How To Create A Home Office
Before Photo:
A home office can mean many things. It could be a laptop and a briefcase with followers that gets set up at the kitchen table or a large room with dedicated officer machines and furniture.
- Will the space be a dedicated office or shared family space?
- will you be building a niche office or a dedicated room?
- What will you need for electricity, modem, internet, phone, and lighting?
- What type of furniture will you need? Do you have the space? [files, chairs, couches, printer, etc]
- What is your budget?
Converting A Living Room into an Office:
The pictures below show an old built in bookcase that I converted into something a bit more functional for the office. I determined that I needed a large file cabinet and a place to store office supplies, but did not want to clutter the room with a piece of furniture.
So I added file drawers to the built-in and a power source in the shelf area for a printer, backup drive, pencil sharpener, MP3 player, etc.
The Process:
The first order of business was to remove the old doors – no longer needed.
The top casings on the bookcase, door, and windows were also changed. I decided to change out the door and window trim and use large head casing instead. The idea was to create an entablature detail that had a more period character and charm to the 1863-year-old house.
Adding Drawers and A Cabinet
I split the lower bookcase section into two spaces. I installed a vertical divider partition on the right to support full extension Accuride slides and create a space for a cabinet and hidden shelves. These slides are rated for 100 lbs which should be plenty for a drawer full of paper files.
Beefing up The Shelves:
Maple Drawers with Dovetail Construction:
The Maple dovetail drawer construction ensures a sturdy and well-made drawer system. Dovetail joints are extremely strong and attractive joints and are traditionally used on boxes, chests, quality furniture, and cabinet drawers.
Later I will add poplar face plates and drawer pulls to the drawer boxes.
the two drawers measure 30w x 14d x 10h. There are slots cut into the drawers to allow aluminum folder hanger slats to fit in. These slats will support dozens of file folders.
The right side of the case was left open for access to a previous light switch, not shown that powers two recessed lights above the top bookcase shelf.
Divider shelves will be added to this storage space, a small door will finish it off. This will be a great place to store paper, printer ink, and other supplies.
Below Photo: of the new electrical box. I will purposely stop the shelves short from the rear of the cabinet so I can run electrical cords up and through a 1-1/2″ hole in the bookshelf counter above. This will be where I place my printer and modem.
Photo: Drawers are made from 1/2″ maple with dovetail construction. 3/4″ Poplar faces with drawer pulls will be added to the drawers to dress them up.
This shows the location of the old receptacle and the new is pictured on the right. The removable bottom drawer clears the outlet by 2 inches when closed.
Finished Photos:
~ a concord carpenter