, a visual hint that I was someone who read Proust while sipping tea. But my guest understood how to use it correctly. In a home office, a throw is more than decorative. It's ergonomic.
Turns out, comfort in a home office isn't frivolous, it's functional. "If the place you work makes you feel happy, it can spark creativity," said Joann Peck, a business professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies how objects can improve focus.
Designer Jonathan Adler, whose "home office" is the comfortable dining table he shares with his husband Simon Doonan, also makes the case for comfort.
"There used to be a clear delineation between work and life, between your spartan office with a filing cabinet and your home," Adler said. "These days, work doesn't begin or end, it's not 9 to 5, and wherever you work should feel like a treat, not a chore."
What makes my office feel like a treat? Seven tiny, oddly specific fixes that transformed it from a place of punishment into a place I almost look forward to.
Silence of the jams
A printer on display is like a toddler in a high chair, forever calling attention to itself: more paper, low toner, paper jam. Which is why mine lives in a closet, humming faintly (and blinking) out of sight. Wi-Fi makes the vanishing act possible.
Los Angeles designer Kim Colwell hides her clients' printers inside credenzas, drilling tidy holes for cords and setting the machines on sliding shelves to emerge only when summoned. She considers this the only civilized solution.
Handle with flair
I keep a few objects in my office I can fondle, things with smooth, cool textures like glass drawer knobs and my dome paperweight. They're design-forward decor, serving no purpose but to make me happy.
Turns out everyone benefits from handling their favorite textures. For some, this means stashing supplies in smooth lacquer boxes. For others, it's the cool, metallic shiver of a Slinky between their palms. "Touch leads to a sense of control and a sense of ownership," which can make you feel more grounded and committed to work, said Peck, who keeps an exercise ball with a textured cover in her office. "It's this big, fuzzy ball you can sit on, covered in shag."
The write stuff
I stock soft-lead wooden pencils and sharpen them en masse every week like a nostalgic schoolmarm. Emptying the shavings tray also makes me happy.
Sophia Vinci-Booher, an assistant professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University who studies memory, says my preference has other benefits: Handwriting with a pencil actually helps ideas stick. It forces your hand and brain to coordinate in real time. "You have to think harder than if you're pushing keys," she told me. The "secret sauce," she added, is called visual-motor contingency -- when the hand and eye lock in step, leaving a stronger trace in the brain.
Emotional-support objects
My favorite office item -- the first thing I'd grab if the house were on fire -- is a ceramic vessel my daughter made in middle school. It leaks, which disqualified it from coffee duty, but it's perfect for pens.
Sentimental objects are "rejuvenative," said psychologist Toby Israel, author of "Designing-Women's Lives: Transforming Place and Self." "Their influence often works below conscious awareness, quietly grounding us in who we are and why we're working in the first place."
San Francisco designer Palmer Weiss says most people end up with more than one sentimental object -- which is why it's smart to collect visually related items that will look intentional rather than like clutter. She recalled a client who kept a collection of flags from his travels tucked just out of Zoom's line of sight -- "a little mini vacation for his eyeballs," as she put it.
Lighten up
Every office deserves a jaunty little lamp you'd smuggle from Paris if it fit in your carry-on. Colwell loves Bocci's 28t lamps -- glass spheres that resemble crystal balls. They sit on a table, glow like jewelry and can be reconfigured into wall fixtures. "It brings out that sense of play, which generates more creativity in an office," she said.
Branch office
Windows are ideal. If you don't have them, Israel's prescription is blunt: "Plant, plant, more plants." Biophilic-design research backs her up: Greenery lowers blood pressure and heart rate, sharpens concentration and boosts your mood while dialing down anxiety.
Weiss evokes nature in her office with Liberty wallpaper -- green leaves and yellow blossoms -- while Colwell creates views for clients with mural wallpapers of skies and sunsets.
Fringe benefits
Lumbar-support chairs can be cold and judgmental. A cashmere throw softens the blow. "You absolutely must have one because it's never the right temperature in your home office," Adler said.
Peck, who studies the psychology of touch, also known as haptics, points out that soft textures lower stress, which is why stores display chenille throws prominently at the end of aisles. In haptics terms, a blanket is not just warm, it's "persuasive," meaning it can change how you feel.
Which is why I'm cocooning, right now.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 17, 2025 16:00 ET (20:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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