Comments on: Project: Home Office

By: Verne

Verne — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 15:27:29 +0000

Hi Andrew, glad to hear you found everyone’s suggestions useful! I’m finally getting a move on things and will be sure to look for more guidance as I take on my first quasi-renovation project.

PS - love the designfloat.com site and have been a loyal subscriber for some time already. :)

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 20:02:54 +0000

I’m on my final week of 2 weeks notice and about to make a similar leap that will involve working from home. Can’t wait to see the before and afters and hopefully it’ll give me some ideas for setting up my home office. Thanks to those who posted some great links above!

By: Verne

Verne — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 22:04:26 +0000

Thanks Steve! These’ll keep me busy and un-focused on my work for a while. :)

An update on this project will be coming soon!

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 21:55:42 +0000

Ikea should be great for you - and of course, you can visit:

http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/

I used CB2 - an offshoot of Crate and Barrel. They’re not cheap, but they have stuff no one else has. And I used West Elm. We used to have a store called Organized Living near us - they closed, but it looks like they still exist online.And Target - I got my brushed metal shelves there, on the discount shelves, I believe.

links:
http://www.cb2.com
http://www.westelm.com
http://www.organizedliving.com
http://www.target.com

That should help. I’d recommend sketching out some rough layouts before you go to deep - that’s the best way to avoid overfilling your space. Good luck!

By: Verne

Verne — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 21:45:19 +0000

Thanks for the follow-up, Steve. Your story gives me some insight on the things I should do before diving into my project.

You mentioned that you bought some shelves online - can you suggest a few links that you used? Did you find any other particularly helpful places to shop for the things you needed?

My intention thus far is to spend a day at Ikea. Is this a rookie mistake?

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 21:39:11 +0000

Thanks, Verne - I’m glad you like it. My wife and I were in a two-bedroom apartment until we bought our house in December - so we had both of our computers set up in one cramped room.

That original office had a lot of the posters and toys, and so I’d say it took a couple years to slowly gather a lot of it - but it was so crushed into the small space, you couldn’t really appreciated (or even see) a lot of it.

So when we got into our house, the office was my first project - I got it together inside the first month, buying a lot of the shelves online before we moved. Even though I had a bunch more toys and things, I put them all into another (empty) room first, and slowly planned where I’d put them into the office - that way, instead of trying to force everything in, I made sure everything had its own discrete space. A few things got left behind, and eventually made their way into our guestroom.

So it took lots of thought, but it was worth it - it’s a very enjoyable, personal workspace, and it encourages me to actually be in there working - in the past, at times, I dreaded cramming myself into my workspace.

Good luck with yours - I’m curious to see how it turns out, with all the input you’ve received. Looking forward to the update!

By: Verne

Verne — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 21:25:48 +0000

Steve, that is a great looking office! Thanks for sharing! I especially love all the classic toys and framed art.

Something to shoot for, for sure. :)

How long did it take you to build your office into the state it is in now?

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 14:06:01 +0000

When I built my home office, I made a rule that no area of the room would be either too functional or too fun - in other words, I didn’t want to look at big chunk of tools, computers, or documents, but I didn’t want to just have a bunch of toys dominating any one area, either.

So, I combined my love of classic Universal monsters, superheroes, Kiss and other toys and fun things into my home office - all painted to match my logo color. It’s a great place to work - here are some photos:

http://www.stevespatucci.com/office

By: Satish

Satish — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 23:21:07 +0000

Make sure you update us on what you choose and what amounts you spend!

By: Verne

Verne — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 19:45:42 +0000

Thanks for the great recommendations, Renata23!

I’ve got the giant bulletin board covered, but I manage my to-do’s electronically through Outlook and my trusty BlackBerry. Likewise for calendars and contacts. I appreciate the tactile aspects of writing on paper, but the convenience of accessing the data on the go outweighs that!

I’m with you on the filing system and the book shelf though - we live in an electronic world, but some things really do need to be printed and stored.

Having everything within arm’s reach won’t be a problem either - the space available isn’t all that generous.

I’ll watch out for the snacks too… sometimes. ;)

Great comments! I’m going to consolidate a list of shopping items soon, so keep throwing ideas out.