As more and more people work from home, the design industry is starting to cater for their needs with the products it delivers.

According to a recent report from the Financial Times, residential furniture designers are starting to create items then fill gaps in the market, particularly hybrid items that provide more than one purpose. Among these designs are chairs with electric sockets built in an tables with integrated PCs.

Frank Merlotti, president of furnishings brand Coalesse, told the paper about the firm's extensive research it undertook before it delivered its latest collection to Europe. He commented on one particular bit of research that focused on 16 people working in creative or knowledge-based fields: “All 16 people had home offices and didn't use them. The home office had become used for storage.”

Coalesse's collection was designed with these people in mind; it delivered items such as the Lagunitas sofa that aimed to replace the conference table and chair image with cushions that flip down to support a mobile device and allow the user to sit in a working posture.

Work from home furniture doesn't need to be top-end, however. There are some clever ideas filtering through the market to help improve everyone's productivity, regardless of their budget.