How to Add a Home Office to Your Too-Small Home

Finding a distraction free work space at home can be a challenge.

This is especially true of homes with growing kids. That extra room you could have turned into a private sanctuary to get work done may be needed to accommodate the older kids. There may also be a baby coming in the house, which means the last spare room must become a nursery. Maybe your elderly parents have decided to move in, again taking up the spare room.

One solution to that is to extend your home architecturally. But that is not always possible. Your home plan may not allow an extension or you may not have the money for extensive construction work.

What can you do in such a case?

If you have the backyard space, then there are a couple of things you could do. In the worst case scenario, you could extend your back porch, add a screen or turn it into an enclosed three or four season porch. Add your office furniture and anything else you’d need, and you’re good to go. The problem with this solution is that while it gives you extra space at less cost than a full-blown extension, you don’t get the complete privacy that you’d want in your home office. It can reduce productivity as well.

Lifestyle Solution: Get a YardPod

The best solution to adding extra space to your home that is full to the brim is to get a modular office that can stand independently in your yard. The YardPod is one such brilliant custom-designed and eco-friendly pre-fabricated solution to add a personal space in your yard. They are designed with the purpose of being used as home offices, and they can come in any size you want, and in any kind of finish.

The structures come pre-built in panels from the factory with modular floor, roof, wall panels which are delivered to your yard, then assembled and finished by the builder team. You get great additional space to fit the space on your yard, and at a much lower cost than having to build such a structure all on site.

When you begin to design your own YardPod, you get a free design consultation. YardPods come in four sizes, 8 feet by 8 feet, 8 feet by 12 feet, 8 feet by 16 feet and 10 feet by 12 feet. One of these sizes is bound to fit your yard and your needs. The smallest of them is just the right size for a cozy little office with a desk, shelves and maybe even a small couch and coffee table.

The heights inside the YardPod are typically 8 feet or 9 feet 6 inches. The framing is FSC certified wood and the walls are modular 4 foot and 2 foot wide panels. The roof is flat, and you can choose to have an overhang if you want. The roof is finished with a Duro-Last waterproof membrane so your home office is weatherproof. The interior walls and ceilings can have fir, maple, pine-faced or painted plywood finishes to give your home office a rustic warmth and charm. The exterior walls are finished with durable plywood or LP SmartSide; the floors are plywood with clear-coat sealer. You can get four styles of doors including French windows and glass panels, six styles of windows, and can even DIY the installation if you want to save a few dollars. There is also thermal insulation and (wait for it) sound insulation! What more do you want from a home office?

The best thing about a YardPod is that it puts you in the midst of all that green, depending on how green your yard is. It’s a well-known fact that plants reduce stress and increase productivity at the workplace.

So if you’re looking for a way to add a home office to your too-small home, think about making use of all that yard space. Your dog may even stop digging all over the yard in loneliness if he sees you there!