In This Post:
Starting out
When you walk into our 2003 house, the first thing you look at, aside from the staircase, is our office to the right. The room is fairly spacious at 26sq ft. and can either work as a bedroom, office space, or bonus room. The room faces West, so it gets lots of afternoon sun, and we’ve already brightened up the space up with a fresh coat of white paint.
However, as is the case in our living room, a large radiator awkwardly occupies a corner of the room and limits usable wall space. My wife, Joanna, gets cold easily, so her desk area is right on top that radiator to keep her cozy during the colder months. I’m the opposite and sit on the opposite side of the room.
Our current office layout
We have an upright piano, which I grew up learning to play, and two antique desks (one of them is seen below) from my family, both of which need refinishing. While they both look bulky, each has deep drawers and are built to last forever, so we are salvaging them.
While I love photos of office desks that are placed central or floating in the middle of a room, with built in bookcases or shelving set around them, I’ve never quite understood how such a lay out works in a functional way. There are never power cables in the photos, no power source for your computer or laptop. I usually never see where the printer is set up. So, we are keeping our desks against the wall, near power sources.
Similar to our new primary closet situation, where we didn’t have sufficient space for our cloths, we have loads of books in boxes from our former NYC apartment, and more anticipated from my parent’s art book collection (currently in storage). We also have our collections of CDs and DVDs (remember those?!) boxed up. We just don’t have any shelves or drawers to put them on or in.
Lastly, we need space for letter size filing. There are my files, Joanna’s files, and I’m also my mother’s POA, so there is a TON of paper work to keep organized. Currently our files are in ugly plastic tubs.
The office design plan
We’re planning to add the built-in bookcase opposite the window. The wall is 12.5’, so there should be plenty of storage space width-wise. While we’d prefer to have 24 inch cabinets beneath the bookcase, the challenge we keep running into is the radiator, with the piano next to it. It limits the amounts of space for deep lower cabinets. Joanna and I agree that the current set up of the two desks and the piano are all in the best places. So, we are going to use five 30x12x30 upper kitchen cabinets as base cabinets for storage, with an inch buffer on either side.
For filing, we’re working with what we already have access to. We’re bringing in a two drawer, horizontal filing cabinet from my old office’s storage space, that has been sitting in my in-law’s basement for the past 4 years. I’m so glad we finally found a useful place for it!
In addition to the built-in bookshelves, we are also planning for either floating shelves or hanging artwork above our desks.
Sourcing the building materials
I had to source the building materials from both Lowe’s and Home Depot. Home Depot is favored by professional contractors, while Lowe’s is generally geared toward homeowners and DIYers, like myself, although they also offer Pro discount rates (5%), which I take advantage of.
Lowe’s does not seem to offer White Melamine Drilled Wood Shelves 11.75 in. D x 97 in. L, which I need for the shelving side panels. They only offer 15.75 in panels, which are too deep for this project.
Because of the sheer volume of materials needed, I’m having everything delivered. I can’t wait to get this project started and share the building process and final results with you.
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