How To Make A Home Office For Kids: The Definitive Homework Station

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Home offices… Kids…. Not necessarily to things that go together!? I mean the last thing you want is to come back from work and see your kid in a suit and tie doing your accounts. But with the advent of homework and well more homework it’s important to know that kids also need a place where they can knuckle down and study.

So what exactly are the best designs for a home office for Kids ? And how can you ensure after doing all the work your kids will actually use the study space? Keep reading to find out more.I know the following steps have helped my nieces and nephews:

(Just a heads up a lot of people reading my blog are in the process of designing their own home office. If you want to save some of the painstaking time I did in designing my office, you can find my recommended products here)

Decide exactly what the home office will be used for

Deciding exactly what your kids home office/study space will be sued for is super important.

I mean anyone who is a parent knows just how different their kids are from one another and understands that their hobbies and study styles will be completely different.

Don’t get me wrong, all kids will be studying and doing homework, but some children might have more after school activities at home that need practice.

Is your kid a part of the school band? Do they play the trumpet ( you have my sympathies), then you better believe they might need more space to practice in then just a small office space. The same goes for non-school related activities like martial arts or sports, it’s very difficult to play football indoors so an office might not be the best option here.

Before you make a single purchase in the office you need to make a list of all of your kids activities and which of these will be a good fit for a home office to see if your money will be well spent.

The one universal when it comes to office however is homework. So how much homework do kids tend to have by year?

The good news is that there are a few different studies.

One by MetLife’s Survey of the american teacher. Showed that kids six to eight spend 29 minutes doing homework per night while 15- to 17-year-old students spend 50 minutes doing homework.

Another study by Pearsons showed that kids typically go from one hour per week to two and a half hours per day of study depending on their age

So all in all, even if the kids study space will not be used right in the beginning, it will hopefully grow in age as your kid does.

One other thing to consider when designing a kids office/study space is make sense of your current resource.

If you have an existing study area, can you utilise some of the items in there for your kid?

Maybe instead of using a brand new room you could just give them a corner of the office and have a general study room, meaning you don’t have to spend as much on stationary or other ancillary items.

Set a deadline

So once you know what the office will bemused for you need to work backwards and set a deadline date when the office will be completed by.

Human beings are notoriously complacent when it comes to taking on projects. This process can be massively amplified when there are kids involved so make sure you set a slightly scary but realistic deadline when you would want your kids homework station in place by.

Involve Your Kids In The Process

So you’ve made a list of all your kids activities and what they can do in the home office, decided that your existing study space can’t accommodate this and you need to design their own space.

Off to the stores….or not.

I mean imagine you design the office from scratch without any involvement from the kids… do you really think they will be happy with the results?

And as well all know ( or at least according to Bitescience) happier kids do better in school as such making sure they are involved in the design of the office is super important.

So how do you find out what your kids want especially when their opinions seem to change one hour to the next. A couple of solid open question you could ask them are:

What is your favourite colour?
What is your favourite time of year? ( great for understanding seasonal colours)
If you could have something in the room that wouldn’t fit what would it be?
What’s your favorite movie Character?
How do your friends study?

The idea is to open your kids up to feel involved.

One of the most important aspects when designing a home office for your kids is figuring out what motivates your kids to study.

Are they a music aficionado? You might need a stereo, are they very visual? You might need a corkboard of some kind.

This could even be as simple as changing the colour from something neutral like white to a more bright colour like red.

The important thing is to make sure they are happy with the end product.

Create a list of what needs to be included

Now the fun begins.

Now you have an idea of your kids style and what the office will be primarily used for we can start buying items.

Before you throw money in the air like you’re in some kind of (careful Fehed this is a family blog) please go in with a list.

If you’re not prepared you’re likely going to overspend massively. .

A good list for a place to start would be as follows:

Desk
Chair
Laptop
Notepad
Calculator
Stationary

Anything else will need to be specific to your own child ( i’m sorry violin stands fans)

So what desks are the best for your kid? Well I’ve put together an individual blog post talking all about this but to summarize I found the following 5 would be my top choice:

Desk Name

Set your budget

So you now have the perfect list of items…

Are you shocked at how expensive everything adds up to? Making sure that you set a specific budget when designing your kids office is super important.

The last thing you want to do is spend thousands renovating only for your kid to study on the kitchen worktop.

So how do you set a budget for the kids office.

Make a list of everything that is essential (you should have already done this).
Find at least five variations that are cheaper.
Divide up your budget by the most priciest items to the cheapest in order to see what will take the largest chunk of your cash.
Don’t worry about buying everything in one go, you can always buy things as you go along.

One of the other things I would ask is try and get a second opinion, it’s very easy on creative projects like this for costs to go over when they don’t need to so it might be worth having someone else either a partner or a friend keep you in check when the money start flowing asking you if everything is essential.

Blueprint the design

So you know roughly what your budget is for your kids homework station… how do you deign it.

Like I mentioned earlier, trying something out without a plan is likely going to be a bit of a mess so I would definitely blueprint what you would like the home office to look like.

Get out a tape measure and measure the room and then work backwards, potentially create a moodboard on the colours that you want to use.

You could even use free online interior design software to plan effectively. Speaking of which, I’ve put together a post that compares a few of my favorites, check it out here.

Make a list of alternative stores

Regardless of how much you might try, often going to high street stores and regular old furniture shops you’re likely to pay a premium for your items.

Instead consider looking at alternatives.

A great way to do this in my opinion would be to check out flea markets and yards sales.

Whilst you might not be able to find big items of furniture you can definitely find some of the smaller things that can make kids’ homework stations feel like a place they created.

Create a design that will work for everyone

So if you have more than one kid you will need to find a way to compromise what works for all of them.

Kids can be notoriously picky when they are younger and be into super different things. It’s important to ensure that any designs work for all of them.

A good exercise would be to get your kids to write down a list of three things they would love to have in the home office and three things they hate.

If there are any things that contradict each other you can find a compromise and hopefully, save any unnecessary temper tantrums.

Adjust as you go along

Try as you might, you will most likely have to adjust your kids home office/study space as they grow older.

Interests, workloads and sadly fun all change as you grow older. And so the needs of the office space will too.

Heck even as a grown adult I’m sure your office will not be the same in 5 years as it is today. The key is to acknowledge this and not fight it, embrace the change.

There are a few things you can do to give a timeless look like not using fad colour schemes or fad products but at the end of the day so long as your kid is studying and happy then the rest is just the icing on top.

5 awesome kids office ideas

So I don’t have permission to use any of these pictures so I thought I’d share the love with some great content out there that should help!

Finally a lot of people reading my blog want to know what products I recommend for a home office/remote working. You can find out my recommendations here and learn how I make money whilst working remotely on the side here.

Do you have any examples of great home offices you want to share? Are there any other steps that I’ve missed when it comes to designing your kids’ home office?

Feel free to leave a comment below and let me know exactly how your kids are finding their study spaces/home offices!

Fehed.

The content on this on this site has been written by Fehed Nicass who has over a decades worth of experience in sales and has worked remotely for the past 2 years.