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WFH Office in the Barn

Does anyone have their “home office” in their barn? Not a barn office that you manage the farm out of, but rather a work from home space in the barn, for a non-horse related career?

I only knew one person who had something like that but it was not her sole workspace (and was considerably nicer and more expensive than I could ever pull off). I’m curious to know if anyone here has done this, and how it has worked out for you. I would love to see pictures too!

There’s no reason you couldn’t build one, if you sunk the money into insulation, dustproofing, heating, task lighting, and wifi. In my experience though, barns are dusty and paper or other gear tends to mildew. However you could do this similar to building a space in a garage or tool shed, except the barn is much much dustier, and attracts mice and spiders. Also in our climate would be miserable chilly most of the year.

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I would imagine a high quality climate controlled tack room could house a WFH desk, space and utilities permitting.

I toyed with the idea briefly (currently planning a new barn) but have shelved the idea. Mostly based on the cost of overcoming the challenges Scribbler described in the above post.

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I know someone that did this. Built the barn and arena with a dedicated office for her non-horse career above the tack room. The office had windows that looked out over the indoor arena. It was fully enclosed and climate controlled so I am not aware of any issues with dust or mold. This was her personal barn with a couple of her own riding horses and then mostly broodmares and young stock, plus the occasional boarder (I was one for a short time while waiting for a stall at a training barn). This was her primary workspace. The barn was not fancy, just a well built, functional kind of place.

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I also know someone who did this. Multiple lounge/office/living spaces designed and built from scratch (high-end custom barn). They were all solid enclosed areas, centrally climate controlled, etc. Perhaps a bit dustier than a non-barn environment, but otherwise perfectly normal spaces. Plenty of windows. Doors that closed and locked for privacy, quiet, and security. No reason it can’t be done, but like a lot of barn projects, if it wasn’t built with the original structure, you may not have a nice easy space to add it and it’s not going to be cheap either way if you want it to be super secure and comfy.

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When we had our race training barn, we had a designated office with a tiny half bath and a heater, no air conditioning.
It was fine, not too dusty and no insects or rodents got in there. It didn’t have a window, was in the middle of the barn.
It was mostly to have some privacy by keeping clients away from the house,
Today with electronic devices, you probably would need air conditioning as much as heat for computers, videos, monitors and such.

Here in the south AC would be the issue. Free standing or window units are really loud.

It’s on the dream list, for after the lottery win. :wink:

Basically, as I see it, if your barn is of the type that can house a comfy lounge with kitchenette, or a swanky tack room, then the challenges of being in a barn won’t really be challenges. If you’re tack or viewing rooms are places where space heaters and mouse traps are the norm, it may not be in your best interests.

As another way of putting it, in the equine facilities I’ve worked at, the barn offices could easily have been used for other purposes (and I’ve actually contemplated asking a former employer about renting her space, since she doesn’t use it). The only challenge was crappy rural internet, and that applied to the whole property regardless.

Depending on what ‘electronic devices’ you plan on using, not just some sort of HVAC for temp control but well fitting windows and doors to keep particulate material out.

My “soon to be Mine” property has an office and full bathroom w/shower in the barn that I’m going to use as my workspace after some cleaning, fresh paint and mice proofing. It has a window that looks out to the horse walker and a door that goes straight to the barn and another that leads to the backyard. Kinda excited about redoing it. It will have its own cabling ran for internet and not sure about heat yet, but there is a window unit for A/C.

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My barn has an efficiency apartment with 3/4 bathroom and A/C window unit. I hoped it could become my work space when my company went entirely remote due to COVID, but I was unable to boost my internet signal enough to maintain a steady connection that far from the house :confused:

Did you check with experts in your area?

Our security company said we could use a wireless repeater to get internet in the barn office, if we wanted it.

They said that other than wired, any other system has security downfalls if not kept really protected by changing passwords and good firewalls.
That could be a problem with those systems.