Fall in Love With Your Home Office

Brother Canada and designer Samantha Pynn are on a mission to help Canadians fall in love with their home offices again and create spaces that are both stylish and functional.

Home offices are often neglected spaces – filled with clutter, mismatched furniture and bad lighting – but it doesn’t have to be that way! Using some simple design techniques and Brother’s office equipment solutions, like the small and sleek Business Smart inkjet all-in-ones, the home office can be transformed into a welcoming space that is also a productive place to work.

“People who work from home get the luxury of being able to design, style and create their workspace based on their own personal style,” said Samantha Pynn, expert interior decorator, stylist, and host on HGTV Canada. “As we all look to maximize every hour of every day, it’s time to reinvigorate our home offices to create not only stylish spaces but more productive, functional and efficient ones.”

Canadians want to spruce up their home offices. According to a new Vision Critical national survey* commissioned by Brother Canada, 82 per cent of men and women surveyed who work from home say they do invest time, effort and resources into making their home office look stylish and appealing – but 20 per cent are still struggling to create a space that reflects their own style and personality and eight per cent work out of any place at home that is available and convenient at the time.

According to Pynn, there are a few simple techniques we can use to freshen up our home offices, which is important as 40 per cent of people surveyed say they plan on meeting with clients and colleagues at their home office:

· Incorporate furniture pieces that seamlessly fit with your existing décor – don’t be limited by traditional office furniture
· Use brightly coloured area rugs to create a defined space that’s all your own
· Brighten up your workspace with table lamps and non-fluorescent over-head lighting
· Use decorative trays to store office essentials and equipment like staplers, tape dispensers, pens and paper to create elegant and functional groupings

With one third (34 per cent) of employed Canadians working from home at least once a month, the survey also discovered these workers’ unique technology needs:

· 82 per cent of respondents ranked printers as a very important piece of home office equipment – following only laptops (86 per cent) and well ahead of items like smartphones (40 per cent) and tablets (12 per cent)
· 93 per cent of those polled agree that having the right office equipment and technology is required to be productive

“The survey tells us that people who work from home have really different needs in terms of technology,” adds Pynn. “One of the greatest ways to create both stylish and productive home offices is with the new Business Smart inkjet all-in-one printers by Brother Canada. With these all-in-ones you won’t have to give up precious workspace or style as they feature a sleek design that is perfect for smaller, modern workspaces and the home office.”

Gorgeous right?

We were sent a Brother Canada Business Smart inkjet all-in-one printer and the timing couldn’t be better!  With an office makeover in the works, I know this printer is exactly what I need for a new, streamlined, office in my house.

I couldn’t wait to use my new printer, so in the meantime, I set the printer up in my dining room.  Because it’s wireless, I can print from anywhere in the house anyway, and since I’m not set-up in my office right now with a makeover underway, printing from my couch (like the 8 per cent noted above who are working from anywhere convenient in their home!)

Set up took me longer than I expected – I thought I could get away with wireless set-up but needed to use the disc that was included in the box.  Once it was completed though, wireless accessibility was a breeze (note that I don’t take photos at 2am, I still need to set the time!)  I love wireless capability when printing and love that it was no problem for my computer and the printer to ‘find each other’.  I have long suffered with a previous printer that – for whatever reason – does not respond efficiently to wireless printing attempts.

The Brother Business Smart Series Printer has been a great addition to my home office/dining room (as the case may be!) and I’ve been taking advantage of it’s efficiently by printing a bunch of saved documents that have been on my to-do list because my other printer was misbehaving. I love the touch screen as I’m so used to that with my other devices – it makes everything that much easier.

The Business Smart Series MFC-J4510DW is now available at Staples ($199.99), Future Shop ($189.99) and Best Buy ($189.99).

a Rafflecopter giveaway