Design a home office

Hubert Carle

Member
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102
Location
Sacramento CA
Hi Guys and Gals. In the works but not soon is to design and build LOML and Self a home office. The bedroom is typical 10' by 10' and we both want our own work space. Have some vague ideas but looking on the WWW haven't a clue where to look.

Soo What's your advice??? :wave: :wave: :wave:
 
Should have asked SWMBO first :D :D :D

She has some ideas of what it should look like. :doh: :doh:

This is just a rough idea of what she has in mind.
 

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Errr, so what exactly did you need our help for? :huh: That office plan looks ready to build.

I was going to ask just what you wanted to DO in that space. As that would affect the purpose. An architect or artist would need a large drawing surface. A quilter would need a tall/large table. A writer would probably want lots of bookcases and a chair for reading, dreaming, plotting with maybe a lap desk. etc.

So are you looking for a place to surf the web, a place to run a business, or what?

Without knowing that, All I can say is that your plan looks complete, but also I worry that it lends itself to being claustrophobic. An 8x10 room is not a whole ton of space for two people. And your plan has turned it into a 8x6 room, since you have a full row of 2' deep (?) cabinets along both walls. The full runs of wall-hung cabinets are also going to seriously affect how closed in the room feels.

Be very sure that that is what you want!
 
LOML is just finishing off her Para-Legal degree at MTI College and wants place for research. Wants to steal my computer - Guess I'll have to get a new one :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

I do gaming and video editing and gaming and word processing and did I mention gaming :rofl: Can't forget designing things for my wood shop with CAD :thumb: :thumb:

We also have handicapped kids and do a lot of paperwork / faxing / filing

The program I have for "house design" is rather lacking in symbols etc so I downloaded SketchUp. What I really need help with is what should I include in the design. Each work station will need a "computer box holder," drawers. Wife wants some of the over head to be cabinets but some open library shelves.
 
Best of luck with your project, all I can say is that home office space is so precious, I use mine every day. In my case it's detached from the house. I'm going to use half of it for doing hand work, and building a workbench to put inside of it. I don't know if having the computer near a workbench will be good or not yet, but I think it's all in how the space works for me.

In my case I had a company install a shed, and put it on a foundation, and the outside skin is quite thin, but kinda durable, it's a tongued siding kinda...I wasn't as concerned with that as I had planned to insulate and add 1" x 6" T&G to it. There's about 1000 bf (2000 lf) of pine on the walls and ceiling, and about 200 bf of purple heart on the floor.

I posted in another thread I like to get away from the computers, can you guess why? But I always laugh, if you look close there's a copy of Schaffer's "Hand-Saw Makers Of North America" book under the window! Galoot at heart!:rofl:

Here's my home office.

(linky pic to opposite side of room)



For Vaughn, this was done on the do-it-as-you-go design!
 
Hubert

Looks good! The only things that come to mind are that I would consider putting the chair space in the center of each counter rather than on an end, but that is merely a personal preference -- I like having space for paper on each side of me -- and you might have a bit more "swing room" for a chair if the space weren't hard up against the wall. At the same time, you don't want the chairs lined up back to back, you'll be bumping into each other so that may be the design trade off.

Also, you might be able to tuck a bookcase in the space where the door swings. Might not be too deep, but if you can get the door open fully for access you might find that the extra space would be handy for pictures, paperback books etc,

I assume that another computer will be in your future, :D , so run the wires for a mini network and you can share a printer which I presume you will put in the converted closet.

SWMBO did some good planning for you!

Jay
 
I do gaming and video editing and gaming and word processing and did I mention gaming :rofl: Can't forget designing things for my wood shop with CAD :thumb: :thumb:

While being fully cognizant that this is a woodworking forum, the simple fact is that this is the very first time that I have found someone that admits to both my addictions (woodworking and gaming) so I have to ask, what games to you play? For the past few years I have been doing primarily things like CIV IV and MMORPG's (notably DDO and LOTRO over the last year). The latter lets me spend time with my son who lives a few hundred miles away so it has a double benefit. :D
 
Jay by putting the chairs "off set" we gain a large flat area for stacking / organizing on the wife's side.

Chip my favorites are the First Person Shooters. Dues Ex, Tomb Raider etc. I've never been much interested in the multi-player games. Guess I'm just anti-social :rofl: :rofl: Although I do like Diablo too. and I don't get driving games. :dunno: And if you really want to get "Uh OooKKKAAAAYY" there are the golf and FISHING games.

Now that I have an idea of the shape of things I am getting out the books, magazines and picking the features I want. This is a long term project since the other half of the room will not be available for a while. Trying to convince SWMBO that I should "practice" on my side of the room but haven't succeeded yet. :D :D
 
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