apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I work from home. I don't know about the green factor, but I personally wouldn't have it any other way for the reasons mentioned above: freedom and flexibility.

I have recently graduated from an Interior Design program, needless to say there was LOTS of homework, and I was constantly working until the wee hours of the morning to get major projects finished before the deadline. I had an extra bedroom that became part guest room part office/brainstorming monstrocity. i hated it, I hated being creative in a tiny box all by myself. I'm a people person and just takin a 2 min break to stand next to a classmates drafting table at school was much more enjoyable than being surrounded by my home - with laundry waiting, dinner, dishes, and the boyfriend. After a while, I would stay at school until 10pm even though class was up at 3pm because it was more enjoyable to work among others.
So in my field, no, working from home would not be enjoyable.

I work at home one day a week. I just turned a spare closet into a home office rather than needing a whole room.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lfb/2970394580/

Still needs a little work but it's coming along nicely.

Working at home is a less efficient use of resources if you would not be driving to an office because of the electricity and heat/air conditioning being used by each person at home. You probably have to heat/cool your whole house/apartment even if you're mostly in one room. Also, in a communal office setting the amount of space allocated per person is probably lower than what you'd use at home. When you work with others, there are important synergies that occur when you interact with other people, which cannot be captured by sending emails and talking on the phone. I work from home now, but I expect this to be temporary. Unfortunately for me, the "flexibility" of working from home translates into lack of discipline.

I don't know if the need for an office is really contributing much to the increase in home size. An office is basically just a repurposed bedroom and people are having fewer kids, so has the number of bedrooms in a home really increased? I think instead people just want all the rooms to be bigger, especially living and kitchen areas. The need for suite bathrooms, larger closets, breakfast nooks and formal dining rooms all plays a bigger role in my opinion than a desire for an office.

Working at home does not mean you need to buy office furniture for your home or have a giant office space. I work in what should be the dining room, and my husband made my table which didn't cost much in the end.

When I do go to work I take public transit, so there's no difference in the environmental cost of commuting one way or the other (my school provides me with transit passes too), but when i do go to the office I usually buy coffee and a snack, whereas at home I usually make my own food.

Spouse and I both work from our small, downtown historic home. We share a small office (that will move to a desk-in-closet as the family grows). The modern, open layout of the downstairs permits us to integrate work and living: the landing strip in the foyer has a covered dish that holds business cards by day, we receive clients and their family members in the living room, and the dining room is our conference table. It means depersonalizing the space a bit (such as keeping family photos upstairs), but also forces us to maintain a clean, decluttered, and welcoming space.

I doubt that home offices have driven the square footage boom. You may be able to be a telecommuter and work in the 'burbs, but most developments--especially gated communities--will not permit businesses where clients would visit.

Lurker2209: that is so true.

Most of my suburban dwelling friends have closets and bathrooms that are as big as the bedrooms of older homes/apartments!