I went with frameless custom cabinets for my home office as was so very glad I did. I had priced out Kraftmaid through Home Depot, but found that they, and many of the other stock cabinets, did not have the sizes that I needed--particularly for the drawers. Too much space was lost to the face frame. With custom I chose the depth of each drawer to store such things as envelopes, CDs, etc. I also was able to get a custom wood desktop for less than the price of formica. You'd be suprised that often custom cabinets can be cheaper than stock cabinets and you will be able to get exactly what you want in the sizes/depth you need. I was also able to match the stain to my bedroom furniture since my home office is part of a master suite.

Earlier this year we had (custom) cabinets made and installed in what we call the den (aka study / home office). The room is still not yet unpacked because my two year-old likes to "help," so I do piecemeal when he's napping. Hopefully by the new year it'll be functional. Ha ha! Not saying which new year .... The home office is for me because I am the one who pays bills / organizes / manages our family's life. I also do calligraphy and envision doing it there. My children are little but I can only imagine that as they grow they'll have more projects / paperwork, and now we have one room dedicated to just that! We have a lot of cabinetry in there (it's practically a kitchen!) and the (high-end) custom cabinetry alone (not inc. installation) was about $10,500. (I'm in Colorado.) I looked at some stock and semi-custom lines and those gave me less for more, meaning for a similar set-up (but not perfect) the quote was between $13,000 and $14,000 (for KraftMaid at HD); StarMark was a little more than $14,000 and UltraCraft was ~$11,000. This is the "computer" wall (the cpus, printer, scanner / copier, modems, etc. are contained in the big cupboard on the left -- it has pull-out shelves and channels for wires); it's about thirteen feet long: We have two work stations (one is currently holding a portable radiator, the other a box), again with a channel under the desktop (which was included in the price -- I love it!) to hold wires for monitors, phone, etc. The long drawers under the computer cupboard is file storage, and each work station has its own bank of three drawers. This is the bookcase / sofa wall, a little less than thirteen feet: Our GC said he could've built the bookcases for us (propping them atop the drawer banks which are kinda obscured by the boxes ...), but it was actually less expensive for us to have the cabinetmaker make them. Over in the Kitchens Forum buehl did her kitchen through Expo and she has some v. unsavory stories about that experience. I don't know if it was just her space or just her Expo or what; we don't have an Expo in CO so it was never an option for me, but her stories scared me. Anyway, to me the money we spent in the den was a lot of money -- don't get me wrong -- but I absolutely believe we will reap its rewards for years and years to come, both in terms of utility and also my sanity (in not going crazy about having important papers scattered all over which drives me bananas).

kswl: I'm glad to hear it's working well for your DS with the narrower width. With technology changing at such a fast pace and getting smaller and smaller some of these special purpose goodies become redundant. We're opting to skip the CPU cabinet for that same reason. I am putting in a keyboard pullout for me, but not my DH--he wants a pencil tray, but you make a good point about having to scoot out. greenmtn: I agree with that. We do like to open the windows as it brings in a lovely breeze. Lucky we do not get too much direct sunlight as our neighbor has a huge ash tree in his backyard that filters the light without completely shading the room. Tomorrow I will meet with the designer who did the above design. One difference between her design and that of the designer I met with yesterday is the amount of space for seating under the desk and cabinets size. The other designer has more cabinets and less foot room under the desk--which I like, at the same time it could prove annoying. I am also thinking of reducing the depth of the right most upper cabinet to 9" as I don't want to obstruct the window. I am wondering how to treat the upper actually. Do I center it on the wall (which is 33") or line it up so that it ends at the same place as the lower does? If I do the latter it seems to look funny to me -- not centered. If I do a larger cab. and bring it closer to center then it gets closer to the window too--hence why I am thinking of doing the narrower depth. I think I can still store many things there--paper, CDs, smaller books, etc. Hopefully by the weekend I'll have designs from all three. I want to get a custom cabinetry quote as well as I feel the cabinets would be better quality. These three places all specialize in garage/closet/office but the product is all melamine based. They are designed to have minimal backing and they do all the wire management to get power where we need it and hide all the cords. It's a start!

OK, antique pewter it is. Thanks, folks. DH just suggested if we go for that, why not just get the same knobs/pulls we put in the kitchen which are antique pewter. I guess I was thinking everything should be unique. So then we have Option 3 above or Option 4 (also antique pewter) below: