Home Office Switch and Furniture Placement
I have a traditional home. (Design wise I'm heading toward transitional.) Typical walk in the front door, living room to the left and the dining room toward the back. We never used the living room although it was cool to look at! I had 4 large (34" x 40") cream chairs that I upholstered in the same fabric and would love to use a couple of them in the new configuration. I recently moved the dining room into the living room and made the old dining room another study/home office. The new study is 14' x 17' with 9' ceilings so it is a large space with lots of potential.
View from front door.
View from the new study
View from the dining room
View of the bookcase in relation to the desk
I'm struggling with the furniture placement. The desk is 59"w x32"d and is new. The view out the large window is beautiful so currently the desk placement takes full advantage of it.
*The chandelier is being replaced with a flush mount light fixture.
*I have thought of painting out the gold to black on the bookcase piece to tone it down.
*The open air plant piece in the corner can stay or go somewhere else.
*I have thought of floating the desk but cords are an issue. (I hate cords!) This is a working office and my husband has 2 monitors and a computer that have cords....ugh! There is no electrical in the floor and it is costly to add it.
I so appreciate your time and creative juices.
I'm open to any and all ideas.
Thank you!
Comments (8)
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Comments (7)I recommend you Google up a lot of photos on "home office", and especially for multi-purpose rooms (guest room/office). Also look up similar themes in deco books in bookstores. Usually what you will find is attention to style, scale, and to using "non-office" items integrated into the group. The ideas above about rolltop desk or antique (repro) secretary, drop-lid types work well. Or maybe a narrow writing desk with trunks or baskets for storage. Above a desk might be some decorative shelves with family photos and collectibles. Attention to a furniture grouping--so, not a clunky desk off by itself against a wall, but perhaps the correct size of secretary piece, an adjacent reading chair, a basket of magazines or books. If you have any area that is a "nook" or set off, that works especially well, but if not you can experiment with creating a vignette of a few pieces that looks like it belongs on a given wall, in a corner, etc. When thinking of these arrangements, you will need to balance form with function-- a lot of non-office office arrangements and unusual storage ideas are cutesy but a pain to utilize. That's important because in a multi-purpose room, you will want to try to keep the area neat, otherwise it won't matter what you have arranged, so you want your stuff to h help encourage your organization. But if you can find a slew of photos as I mentioned, some of them will be in spaces similar to yours, will suggest furniture types and placement and get you thinking outside the box. You would need to complement your existing furniture unless you're doing a big makeover. For example, if you have oak LR furniture, you wouldn't plop a white Techline desk in there. But, you don't have to have a clunky oak piece just to try to "match"; you can integrate other woods, wicker, metal, glass in the right styles. If your furniture has curved legs or some more delicate or ornate style you would use some similar things. Second-hand shops, antique malls and estate sales will sometimes yield pieces inexpensively enough to be painted or re-purposed. Most commercial "computer armoires" are notoriously ugly, so you're trying to find something that doesn't scream particle board/computer. In some cases, your "office" might need to be split up--for example, you might have the table or desk for your laptop in one spot, but use cabinetry across the room for some storage. This idea can be useful if there's a wall or corner that can handle (in terms of look or even wall load-bearing) more extensive cabinetry and shelving but that is not the place you want to sit and work....See MoreFurniture Placement.. Help!!
Comments (1)You might try posting this in the Home Decorating forum if you don't get a lot of responses here....See MoreIs furniture and furniture placement the most important element to a r
Comments (5)Here's my 2 cents, as a designer with about 20 years experience. Furnishing a room begins with a PLAN. You start your plan by determining what you want to do in the room, which informs everything else. Is it a place for entertaining, eating, TV watching, study, sleeping, playing an instrument? Once you have the function pinpointed, you draw the room to scale, noting positions of every door, window, heating elements, electrical outlets, fireplaces, and anything else of a permanent nature that would affect furniture placement. You look for focal points, natural lighting and views to the outside and to other rooms. The next step is to determine the furniture layout, including upholstery, case goods, floor and wall coverings, and lighting fixtures, keeping in mind scale and proportion as you figure out sizes of furniture, clearances, walkways, sight lines, etc. Only after you have this "road map" for your room will you begin to look at styles, colors, patterns of textiles, window coverings, and furnishings. You take your road map on all shopping trips, as any furniture salesperson will ask "what size (rug, sofa, table, etc.) are you looking for?" If you don't have the answer at the ready, you will waste a lot of time. And the last item you choose before the "frills" is the paint color on the walls. It's easier to match a paint color to your palette than the other way around. The "frills" are the decorative accessories like ceramics, paintings, sculpture, photos, vases, etc. Keep in mind that a room is never totally "done." It will change as your needs change, and should be flexible. Good luck with your project!...See MoreDual Bedroom_Office Space Furniture Placement
Comments (13)New Direction -- taking all of your great feedback into consideration, I have decided to move my office to what is currently my living room aka "the room that nobody uses" from the bedroom project for my granddaughter. So here's where I am on bedroom project; see attached "full size" bed find from Restore for Habitat! Unicorn comforter ordered from the Company Store. NEXT - need help with paint suggestions. Currently has "whiskers" on 3 walls. I am fine with using this as a base or repainting the whole room. Obviously being a little girl, If I work with the whiskers, I will need to throw some pink in with. Maybe the bed wall grey & pink horizontal stripes? Since I have the 2 closet doors that take up a whole wall, should I paint doors & associated trim same color as wall so they do not stick out? I threw in pic of dots that can be ordered from pottery barn that look kind of cute. Can't wait to see your ideas!...See More
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decoenthusiaste
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last yearlast modified: last yearGet a rug and coffee table for the seating area. Make sure they don't hinder the flow of the room or cramp your desk area. If the rug is so huge that it reaches the desk, you'll need carpet wheels for the chair (many office chairs have casters you can swap out and the fittings are often standard). If the armchairs take up too much room, perhaps a small loveseat would work better.
Like this, but with the desk under your window instead:
Or you could do a layout like this, with the armchairs tucked in the corners around the window (in this pic, there's a second desk against the wall for some reason, but you could put a low storage console there instead):
That desk and chair do not go with the decor at all. A pretty new desk won't be so hard to find, but a desk chair that's actually ergonomic might be a bigger challenge. But they do make adjustable chairs that are more traditional looking.
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