Have a home office? How to reduce noise in the room where you take calls

You know the moment. You are halfway through a client presentation when someone starts vacuuming behind the wall. A door slams, and the neighbour upstairs drags a chair across the floor. You smile at the camera and pretend nothing is happening.

Remote work has become the norm, but our houses and apartments were designed for everyday life, not Microsoft Teams calls. Anyone who works from home knows the result: sound finds its way into the room, while your conversations find their way out.

Quiet works both ways

Improving the acoustics of a home office is not only about protecting yourself from outside noise. It is also about privacy. A conversation about a budget, contract or employee dismissal should not carry into the living room. Other people at home do not need to know how much everyone in your department earns, and you do not want them to hear it.

A good place to begin is therefore with two questions: where is the sound entering, and where is it escaping? The answer usually involves three areas: the floor, the wall shared with the rest of the home and the door.

Floor: the first layer of calm

The wheels of an office chair on laminate flooring, footsteps in slippers and knocks against the desk can all become part of the noise transmitted through the floor. The neighbour below may hear it, while some of it can also become background noise picked up by your microphone.

A layer of rebond foam beneath laminate flooring or floorboards, such as Kokon Floor Pro, acts as a resilient underlay. It helps reduce impact noise and the hollow sound of a hard floor while contributing to a more comfortable floor build-up.

This solution needs to be installed when the flooring is laid. If you are planning to renovate your home office, remember to include it before the new flooring goes down.

Wall: less sound passing between rooms

An empty room with smooth walls can sound like a bathroom. You will recognise the effect if you have ever heard your voice sound hollow or “boxy” in a recording. However, echo within the room and sound passing through a wall are two different problems.

Rugs, curtains and upholstered furniture help reduce reflections inside the office. If you also want to limit conversations travelling into the living room or corridor, the wall construction needs attention.

Kokon Wall Panel Pro is installed within a framed lining built against the wall shared with the living room or corridor. The material is concealed behind plasterboard, which can then be painted or finished with fabric, timber slats or another decorative surface. The result looks like a well-designed office rather than a recording studio.

Do not expect one material to perform miracles

Realistically, a quieter office is created through a series of smaller decisions. A door seal, rug, curtains and a properly constructed wall lining all work together. One layer will not turn an apartment into a monastery, but combining several well-chosen measures can noticeably improve working comfort.

Begin with the areas where sound transmission is strongest, then assess what else may need attention.

What do you gain beyond quiet?

In a quieter room, video calls become less stressful. You stop monitoring whether someone has entered the hallway, glancing towards the door or speaking more softly than usual. The other person hears your voice rather than the background noise. It is a small detail that supports a professional image, particularly when working with international clients.

In the evening, when you close the laptop, the rest of the home feels calmer too. Work remains in one room, and the rest of the apartment becomes a home again.

If you are planning to renovate your home office, begin with what you can hear rather than the colour of the walls. Paint can always be changed, but acoustic comfort is easiest to plan before the room is finished.