Home office design and construction book

[Upscale]

Why not pull a Norm? Go into an office store, a furniture store or whatever, find stuff you like and take measurements. Take a digital camera and a tape measure. If questioned on the use of them, say that you'll need to get approval from the wife before making any purchases and you need to measure to make sure it will fit in your limited size office.

Building your own office stuff means that much of it will be made to size, so a book which maybe useful in one sense will not help you out in other areas. Sounds like you just need to see some products to get some ideas.

[Neil Williams]

I need to do a built-in home office setup for SWMBO after her eyes popped out at a local company's quote. Any recommendations out there for good books that cover both design and construction? I don't need help on joinery and such, but I do need details on things like face frames, molding, dimensions, installation, etc.

--Neil

[Lee Michaels]

I have seen some builtin type of home offices that were very nice. Basically, they were gloirified kitchen cabinets. Only instead of making allowances for stoves, sinks, etc, they sections for desks, computers, etc.

If you go the built in route, just thing kitchen cabinets. Just a little bigger and organized differently.

[Tom Watson]

Go to Amazon.com.

In the Books area, search using Home Office as the search terms.

I'd pay particular attention to the offering from Taunton.

Tom Watson - WoodDorker tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (email)

(website)

[Han]

"Neil Williams" wrote in news:9ivoe.4090$Er.1601 @fed1read02:

Also take a look at Ikea stuff, either the catalog, or one of the stores. For us, the new(ish) store at the the intersection of New Jersey Routes 17 and 4 has come close to a financial disaster. While not all really "built- in" we really like our space now (former master bedroom).

[Mike]

Most desk tops are at a height of 30"- 32" for use with a normal desk chair. I'm not saying the desk can't be taller than that but make sure your desk chair will work. Depth is a matter of taste but you can go 24" (plus binding) and get 2 runs out of your sheet goods. If you don't want to deal with laminate or hard surface you can use a finished wood top but you might need a desk pad to help protect the top especially if it's plywood. We normally custom build them to accommodate the customer's equipment. These days Mom & Dad want to be pretty close to the kids while they are on the PC and it's pretty common to have two knee space areas. Design is normally not much problem. We usually ask what kind of knee space(s) a customer needs and go from there. Do you need a lot of drawers? Do need file drawer space? Do you want pull-out keyboard(s)? Do you need to hide the PC and or printer? Hardware is available to do just about anything.

I don't know how much building or finishing you want to do. You can use manufactured cabinets but kitchen cabinets may be too tall (36" w/top) to be comfortable with most desk chairs. It is possible to cut down the toe spaces to shorten them. You can also look at vanity cabinets. The vanity cabinets will be okay for height but will likely be only 21" in depth. If you still need a 24" (or deeper) top you can pull the vanity cabinets away from the wall to allow for cords and cables to run behind the cabinets. If you don't need or want doors and drawers, you can just build a support network with a top. It's just a matter of how extensive and how expensive you want the desk to be.

Mike O.