Need help designing home office in small old bedroom. - approx 10x 12 ft
11 years ago
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- 11 years ago
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Need HELP designing a home office
Comments (15)How important is it to keep this room, which you use for your business, as a multi-functional room? Could you "put yourself first" and convert it to being only your office? That's what we're doing. Our office is 11x12 ft. It will hold a corner or L-shaped desk, a tall bookcase, a comfy reading chair, and a wall lamp. I need open, uncluttered space to "think," LOL, and I need all the thinking help I can get. There's a 30"x8' closet along the wes wall, one window on the north wall, and one door on the south wall. We've removed the two bifold closet doors and the small (12") wall area between them. We're putting slider doors in. The closet will be fitted with a clothes bar, floor-to-ceiling adjustible shelves, and a heavy-duty file cabinet. There'll be enough storage for all our "business" stuff by 100%; the doors will keep it "out of sight" except for the things we use daily. I have a "nothing goes on the floor but our feet" policy in the house. I like to be able to sweep or vacuum unimpeded. This is only a suggestion, but I don't like keeping the CPU on the floor. It sucks in dust and hair from the floor, you have to struggle to access it, and you can't keep a close eye on the connections. Could you get a desk that has a lower shelf to hold the CPU, possibly on the L-area? Or set it on a shelf above the desk? I like to have the surge protector box with all the plugs near the monitor or on an elevated shelf by the CPU. I want to see the condition of the cords at all times. I admit, I have a cord/safety phobia; I label each plug, coil the cords to control the slack, and secure them with zip ties. That eliminates a lot of the "cluttered" look, too. No cords on the floor! Is it possible to completly empty your office and then replace each of your needed items in the order and places you want to use them? P.S. "Do as I say, not as I do" applies here, too. DH will be using this as his dressing room for his office-work clothes only. That's why the large storage closet will include the hanging bar and a dresser. Still, nothing will be out in the room that suggests it's anything except an office library. If hubby were to build the wall/Murphy bed I want, I may consider putting that in the office. It would take up 16" of the floor space and could be used by the rare company that can't use the basement bedroom....See MoreNeed design help on laundry/office addition
Comments (26)#5 Are there two windows together above the Weedy chest? Is the item facing washer and dryer, the linen closet? Is that going to be built into the wall or a free standing piece of furniture? #6 Three windows on the south wall? What is that new piece in front of the first window on that south wall? I think this layout creates a tight space at the corner of the PR and linen closet. #8 The freezer blocks access to any storage on the base of that desk area. To me, #5 seems to make the best use of the space and it looks in proportion. I might switch the sink to the place in front of the window rather than the toilet. I like the way the freezer and washer and dryer are together. You took care of the southern light causing problems with your computer screen by taking out the window. I’m assuming that’s a double window over the Weedy chest. You can actually look across the room and out the window while seated at the desk if you want to. You would also have direct view of the kitchen from a chair in front of the desk. I’m wondering about what kind of desk it is. If the chair can only be positioned in the middle of that space allotted for the desk, it will be uncomfortable up against the freezer. If you can put the chair at the end of the desk closest to the door, it should work fine. Again, using the space below the desk in the corner, might be a problem, but maybe that isn’t an issue for you. Plenty of room on top of washer dryer and freezer to fold clothes. Plenty of room to open the doors of the linen closet and stand to put things away. Not sure how much vegetable gardening is going to be an activity for you. You do have a small garden right now, but if you plan to increase the size of it, then I would consider how much room you need to start seedlings. You could add another window over the desk on the south side and use a blackout window shade when you are at the computer and that way if you needed more space for seedlings, you’d have it. I’d find it interesting to know which option you like the best and why. I guess at this point, I’d refine each option until I thought I couldn’t improve the layout at all, then sit with them awhile then try to narrow down the choices. It really is all about what makes you the happiest and which plan has no hidden pitfalls that would surprise you after it is built. That is what 'custom' is all about. I might also think about running it by a professional before I made a final decision. Maybe someone at one of the box stores might offer to take a look at your two final choices and make comments?...See MoreNeed help with drawers in small bedroom!
Comments (19)Another vote for elfa. Go ahead and take out the rod and shelf. You can reuse the shelf with the elfa. Then you can arrange shelving, hanging, and drawers however you like. If you really do want to keep the rod and shelf, you can install elfa below it, and place the drawers where you want. Or, as mentioned above, the freestanding drawers can set on the floor below the clothes. They come in different widths. tip: plan it out now, take it to the Container Store to have them flesh it out for you (or do it online) and WAIT until New Years to buy it when it goes on sale for 30% off. and Shades-of-Idaho, lovin' the old suitcases all painted white. Looks great!...See MoreHELP: Designing 9x9 small bedroom
Comments (16)Thank you all. Yes, a dresser/chest of drawers can go into a reach in closet! I forgot about that. If you arrange your hanging clothes long to short (i.e., coats, pants, skirts, dresses, tops, shorts) you can pretty easily fit a small dresser in there under the short clothes. llucy, I really don't have clothes so fancy I have to hang them up either. I just do it to free up dresser space and because it makes it easier for me to find clothes. Because my closet doesn't have doors (the house came that way), I can just glance over and see everything at once. I also don't have a lot of clothes, so it might not work for everyone. I LOVE the secretary your mom has! What a great solution! writersblock, I agree--a small bedroom with just the necessities is so easy to keep tidy! In my last apartment I had a huge master and I had a desk in there, 2 dressers, a tea cart/table, a magazine rack, etc. It always looked messy! Oh, and a queen bed with massive headboard/footboard. I'm guessing you're the same as me--I want to separate home and work spaces. I'm finding that having that extra bedroom to convert into a library is awesome! First time I've been able to do that. Shades, I really like your bedroom setup with the sitting area for tea! It's a place of quiet solitude, and we all need that. llucy is right--there's a wealth of information on the Internet about creative uses and storage solutions for small spaces. And now, with the "tiny house" movement having gone viral, there's even more! The HGTV show "Tiny house, big living" shows a lot of neat storage ideas, and I know they have a site on the HGTV website. The one thing Joy and I always tell people NOT to do, which goes against the grain of most other organizing books and advice: Don't START by going to the Container Store, Target, Walmart, whatever, and buying a bunch of bins and organizers. People do that and then they have a bunch of bins and things that don't fit the space, or aren't the right kind of organizer for what they need. START by figuring out the purpose for the room. NEXT, figure out EXACTLY what has to go into the room. If your room is really cluttered, take EVERYTHING out, including furniture! Then pull out only what you need to serve the purpose of the room and put ONLY those things back into the room. (With the leftover stuff, put it in the room where it should go, donate it, sell it, or trash it.) NOW you know what you're working with! NEXT, measure, measure, measure. Measure EVERYTHING! Write it down. Write down what type of organizer you need for each thing you need to organize, and write down what size bin/basket/shelf/drawer/whatever will fit in the space you've designated. NOW go to your store of choice with your list and get the right containers for your space and purposes! Believe me, you will save a lot of time, headache, and money this way! Otherwise, you either end up using organizers that don't really work, or you have to haul them back to the store and start over. Let us know how it's going! :-)...See More- 11 years ago
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