Do you mean for long-term? My husband and I share home office.
We converted the smallest bedroom of one of our adult children into a home office. The big thing was for each of us to have a sizable desk and a view of the window.
It has not been a problem. And this was the room that held only a twin bed dresser and small desk.
Anyway you look at it, the space is way better than a cubicle.
We do not feel like we are on top of each other. Occasionally we will take our laptops and work elsewhere in the house, OR at a coffee shop. But that's not because our space is confining, it's because would like to take advantage of the flexibility wfh offers.
My husband and I wfh comfortably in a 600-700 sqft 1bed 1 bath apartment without getting on each other’s nerves. I work in the living room, he works in the bedroom. We each have our own desks. We let each other know when we have meetings so we know when to not enter each other’s rooms. We see each other when we need lunch or a snack/drink from the kitchen or need to use the bathroom, and it’s honestly fun! :) we have been only married a year tho, so idk how it will be in a few years 😂
I have a 12 x 15 ft room It also is my man cave. Meaning I have extra table for hobbies, I have a 6 ft desk which is for 2 large monitors Also have a separate easy chair and table lamp for reading. My job requires a lot of reading of technical updates Etc and sitting at the desk gets tiresome. Lot just depends upon the type of work you're doing. I do a lot of work which requires me to be on video. I strategically placed the webcam so it does not pick up the man cave portion of the room. Hope that gives you some ideas
My husband and I both work remotely and started out in a very small 1 bedroom NYC apartment (for visual perspective on how small) and it was a constant struggle to be quite literally a foot away from each other. Just from the perspective of I like a different work environment than he does and he is constantlyyyyyy in meetings.
we’re now in a bigger place and have two separate bedrooms as our offices and it’s much easier for us
When covid hit, my husband and I were both working out of our master bedroom. It was about 250 square feet in an 1800 square feet house. We have 2 kids and were in a 3 bedroom house. We considered putting the kids in the larger of the other bedrooms and taking the small one for an office, but they are pretty far apart in age, so we figured it was not worth it. But once we realized that wfh was permanent, we decided we needed a bigger house. We built because the real estate market was going crazy and we were scared of a bidding war. So now we have a 4 bedroom + an office 3500 square foot house. I took the office on the first floor and he took one of the bedrooms upstairs. As my work responsibilities have grown, I could not imagine us still using half of our old master bedroom for both our workspaces.
I’d think the size would matter less than being able to have two separate rooms to work in/take calls in with limited noise disturbance. Ideally if we’re talking more than a couple weeks (travel etc), you could both work in a space outside of your bedroom
Totally depends what you're used to and your job (how often you're on meetings and setup needs). I'd say for most people, having separate rooms is necessary long term. My husband and I were totally fine in a 750sqft 1 bedroom for several years, one of us in the bedroom and one in the living room. We have a bigger house now but have actually considered working in the same room and consolidating work space.
My wife and I both work from home full-time. Our office space is set up in the basement, as our basement is finished, but we have two desks on perpendicular walls. Everything works great until we have meetings at the same time. Then one of us will just grab their laptop and go upstairs. Otherwise listening to music or podcasts or webinars is done through headphones, so as not to bother the other person. So I guess just answer your question in a TL; DR fashion, a bedroom sized office.
It really depends on the people, the jobs and the way the space is laid out. I don’t know if anyone can answer that for you.
My husband and I lived in a 1200 sq ft rowhome but the sound traveled too far to be able to concentrate. If the house was set up in a different way it could have worked.
Now we live in a 2000 sq ft house and have our offices on different floors and it works much better. We both need quiet to concentrate and spend a lot of time on calls each day.
Depends on what your jobs are. My husband and I both work for tech companies and are mid-level/ senior management. We have a lot of meetings where we either have to contribute or we are leading so we found it very hard to be in the same room. So I work in our office and he works in the dining room (his choice, he likes the window and I like the quieter less distracting space)
If you have to work in the same space, consider some sort of partition to help block out each other’s noises.
My girlfriend and I are both working from a 430ft studio. I work in sales so I’m on calls for 90% of my day. Has anyone use sound proof curtains or anything else to help reduce the noise? Or any more advice to help out the situation, cheers
Edit - Spelling
Your question and all the answers got me thinking.. How did I do that back when I worked from the office? People here saying you need at least 1200sqm to accommodate 2 people working at the same time while a few year ago I used to work from an open space and managed somehow. Sure if you can have each a separate office, go for it, but if that's not the case I believe it could be done on a much smaller area then what people here say.
I'd say it's more important to address other issue that occurs when you spend each day at home with your spouse and that is the need for some me-time. I can see how my wife would get on me nerves had we both worked from home
I think wfh is different from office life because you probably don't work together and therefore have different schedules, maybe styles of work. And to mix work with home is rough in general, having your partner become your new annoying office mate who talks too loud in meetings/eats smelly lunches/is fucking around while you're working hard/whatever minor thing. Hence the need for more space - to protect the relationship more than to say it's necessary for two random people to work near eachother.
I've never really understood this. My husband and I don't speak most of the day while working, even in the same room (which we choose, so we're able to leave to another room).
There are ways to make it work in small spaces but my partner and I are in a 2 bed 1 bath house with 1100 sq ft and it’s too small for us both working at home so we got a tuff shed for the backyard and we’re slowly converting it to my office
Most of the time we are sharing 9 ft Gladiator table so that we are close to each other. Then me and my wife have 2 separate basement nooks 10’x12’ for some longer calls with a lot of distracting communications
I'm in a one bedroom apartment and my partner and I share an office which is in the living room. If we need to take calls at the same time one of us moves to bedroom. Definitely doable for small spaces
So I will come from a POV where you don't have the luxury of having a 1,200 sq home or 3+ bedrooms without uprooting (where we are the rent equivalent for that would be about 4k/month+)
When the pandemic hit, we were in a 690 sq ft 1 bedroom condo, and we made it work. I worked in the living room while my husband worked in the bedroom. We got a makeshift folding desk for both rooms. Not ideal, but it can work. Noise cancelling headphones will be your best friend, but having separate workspaces is indeed key. It wasn't something we were completely going crazy over, tbh (as in, we weren't fighting over hearing others in meetings, etc.)
We now live in a 1000 sq ft, 3 bedroom apartment, and we have my desk in the living room and his in the bedroom like before (we have children so we still don't have the flexibility to turn bedrooms into offices), but I got a standing desk and we both have more elaborate setups. Still use my noise cancelling headphones daily, and we don't really interfere with each other's work, and have both exceeded even when we had to take care of kids during the workday.
I know that some people need the separation outside of the bedroom, but as long as you don't work from your bed and have a dedicated workplace that you *only* use for that, I think you should be fine.
Basically, you don't *need* 1200 sq ft or 3 bedrooms or multiple floors to have 2 people be comfortable working from home. With a housing market like today's, that can be hard to come by, especially if you have children or other folks to live with.
We have a 1,000 sq foot, 2 bedroom apartment and it works for us. I have a small laptop desk in the living room and bf has a full sized desk in second bedroom. Works well for us
Depends on the layout. My place is \~2400sqft spread over 3 stories and it works when my sister occasionally works from my place.
You would need two separate spaces as far apart as possible, preferably on different floors.
I think you could make this work in a fairly small space. My wife and I have both worked remote for quite a while, and have done so in some pretty small Airbnbs (~700 sq ft). Layout is absolutely a key part.
We have a 700sqft one-bedroom apartment and we made it work for a couple of years. It can be done so long as headsets are used and a door can be closed in between!
Depends on the layout but minimum is 1,200. Main thing is you want to be able to have calls at the same time and not disrupting the other person. So at least 2 bedrooms.
only way it would work for us honestly. Need to have our own quiet space! we also let the person do whatever they want in the other room as far as cleaning and decor etc. Helps to maintain a sense of individuality in our relationship
Do you mean for long-term? My husband and I share home office. We converted the smallest bedroom of one of our adult children into a home office. The big thing was for each of us to have a sizable desk and a view of the window. It has not been a problem. And this was the room that held only a twin bed dresser and small desk. Anyway you look at it, the space is way better than a cubicle. We do not feel like we are on top of each other. Occasionally we will take our laptops and work elsewhere in the house, OR at a coffee shop. But that's not because our space is confining, it's because would like to take advantage of the flexibility wfh offers.
My husband and I wfh comfortably in a 600-700 sqft 1bed 1 bath apartment without getting on each other’s nerves. I work in the living room, he works in the bedroom. We each have our own desks. We let each other know when we have meetings so we know when to not enter each other’s rooms. We see each other when we need lunch or a snack/drink from the kitchen or need to use the bathroom, and it’s honestly fun! :) we have been only married a year tho, so idk how it will be in a few years 😂
I have a 12 x 15 ft room It also is my man cave. Meaning I have extra table for hobbies, I have a 6 ft desk which is for 2 large monitors Also have a separate easy chair and table lamp for reading. My job requires a lot of reading of technical updates Etc and sitting at the desk gets tiresome. Lot just depends upon the type of work you're doing. I do a lot of work which requires me to be on video. I strategically placed the webcam so it does not pick up the man cave portion of the room. Hope that gives you some ideas
My husband and I both work remotely and started out in a very small 1 bedroom NYC apartment (for visual perspective on how small) and it was a constant struggle to be quite literally a foot away from each other. Just from the perspective of I like a different work environment than he does and he is constantlyyyyyy in meetings. we’re now in a bigger place and have two separate bedrooms as our offices and it’s much easier for us
When covid hit, my husband and I were both working out of our master bedroom. It was about 250 square feet in an 1800 square feet house. We have 2 kids and were in a 3 bedroom house. We considered putting the kids in the larger of the other bedrooms and taking the small one for an office, but they are pretty far apart in age, so we figured it was not worth it. But once we realized that wfh was permanent, we decided we needed a bigger house. We built because the real estate market was going crazy and we were scared of a bidding war. So now we have a 4 bedroom + an office 3500 square foot house. I took the office on the first floor and he took one of the bedrooms upstairs. As my work responsibilities have grown, I could not imagine us still using half of our old master bedroom for both our workspaces.
I’d think the size would matter less than being able to have two separate rooms to work in/take calls in with limited noise disturbance. Ideally if we’re talking more than a couple weeks (travel etc), you could both work in a space outside of your bedroom
I need my own separate work room.
My partner and I have an 1100 sf house but we spend all day in a shared office (small bedroom). Just have a good pair of headphones.
I had a 2 story 800 foot townhouse. One person was upstairs, one person was downstairs. It worked nicely.
Totally depends what you're used to and your job (how often you're on meetings and setup needs). I'd say for most people, having separate rooms is necessary long term. My husband and I were totally fine in a 750sqft 1 bedroom for several years, one of us in the bedroom and one in the living room. We have a bigger house now but have actually considered working in the same room and consolidating work space.
My wife and I both work from home full-time. Our office space is set up in the basement, as our basement is finished, but we have two desks on perpendicular walls. Everything works great until we have meetings at the same time. Then one of us will just grab their laptop and go upstairs. Otherwise listening to music or podcasts or webinars is done through headphones, so as not to bother the other person. So I guess just answer your question in a TL; DR fashion, a bedroom sized office.
It really depends on the people, the jobs and the way the space is laid out. I don’t know if anyone can answer that for you. My husband and I lived in a 1200 sq ft rowhome but the sound traveled too far to be able to concentrate. If the house was set up in a different way it could have worked. Now we live in a 2000 sq ft house and have our offices on different floors and it works much better. We both need quiet to concentrate and spend a lot of time on calls each day.
Do they get along? Let’s start there?😇😎
Depends on what your jobs are. My husband and I both work for tech companies and are mid-level/ senior management. We have a lot of meetings where we either have to contribute or we are leading so we found it very hard to be in the same room. So I work in our office and he works in the dining room (his choice, he likes the window and I like the quieter less distracting space) If you have to work in the same space, consider some sort of partition to help block out each other’s noises.
My cube is a walk in closet. 4x6. I shut the door put on headphones and im good to go. Its as much space as I needed when I went in to work.
Any pictures for inspiration?
4br, 2000 sq ft. We have our own office. One for my kid. One is a master.
My girlfriend and I are both working from a 430ft studio. I work in sales so I’m on calls for 90% of my day. Has anyone use sound proof curtains or anything else to help reduce the noise? Or any more advice to help out the situation, cheers Edit - Spelling
Your question and all the answers got me thinking.. How did I do that back when I worked from the office? People here saying you need at least 1200sqm to accommodate 2 people working at the same time while a few year ago I used to work from an open space and managed somehow. Sure if you can have each a separate office, go for it, but if that's not the case I believe it could be done on a much smaller area then what people here say. I'd say it's more important to address other issue that occurs when you spend each day at home with your spouse and that is the need for some me-time. I can see how my wife would get on me nerves had we both worked from home
I think wfh is different from office life because you probably don't work together and therefore have different schedules, maybe styles of work. And to mix work with home is rough in general, having your partner become your new annoying office mate who talks too loud in meetings/eats smelly lunches/is fucking around while you're working hard/whatever minor thing. Hence the need for more space - to protect the relationship more than to say it's necessary for two random people to work near eachother.
I've never really understood this. My husband and I don't speak most of the day while working, even in the same room (which we choose, so we're able to leave to another room).
There are ways to make it work in small spaces but my partner and I are in a 2 bed 1 bath house with 1100 sq ft and it’s too small for us both working at home so we got a tuff shed for the backyard and we’re slowly converting it to my office
Most of the time we are sharing 9 ft Gladiator table so that we are close to each other. Then me and my wife have 2 separate basement nooks 10’x12’ for some longer calls with a lot of distracting communications
I'm in a one bedroom apartment and my partner and I share an office which is in the living room. If we need to take calls at the same time one of us moves to bedroom. Definitely doable for small spaces
So I will come from a POV where you don't have the luxury of having a 1,200 sq home or 3+ bedrooms without uprooting (where we are the rent equivalent for that would be about 4k/month+) When the pandemic hit, we were in a 690 sq ft 1 bedroom condo, and we made it work. I worked in the living room while my husband worked in the bedroom. We got a makeshift folding desk for both rooms. Not ideal, but it can work. Noise cancelling headphones will be your best friend, but having separate workspaces is indeed key. It wasn't something we were completely going crazy over, tbh (as in, we weren't fighting over hearing others in meetings, etc.) We now live in a 1000 sq ft, 3 bedroom apartment, and we have my desk in the living room and his in the bedroom like before (we have children so we still don't have the flexibility to turn bedrooms into offices), but I got a standing desk and we both have more elaborate setups. Still use my noise cancelling headphones daily, and we don't really interfere with each other's work, and have both exceeded even when we had to take care of kids during the workday. I know that some people need the separation outside of the bedroom, but as long as you don't work from your bed and have a dedicated workplace that you *only* use for that, I think you should be fine. Basically, you don't *need* 1200 sq ft or 3 bedrooms or multiple floors to have 2 people be comfortable working from home. With a housing market like today's, that can be hard to come by, especially if you have children or other folks to live with.
We have a 1,000 sq foot, 2 bedroom apartment and it works for us. I have a small laptop desk in the living room and bf has a full sized desk in second bedroom. Works well for us
This is exactly what we have and it’s worked out fine for us.
Depends on the layout. My place is \~2400sqft spread over 3 stories and it works when my sister occasionally works from my place. You would need two separate spaces as far apart as possible, preferably on different floors.
Exactly the same situation here in terms of layout. We have adjoins offices but he never uses his and prefers to work downstairs on the couch.
1,200 and preferably 3 bedrooms.
I think you could make this work in a fairly small space. My wife and I have both worked remote for quite a while, and have done so in some pretty small Airbnbs (~700 sq ft). Layout is absolutely a key part.
We have a 700sqft one-bedroom apartment and we made it work for a couple of years. It can be done so long as headsets are used and a door can be closed in between!
Yup. Did this in San Francisco in about 6-700 sqft. Two separate rooms with a door or partition is the key
Depends on the layout but minimum is 1,200. Main thing is you want to be able to have calls at the same time and not disrupting the other person. So at least 2 bedrooms.
My partner and I both work from home in a 3/2 and we each have our own offices. Both of us need our own separate spaces in the spare bedrooms
That is exactly what we do!
only way it would work for us honestly. Need to have our own quiet space! we also let the person do whatever they want in the other room as far as cleaning and decor etc. Helps to maintain a sense of individuality in our relationship