Home Offices

My wife works from home full time now. She's been working on a folding table for the last 2.5 years in our den.  It's time to do a build.  I've done a rough design in SketchUp.  The plan was to buy pre-made base cabinets and add a hardwood top and shelves.  I'm decent at carpentry - my dad and I did our mudroom and pantry.  However, I am not confident of drawers and doors for cabinets. 

The problem I'm having is finding the right height base cabinets. We want desk height, so 28-29" height cabinets. The only thing I've found pre-made in the style she wants (Shaker) is kitchen or bathroom height (~34" height). There isn't enough adjustment room, even if we trim the base off, to lower the cabinets.

Any suggestions?

Here's the rough design - no detailing, more concept and perspective stage currently to set up where drawers, cabinets, and shelves will show up.  Detailing will come later.

Thanks for any suggestions!

In reply to PMRacing :

Vanity height cabinets are usually about what you are looking for. 
 

Also consider IKEA (or equal). They've got door kits and face frames (no boxes) which could work for your application- use upper cabinet fronts and build your own boxes. 

You could also use 30" tall upper cabinets as base cabinets- build your own toe kicks. They would only be 12" deep, but that's not bad for office furniture (24" deep base cabinets things get lost in the back)

Note on your design...

If the base cabinets under the window are 24" deep, your wife will never be able to reach books on the bookshelves in the corner. They are too high to be useful, and most people don't want to climb on the counters. 

Do you need all that? In a somewhat paperless society all the storage may be unnecessary. I run two companies from a work table I built into a corner, a two drawer hanging file cabinet, and a small closet for paper, printer ink etc.

If it was mine, I'd leave the base cabinet out of the corner and make the knee space extra wide. That would give the ability to put a computer monitor in the corner and still have a view out the window, or double monitors, or one unfinished project on the right while you slide to the left to work on something else. 
 

Im not a fan of a knee space of only 36" or so in a large work space. 

Also, although we are nearly paperless, we are not there yet. 
 

I would use a 2 drawer file cabinet as a base cabinet on the left hand side. 

In reply to bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) :

I had the same thought.  I have 2 desks in my office.  Neither has any cabinets or storage, all of my stuff fits on a small bookshelf.  A cabinet could help to make it cleaner, but I wouldn't need anything on the scale posted above. Dimensionally my desk is basically a folding table.

What SV eX said:      I used two drawer filing cabinets to hold up my homemade desk...

I've been in a home office for 15 years now. My current one is the most built out and that is only because it came this way. I really only use the desk here and the shelves all have wood carvings and picture type stuff on it.

I would give yourself more room than you think for the desk top. I can only fit a 5 foot desk in my current office and my monitors take up a lot of it. Also, Having a lot of open area around the legs is great. I honestly did just a desk and a book shelf for a decade and never needed more. 

Take a good stock of needs. Really in most offices, It's a notebook, couple monitors, Cam, and keyboard/mouse. 

Thanks for the feedback so far!

So, some more details.  The room is roughly 10'x 11'. My wife wants to sit in front of the window.  Everything and anything needs its place - i.e. hidden - so drawers and cabinets are necessary and the design she wants (interior design is a hobby of hers). If it was me, file cabinets and an old door for a top would work.  As for the hard to reach shelves, those will be for knickknacks and some of my car models.  The rest will be for actual books for work and her reading.  I'll have a couple of cabinets and shelves (I hope) for my stuff (bill sorting, car stuff, etc.)  The printer and scanner will be on a slide out drawer.  There will be a recliner in the corner on the right, and a TV on the opposite wall. 

One of her design inspirations: 

So I'm trying to do this on a budget, but high on style. and quality. No way I want to pay to have this built. 

In reply to PMRacing :

In that photo above I see upper kitchen cabinets (to get the right height) on the left and right lower side, with a countertop. You can put them out from the wall and just put deep side boards on to hide the gap. They're not deep, but will get you the look on a budget. 
As far as your drawing, kill the open lower shelf, and use a rolling file cabinet, and do the same upper as lower on the 2 ends. 

If she'll be using a computer for work, don't forget monitor arms. A dual mount will clamp to the table and free up space, very useful for putting the keyboard under when switching to paperwork.

So that is basically the setup I have now. I just have a desk instead of a counter. Other than that, the layout is exactly the same and my room is about the size of yours. 2 things to note. 

1. If you do in front of the window, make sure it's not due east or due west where the sun is a PITA. Mine is due west and I had to put deep window tint on it to make it bearable in the afternoon. 

2. Consider a desk vs built-in. Reason I say this is I'm assuming this is converting one of the existing bedrooms into an office. If you go to sell, A built out office may limit your target audience but a shelves like that can still have a bed be put in sometime in the future. 

A nice desk and way to compliment the room would be my suggestion. I wouldn't go full on building a bunch of stuff. My fiance and I both work from home. 

I will grant you that at 40/37, we don't consider this our "forever" home. 

But I really don't think you need more than a nice workspace. 

Well, I had some very good timing.  A good friend of mine is a custom home builder/remodeler.  I had put a feeler out with him about cabinets. He said he just happened to have some coming out next week and sent me pictures.  I ended up with pretty much a full kitchen's worth of cabinets.  One very full Penske high top van and a trip to Ann Arbor, I had the cabinets.

I cataloged the cabinets and measured them to figure out what I had.  I also measured out the layout of the room in the basement. I'm going to do most of the build in the basement and finish it once in place in the den. I'm going to modify some of the cabinets to desk height by cutting off the upper drawer and leaving just the cabinet portion. Others, I'll need to make a base for to bring it up to the right height.

Spare parts and left over cabinets:

Cabinets to be modified and used (don't mind my daughters cardboard playhouse): 

I need to figure out what to do in the corner to avoid wasted space.  And I'll need to build a a desk top as well.  For the shelves, I was thinking something from IKEA or  similar pre-fab stuff. Then I'll face them and trim against the ceiling.  

This will probably be a multi month project, but it has started!  

I'd leave the corner like that with an access panel from one of the cabinets. That's where I'd hide the router, plugs, cables, etc. you'd be surprised how nice it is to just have that void there. 

Has she sat directly in front of a window before?

The reason I ask is that is seems like a great idea, but with a computer screen directly in front of a window, the contrast makes the screen almost impossible to see during the day.  It will usually result in blinds that are closed all the time, defeating the point of the window.

I would generally suggest having the window off to the side of her view if she wants the window view.  That is how my setup is (eg at the left of the window where the shelf's are, or in the corner).

The other caveat to that is which way is the window facing?  If it's south for example you will get sun blazing in most of the year.   Mine is facing north west, so I only have sun issues near sunset.

In reply to aircooled :

She's set up in front of the window now. It faces North West as well and does have blinds.  I suggested in the corner as well but she likes the window.