You’re trying to participate in your Team catchup call, but the sound is drowned out by the whistling of the pressure cooker in your open kitchen. Or, your neighbour’s son is watching cartoons at the loudest volume in the room right next to your window, and you can’t even hear yourself think when you’re working from home! As companies everywhere are being forced to experiment with work from home mandates, home offices are becoming the new normal in today’s world. One of the challenges that most of us face in this new scenario is having no choice but to work in the middle of household noise. How can you soundproof your home office and get back your productivity at work? We’ve got some great tips for you!
Double up on the Soft Furnishings
Hard surfaces allow sound to bounce around the room, creating vibration and unpleasant levels of noise. The more soft furnishings you have in the room, the lesser the noise levels you have to deal with. Pile on the cushions and throws on your sofa; you’ll find that they help to keep the decibels down.
Use Floor Carpets
Wall-to-wall carpeting is your best bet to deaden ambient noise, but if that’s not a viable option, then you can pick up plush area rugs for your floors. Thick pile or soft shag carpets can help to decrease most of the reverberations that arise due to sound.
Install Heavy Drapes at the Windows
Heavy drapes in thick materials such as velvet or wool can effectively block sound levels in the room. Thick materials absorb the sound inside the room and block out noise from outside as well. Roman blinds in thick fabric with a canvas backing can offer double the acoustic control.
Add Indoor Plants
A lesser-known benefit of indoor plants is noise reduction. Choose plants that have rough bark and thick, fleshy leaves as they are more effective at absorbing indoor noise. Note that several plants in smaller pots placed around the room are likely to be more effective at reducing sound than one single large plant arrangement.
Use Soundproof Wallpapers
Acoustic wallpapers that can shield your room, to some extent, from low to mid-level frequencies are available in the market. They are made of multiple layers of wallpaper around a layer of insulation such as foam or latex, which dampens sound. There are limitations to this form of acoustic control, and you might not get the extreme results that you expect. Textured wallpaper is also known to reduce the reflections of sound from bare walls.
Add a Cork Pin Up Board
Cork is known to be a natural soundproofing material, with its ability to absorb sound coming from its inherent cellular structure. Adding a large pin-up board made of cork will help to disperse and deaden sound waves in the room.
Plan Book Shelves
Do you have noisy neighbours? Build a library against the entire length of the common wall, as the books can effectively muffle the sound coming in from their home to yours. Besides which, there’s nothing quite as relaxing at the end of a long workday as curling up with a good book.
Soundproof Your Home Office Doors
Are there gaps around your doors that let in the sound from the hallway? A good carpenter could add an extra strip of wood to seal any gaps that may exist. If there is a large gap under the door as well, consider sealing it with a decorative wooden reaper. Or cut out the noise with a wide floor mat kept just outside your home office.
Install Acoustic Wall Tiles
If your noise problem is not easily going away, acoustic wall panels or wall tiles could do the trick. Tiles made of cork or similar sound-absorbing materials can be wall cladding to create a completely soundproof room. This permanent, but more expensive option will create noise reductions similar to the levels in recording studios, so if a completely soundproof room is not what you have in mind, there’s no need to explore this option.
Create White Noise
Sometimes a little white noise may be all that you need to cut out background distractions and help you focus on the work at hand. You can play a YouTube video with rain sounds while you work, or you can choose to install an indoor waterfall with recirculating water. You can drown out other sounds with the sound of gurgling water, and get the refreshing work environment you are looking for.
Working from home needs a lot of discipline. When your home environment is noisy, the distraction can be quite a bother. Do connect with the HomeLane team to find out how best you can soundproof your home office, and make your work from home days more productive.
