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Furniture Remodeling Design Dilemma

Formal Living Room into Office

last year

Has anyone ever successfully transformed a formal living room into an office? We have a living room sitting empty (because I got rid of most of the furniture) that is in the front of our house. It’s just to the left when you walk in the front door and also to the left of the staircase (Georgian style house). In the nearly 30 years we have had the house no one has ever used the living room. I’m thinking of changing it into an office for me but need some ideas to convince the husband who has his own huge office in the back of the house. I’m thinking minimalistic with a simple desk, horizontal filing cabinet, some fun chairs. Would love to see your pictures.

Featured Answer

PRO

Diana Bier Interiors, LLC

last year

You can absolutely use a living room as an office! I've been using mine for almost 20 years now. It measures 13' x 24' and serves double duty--when I need to work, it's an office, and when I have visitors it's a nice sitting room. I also have a center hall Colonial like you have, with living room on the left of the foyer and dining room with entrance to kitchen and family room on the right. I started out using the small sun porch (off the living room) as my office, but it was small and had too much sun glare. So I moved the desk, computer and printer to the living room, and kept the bookcases and filing cabinets in the sun room. There are no doors closing it off since (1) the work area is in the back of the room, invisible from the foyer, and (2) hardly anyone comes to our front door!

Here are photos:

Living room with desk, computer and printer (in bay window). Also has lots of seating, piano, and fireplace.

Bookcases, filing drawers and various office-y must-haves:

The sun porch also has a small table where I can work as well. The chest of drawers to the left holds paper, and other office supplies.

If I had to, I could move the bookcases, chest and filing cabinets to the living room.

As you can see, it doesn't look like a commercial office--all the furniture is residential type items.

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Comments (9)

cubby14
last year
This is my living room which I use for my office.

It is open to the rest of the house. This next picture is showing the opening
PRO
JAN MOYER
last year
last modified: last year
Show the space. Draw it, measure it. Show entry to it, windows, all the walls. Feet and inches for every last thing.

What's On the other side of the hall. Given Georgian? I assume a dining room. Show..... and then you get TELL : )
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Not sure why pressure from other family who aren't living in your house would make you rethink what you want in a house if it wasn't on your radar to begin with. I agree with patricia about having living spaces on your main level be living spaces, and having a separate living space without a TV so adults can separate from kids but still be on the same level. I would make the office space your TV room (den). With doors. Kids toys could be in there too. Regarding the office, what does your upstairs look like? How many bedrooms do you have? If you have 4, you can easily convert one bedroom into an office. Most people respond to that by saying "but I NEED a guest room!" If that's your response, think about how often you have overnight guests, and whether you want to dedicate 144 square feet of your house to guests who will be with you a handful of nights each year (when you think about your house as a cost/SF, think about how much money you're spending for that dedicated space, and how many nights in a hotel it would take to recoup). I am planning on converting our guest room into a play room/guest room, with a murphy bed in the closet for the handful of times we have overnight guests each year. You could do the same with a guest room/office combo. Murphy bed or pull out couch or day bed for overnight guests.
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My questions are: Do you use a dining room? For sit-down dinners, I mean. Do you use a living room? It's certainly thinkable to reconfigure these rooms. Serving and clearing up in a dining room that is farther from the kitchen is a little less convenient than when it's adjacent, although a full-grown butler's pantry could include a dishwasher and sink along with storage for the best china, flatware, and glassware (a very traditional layout in a large home). But if you don't use a dining room now, you probably won't in the future. And is your living room mainly for show (and receiving the pastor, etc.)? So many of us essentially live in our family rooms (which might be the den in your current layout) and only use the official living room for special occasions. Sometimes a family room that is open to the kitchen, plus a den for quiet and privacy, makes the most sense. If expanding the kitchen is the top priority and you don't actually use the living room, this could make sense. Or a living room-dining room combination might make sense. But please think carefully about how you actually live in your house.
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loobab
last year
last modified: last year
What is it that you need to convince your husband about?

That you too need an office?

That there is a way to close off the office from view of guests entering your house?

That there will be adequate place to stash away your things so it will look presentable to guests entering your house?

If you will really never use it as an entertaining space, please speak with a contractor about ideas to close off the room. French doors with lights are a nice idea, and you can put shirred opaque curtains up that can be taken down later if you move. The room can then be still appropriately considered a living room even with the French doors.

Pottery barn has some nice desk and office furniture.

If you want craft cabinets, these are rather clever- DreamBox Craft Storage units.
emilyam819
last year
I turned my formal living room into an office. It’s just furniture! No door. But it works because it is a dead-end room (only one entrance).
Connecticut Yankeeeee
last year
I put up a wall and removed a fireplace to make my office. It was a useless open plan LR that never got used. It’s a good decision- don’t let your husband talk you out of it.
PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
last year
IMO you use your house for how it functions for you. Do you both work from home or is this just going to be a home based office? My hubby and I share a large office with no issues but I need more info. I would not want to see a working office at the entry to my home since in my experience a real working office is never a perfect looking place. I found in one of uor homes that we needed to make an effort to steer guests to the LR so we served pre and after dinner drinks there . We also made it a nice spot to sit and talk with the kids in the FR with the TV. I need pics of the spaces and a floor plan Please post anything to do with this space in this post just add to a commnet . Please do not start another post
kandrewspa
last year
If you close it off with French doors the next owner can use it as a living room if they want to. There are many people who don't use a living room when they have a family room and home offices are so popular now since the pandemic. IMO there is really no reason not to do it. It's silly to have a room you don't use when you really want your own HO. Also as @loobab said, there are plenty of places to buy attractive office furniture.
PRO
JAN MOYER
last year
last modified: last year
It can be BOTH things. It simply depends how you furnish, how you store the obvious needs for working at home. It depends how much desk you really require.... but it is almost never a case of one or the other.

If the op doesn't show the space, along with dimensions of that space, describe her needs? It becomes a twist and spin: ) as who knows??

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