These 19 Living Room Office Ideas Combine the Best of Both Worlds (Comfort and Productivity!)

If you’re working from home but don’t have a designated home work space, a living room office combo layout is the solution you might be looking for. A home office carved out of a family room or common living area can benefit from the comfort — and oftentimes extra space — that comes with this room. 

But how do you actually combine these two seemingly opposite rooms? All it takes is a few furnishings and functional updates to transform your living area into a part-leisure, part-business space.

To set up the best environment for a living room office, you’ll want to ensure that your shared spaces strike a balance between blending into one another and retaining their separate functions. When you’re done with work, you don’t want to take the stressors of the day with you onto the living room couch right next door. You can easily delineate your work and leisure space with a few key pieces of furniture and tweaks to your existing layout. 

Here are some small living room office ideas to consider: 

• Bring in a desk and file cabinet, then set up a chic divider to section off this area.
• Designate an empty corner as your new living room office. 
• Set up a console table behind your sofa and pull up a spare chair when you need to start working. 
• Position your desk to face a wall or a window (not the TV) and ensure that your space is clutter-free and well-organized.

Hannah Deau’s Barcelona studio apartment, at just 675 square feet, highlights the efficiency of multipurpose spaces. In this home, a single slab of wood juts out from the wall, dividing the kitchen from the rest of the living space. The space serves as a living room and office combination, with room for both dining and working.

See the rest of this light-filled Barcelona apartment in the full home tour. 

This Minnesota home is expertly decorated with an all-over vintage cozy vibe. That’s on display in this simple office nook that’s set up in the bright living room, keeping with the idea that a cohesive look helps the space flow without feeling cluttered. Here, Sapphire Anderson’s antique desk serves as the centerpiece and offers just enough space to complete simple tasks.

Get inspired by this couple’s vision for this charming, century-old space in the full home tour.

Hayley Hufendick’s eclectic City Park, Colorado, apartment incorporates a workspace, but it’s more of a sitting room desk than a home office. It’s a clever setup that fills an otherwise empty space along the expansive, exposed brick wall and provides a convenient place for working and sewing.

Check out all the funky, curated elements in this inviting space when you view the full home tour.

The home office in Khadija’s Lisbon apartment is located on an upper-level lofted space, which means the sloping ceilings could have been a deterrent. Instead, the owners cleverly used the quirky space by placing a perfectly-sized desk in the nook, creating a unique way of combining a living room and office.

Take in the rest of this beautiful, plant-filled space in the full home tour.

Rachel Kaplan’s simple wooden desk is nestled among a maximalist “Bohemian paradise” apartment in Oakland, California. It’s proof that sometimes, keeping a low profile is the best way for an office nook to exist in an otherwise eclectic space, successfully combining a living room and office with very different vibes. 

Check out this colorful, maximalist space in the full home tour.

The sleek and slim black desk in Vaishali Sahnithis’s Toronto condo blends into this living room so perfectly, it’s difficult to tell it’s even there. A black chair and plenty of shelf space in this office nook keep things clean and understated.

Visit the full home tour to see more of this stunning space.

When you’re only working with a 450-square-foot space, you’ve got to get creative. In Amber Guyton’s small California apartment, a tiny desk sits next to the TV cabinet. Despite the small size, there’s still plenty of room to focus, especially with the window directly in front of the desk.

Check out the full home tour to see more of this 450-square-foot apartment.

Typing away on the couch has become somewhat of a norm. If you’re not ready to completely let go of your leisurely work-from-home routine, use Gina Gutierrez’s San Francisco apartment’s space-saving trick for combining a living room and office, and graduate to the back of the couch. This way, you can still be in the comfort of your living room, but have a designated work spot. Plus, it’s a helpful hack if wall space is at a premium.

See more of this incredible apartment in the full home tour.

Looking to carve an office in a small living space? If you have a spare closet in the living room and if space affords, use this genius home office hack from Kim White’s tiny Brooklyn studio. Instead of getting a freestanding desk, you can even mount a wide floating shelf to the wall to maximize space and more effectively push in a cozy chair. 

See how Kim maximized every inch of her apartment in the full home tour.

Jesse David and Cali Green’s minimalist Michigan home’s spacious living room seamlessly blends into the office space. While it’s all one room, the desk’s placement in an empty corner and the positioning of the sofa make a distinction between the two zones, work and play, without using a wall or divider. This modern living room office idea makes it easier to drift from a day’s work into a defined relaxing social space. 

See more of this clean and stunning space in the full home tour.

A pile of books is the unique separation between the office space and the rest of the living room in Jon and Doris Lee’s vintage-contemporary Victorian. The round table and its office setup are tucked away just enough to make it feel like a separate space.

Check out the full home tour to see more of this wonderful space.

The black paint both draws attention to and camouflages this living room office in Linsey and Sam Rosen’s thoughtful Chicago home. While the color choice is edgy, it gives the illusion of depth and extra space in the corner.

View the full home tour to check out the bold choices in this gorgeous space.

Work and play come together nicely in this home office in Tanya and Duncan’s textural Kensington cottage. Because the back of the chair faces the TV in this living room/office combo layout, there’s much less chance of distraction if two people share the room at the same time.

Explore more of this cottage in the full home tour.

Small spaces are no longer an excuse for not treating yourself to a nice work space. This tiny office in Myka and George’s modern abode makes efficient use of little square footage and manages to create a comfy area to get work done.

Check out more of this functional space in the full home tour.

While there are no dividers, the gallery wall is what really designates the office area in Anna Zajac’s warm Chicago studio apartment. The hanging artwork and textile create visual boundaries, making it almost feel like another room.

Explore this creative space in the full home tour.

A light, bright office space makes the chore of working much more bearable. The choice of a white desk, drawers, and accents in Kyle and Alex’s fresh San Francisco apartment is stylish and helps camouflage the working area, which keeps the living room looking spacious. If you have a window in your living room and you’re searching for small living room office ideas, this is always a great area to consider putting your desk.

Take a deeper look into this sun-drenched space in the full home tour.

In a small home like Angel and Ben’s cozy Seattle studio, it can be tough to find room for all your stuff, much less a work space. But the addition of a sitting room desk is a simple, easy way to set up an in-home office that still matches the rest of the room. Having your desk face away from the entertainment center can also prevent distractions, especially if someone else has commandeered the TV area while you’re working. Headphones will help, too. 

See more of this cozy studio in the full home tour.

For creative types, like Blanca Martinez and Cody Perez, a boho office setup similar to this one in their colorful Seattle rental can spark ideas and provide a playfully vibrant space to get work done in. When working two spaces into one, you can never go wrong with sticking to the decor that matches your taste and lifestyle.

Check out more of this vibrant rental in the full home tour.

A maximalist mindset when designing your home office can make your WFH days more exciting, and Tiffany Pratt understands that. This dazzling Toronto apartment keeps style front and center while balancing work and play in its living room office. Although there’s a wide range of colors and patterns mixed here, they work in harmony to still provide an organized, streamlined workspace.

Take a closer look at all this maximalist space has to offer in the full home tour.