The Hardworking Home presents a wide range of achievable home improvements that will help you upgrade your home to better meet your needs in this shifting world.

From home office to home school to home entertaining, today’s households have necessarily become functional microcosms of society. Before the pandemic, less than five percent of full-time employees worked remotely from home. At the height of the outbreak, more than half did. And even when the dust has settled, it is estimated that at least a quarter of us will be performing our jobs from offices in our homes. Distance learning also will endure as an important educational tool. And while we back into less restrictive social distancing guidelines, it nevertheless makes sense to create a fun, vibrant atmosphere for entertaining ourselves and our guests within the safe confines of our homes.

Some of the projects in The Hardworking Home are quite simple and others require a little more DIY experience. But the overriding commonality is that they have been curated with the forward-looking filter of making our lives better, more efficient, and more satisfying in a changing world landscape. Content includes:

Introduction

• How we got here
• Goals and considerations
• Where to work?
• Distance learning
• Multipurpose spaces
• Repurposing what you already have

Adapting Space

• Lamps and lighting choices
• Wall color and painting
• Practical home décor
• Noise reduction
• Air quality and whole-house ventilation
• Furnishings
• Separation tips for open spaces
• Making room for recess and relaxation
• Private spaces for external communication
• Work-related meeting areas
• Technology issues (Wi-Fi and beyond)
• Ergonomic solutions for working at the dining table
• Protecting furnishings and surfaces
• Efficient ways to stash your stuff
• Working together
• Convertible work spaces and desktops
• Partition wall
• Modifying countertops and cabinets
• Tambour hideaway (protecting electronics and equipment)
• Pantry conversion
• Island bumpout
• Slide-out work surfaces (and keyboard trays, printer bays, etc.)
• Under-cabinet lighting
• Under-cabinet storage
• Cord management
• Adapting dining rooms
• Adapting kitchens
• Adapting family rooms
• Creating activity/recess areas
• Movable work centers
• Dividing space
• Workspace under loft bed
• Corner workspace
• Creating living/working space separation
• Adapting bedrooms
• Renovating a spare room 

Creating Space

• Renovating a spare room (Features: ways to improve lighting)
• Creating an office in an unfinished basement (Features: furring walls, suspended ceiling, raised subfloor panels)
• Closet office conversion
• Renovating a garage (Features: garage floor refinish, new garage window, garage skylight, storage projects)
• Making an outbuilding habitable (Features: making a shed livable)
• Feature project: closet office

Easy DIY Projects

• Rolling
• Modular
• Drop-down
• Kids
• Space-saving
• Rolling
• Hidden
• File-friendly
• Room dividers
• Plexiglass protectors
• Carrel curtains
• Desks
• Storage
• Privacy barriers

Mark Johanson is an experienced home improvement, woodworking and gardening writer and editor. He has collaborated and directed the production of more than 400 do-it-yourself books, including over 75 under the BLACK+DECKER® brand. He has also written numerous magazine and online articles on DIY topics. He lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota.