Sounds more like a 'computer closet' than an actual office area.

Give up some space in an adjacent room.

Just how narrow are we talking?
At the link below there are a couple of long narrow office spaces among the many highly organized ones shown. Many of them very lovely looking. Seems more a matter of light & colour & neatness, than of where the desk is placed.

Here is a link that might be useful: office spaces

At the house we recently sold we had a long narrow office. Let me see, the entry door was at the left side. Coming in we had floor to ceiling built in drawers to the immediate left. To the right of those was a counter wide built in desk area with book shelves above it. That was the "short sides' of the room. The built in desk then continued on the long side. About 1/3 of the way down there was a knee space for someone. At the end of the room there was an angled desk space and the counter continued on the other end "short side" of the room. We had desk drawers in between the knee spaces and except where there were windows we had built in cabinets above. The desk space was granite which was very easy to take care off. I liked it a lot. The only downside was no where to have seating for visitors. Anyway, the desk area was regular counter depth and that was just fine. We are building in a similar built in for the house we plan to build.

When we were designing our home I specifically built a room like that for me.. it would feel more like a computer closet if it didn't have a window, but I love it! My room is about about 6 1/2 x 8 feet, it has built in granite desk top top along two walls with upper and lower filing cabinets and storage. Whenever I'm working on something, be it work or my genealogy projects I love having all the desk top space(about 12 linear feet to spread out! It is off a back hall, but faces the window looking in front- if its messy I just close the pocket door.

We do also have a more room like office with all the wood off the main entrance. Since my husband and I share an office in our business- we wanted seperate offices in our home.

If your workspace is designed properly I'm sure it will work fine.

{{gwi:1400643}}

{{gwi:1400644}}

We have a similar space to marciab above except no window :) It is where I will put my laptop, pull out for the shredder, filing cabinets, etc. It is more like 5 1/2 x 8 and has a pocket door. Ours is in our back hall too - steps away from the laundry. I have a bad track record with desks in the kitchen - mine never seem to be used as desks! This was our solution.

I don't know how I would feel about a room with the cabinetry lined up on a wall - this looks and feels like a pocket office. Where is it in your house? If it is in a private area, it will likely be fine. This is not a substitute for a study or library though is it?

My husband and I both work full time from home offices so we have tried a few different things.

Counters: I think granite might get cold if you're working there for an extended time. Whatever counter you use, you'll probably want grommets drilled for cords so they come up from the back of the desk/counter. (I have 2 phones, a laptop and a printer, and feel like I have a zillion cords just with those. My husband's office has the same, plus the shredder, modem and wireless router. It seems like there are cords everywhere. Keeping them funnelled through grommets helps control them a bit.) You may also want the ability to attach a keyboard drawer, so keep that in mind with whatever you use. It's much more comfortable to have a lower keyboard if you're at the computer for an extended time.

I like having things within reach when I'm at my chair. So a long counter without any drawers, while it looks sleek, wouldn't work well for me at least. A set up like the one below, that has drawers between 2 spaces for chairs, would be nice if you have the room.

{{gwi:1450283}}

what are the dimensions?

And what do you need in your home office?

We have a space similar to marciab. It's 8 x 9 feet with pocket french doors. There's a large window that's not visible on the wall to the left. Ours is also off the back hall and it's a godsend!

One of the most important things is to make sure you have adequate AC power.

Printers are surprising power hogs if they a laser that reacquires a fuser to set the toner.

The draw is often relatively brief, but it can be a significant amount of power.

Having a path for a hard wired LAN from whatever demarc is also a good idea. You may need power and equipment at the demarc also.

If you install a run of flexible non-metallic conduit (AKA 'smurf tube') you will have some protection against obsolescence (you can pull a new cable into the conduit at a later time without taring up walls).

We just moved into our new home a few days ago, but DH has been working in his new office every chance he gets. Gotta keep up with customer requests, you know.

His new office is what you're describing. It's an 11' long room, with a desk on one side,

So far, he loves it. It's smaller than his office at the old house, but much more effecient. He has many grommeted holes where the cords drop down, and there is a J-channel behind the desk drawers that run the length of the desk. These pictures were taken during construction, so everything is covered in dust, etc. Our house is not fancy, quite plain, and the office reflects this.

joyce I think that office looks great! I'd love to have that much storage space.