The Home Office at Work

The office takes cues from the rest of the home in terms of how it’s finished. The same hardwood floors used in the foyer or great room, for example, often extend into the home office. A mini-fridge, coffee maker, and microwave save trips to the kitchen. A fireplace provides a sense of warmth and security. Attractive surfaces such as granite and quartz top the cabinets. A patio or garden off the office provides a great area for brainstorming. Additionally, ambient, task, and natural lighting should properly illuminate the space without creating unnecessary glare on your computer monitor.

When it comes to choosing furniture, custom-made, built-in shelving and cabinets that resemble the cabinetry in the rest of the house offer flexibility in storage and organization options. Within these storage units are cubbies, drawer dividers, and slots to help keep everything in its place. Walk-in closets or well-designed cabinets with rollouts hide unattractive copiers, fax machines, and printers, though all-in-one fax, copy, and print machines take up less space. If you foresee your business needs changing in the near future, designers may recommend modular furniture, which can be reconfigured and added to easily.

Ergonomics continue to influence desks and chairs. Like office cabinetry, desks are often custom built to meet the user’s specific needs. The prevalent use of laptops means less desk area needs to be devoted to the computer. A pullout surface provides additional work space. Look for chairs with cushioned seats, arm rests, and adjustable seating heights and backrests. Herman Miller’s Eames Soft Pad, a channel-quilted leather chair, is replacing the tried-and-true Aeron in many home offices, Flesher reports.

To make home-office technology run smoothly, Tim Mogck, a building designer for Braden Residential Construction in Houlton, Wisconsin, recommends five basic categories of wiring. These include telephone or networking, television, music and video, security, and controls to operate these systems, as well as heating, cooling, and lighting.

For offices that are not yet fully wireless, hiding device cords is important to avoiding a cluttered look. In Claudia Sutherland’s home office, Gary Hansen of Hansen Hometech discovered several methods to mask cords. He placed cords underneath the cork floors, then cut a small access panel into the floor, covered by an area rug. He also created a panel behind the drawers of her filing units to hide additional cords.

Some homeowners want a pleasant view from their work space. One Stillwater couple—who are Braden Construction clients—used to bring their laptops with them into their screen porch to take advantage of their gorgeous river views. The trouble was, they could only do it about three months out of the year. Braden then turned the porch and an adjacent room into a year-round office oasis, with furniture positioned to make the most of the outside vistas.

Regardless of how people use their home offices, most of them want a warm, welcoming, personalized space. Sutherland’s clients appreciate that type of environment, too. “Most of my meetings are here in order to get them away from everything,” she says. “When they come here, everything has to be turned off. It’s very nurturing, and a better place to conduct a meeting.”