By Joanna Simmons | Houzz
Whether you work from home every day or just need desk space for household admin or the kids’ homework sessions, it can seem tricky to fit in a home office. Luckily, there are lots of clever solutions out there that go way beyond simply plonking a desk in your living room. From a well-designed workspace integrated into storage to a simple folding desk, it’s possible to carve out a little work hub in your home with limited funds and minimal square footage.
Rethink a bedroom. In this bedroom, a generous desk stretches along the width of the window. It’s constructed from an inexpensive combination of trestle legs and a simple wooden desktop.
Ergonomically speaking, a well-designed office chair is the best accompaniment to a desk, especially for a full-time workspace. Here, though, a classic Eames armchair helps the work area blend in with the bedroom. Browse Office Chairs.
Repurpose an unlikely room. Thinking about every part of your home, and where you could fit a desk, can generate some unlikely solutions.
As long as there’s space for a desk, legroom for a chair and maybe a spot for some storage too, then any room can do double duty as a home office. Fit It All In With These Key Measurements for a Perfect Home Office.
Exploit an underused area. Tuck a desk in beneath a window to make more of this typically underused pocket of a room. By day, you’ll benefit from the natural light coming in, plus looking up to gaze out at life in the distance is a welcome break for eyes after hours staring into a screen.
Aim for a good fit. This home office demonstrates how a good-sized work area, storage and shelves can all fit neatly in a compact footprint. The trick is to keep the desktop fairly shallow and choose a shelf-style desk, rather than a freestanding design. This makes better use of space and clears the area below for drawers. Find the Just-Right Size Desk.
Sticking to white furniture in a white room helps reduce the visual impact of this workstation too.
Look out for a ladder. This simple, ladder-style desk looks beautifully unobtrusive and fits happily in a small space. If you don’t mind having your computer and work materials on show, this design is a great alternative to a desk in a cabinet and is less bulky and more space-efficient.
Slide this way. Consider installing a space-smart pullout desk like this one. Here, a bench built alongside provides seating, or just pull up a chair. A mobile free-standing lamp provides the light.
Install in a closet. This well-appointed studio apartment in London includes a compact office tucked inside fitted storage. Open the double doors and there’s desk space, shelves with electrical outlets for a printer or other equipment and a stool that stows away neatly beneath it all when not in use.
Convert an awkward space. If you have a tiny room, tricky corner or bigger-than-average stair landing, consider converting it into an office. This small room would barely accommodate a single bed, but with a desk built under the window and shelves along one wall, it makes an excellent office.
Building custom furniture will always make the most efficient use of space, and this desk design, without legs, creates a streamlined silhouette.
Pull it down. A pull-down desk can be made very simply with just a piece of wood and a couple of sturdy chains to support it. This desk is built into a larger piece of custom storage, but the basic principle would work anywhere.
Then fold it away. The desk, shown in the previous picture, is in a compact apartment in
Paris. Here, it’s folded away, and the coffee table has been pulled out from beneath the bench sofa.
Make use of a corner. You will get a little more space by building into or across a corner, and you’ll have two handy walls on which to fit shelves too.
