25 Creative Home Offices
Get ideas for an office or studio in your trailer, garage, attic, kitchen, corner, or closet.
Office in a closet
Her small San Francisco home didn't have space for a home office, so Sara Menuck converted her living room closet into a chic, streamlined work-station.
For $1,000, including materials and labor, her designer removed the closet pole and added an upper covered storage area, a floating middle shelf, and a work surface with an almost-hidden drawer. Says Menuck, "I hardly ever close the doors."
More: 20 fun DIY projects
Mobile office
When landscape architect Andreas Stavropoulos heads to a job, he tows this 2003 cherry-red trailer behind his Honda CR-V. Everything he needs is inside: workspace, reference books, and desktop computer.
Murphy bed office
To quickly transform the office into guest quarters the "flip" side of this desk and shelving unit houses a Murphy bed. A rolling filing cabinet lets you keep work essentials close by or tuck them away at a moment's notice.
More: Eco design goes glam in San Francisco
Kid-friendly homework center
Adjustable Plexiglas shelves keep everything in this workspace handy but out of the way.
Suspend a desk
The office space in Sunset's Modern Cottage prefab show home featured a desk made from old door topped with frosted glass. It's suspended from the ceiling on 3/16-inch cable wire.
Borrowed space
This office is part of an amazing DIY makeover of a condemned beach shack in Venice, Calif. A short wall was added between the old den and living room to form the space. Color, multiple storage spots, and recycled materials give it warmth and character.
More: Get the full story of this jaw-dropping makeover
Office in a water tower
Builders stabilized the tower and added flashing to make it waterproof. They restored the windows and added a ring of transomlike windows at the base of the tower. After finishing the interior, the old ranch water tower is now a cozy home office.
Home office retreat
Home life and work life had become far too intermixed for architect Linda Brettler. "I had an office room upstairs in our house," she says. "But once the kids started multiplying, it became impossible to work there." The solution? Working on a budget of $25,000, Brettler transformed the family's two-car garage/poolhouse into her workspace.
DIY workspace
To create your own instant workspace anywhere, put a flat birch hollow-core door atop two adjustable sawhorses.
Into the attic
The intersection between the sharply pitched ceiling and the low wall provides a perfect spot for a long built-in desk that functions as a craft center. Large openable skylights that double as windows fill the area with natural light making it perfect for detail work. Sconces just above the work surface add even more illumination.
More: Creative attic ideas
Multi-functional table
By day, this is a his-and-hers work space. After 5, tuck the laptops away, put the lamp on the floor, and the office becomes a dining space for casual entertaining.
Rethink the garage
Reed Maltzman and Jennifer Gosselin had a two-car garage off of their house in San Francisco, but they needed space for people, not cars. So the couple transformed half of the detached structure into this 400-square-foot guest room and office.
More: Garage makeover creates new living spaces
Family workspace
Wall-to-wall modular desks from Ikea make best use of space in a narrow loft. The playful family spot is accented with colorful throw pillows from Reclaim and bench seat fabric from Sunbrella.
Inspired desk
Like a clothesline of ideas three 18-foot cables on the wall of this studio hold bits of inspiration to spur the creative process.
More: How to decorate with whimsical groupings and colorful collections
Backyard home office
Martha Mendoza's days are filled with deadlines, after-school commitments, and other pressures. Yet the celebrated journalist, teacher, wife, and mother―who won a Pulitzer Prize at age 33 for an investigative series on the Korean War―leads a surprisingly balanced life.
Her secret? This tiny home office, housed in a converted potting shed in her Santa Cruz, California, backyard. Here she can steal away from her domestic responsibilities to write, study, and pursue breaking news stories for the Associated Press. "Being detached from the house is key."
Sweet and streamlined
Instead of a pink canopy bed this girl's room features sleek modern elements that can easily transition to teenage tastes. The desk is perfect for crafts and homework.
More: Eco design goes glam in San Francisco
Sleek home office
A desk on casters keeps the room flexible.
Reclaimed workspace
The long workbench and shelving in this garage are made from sections of a yellow pine bowling-alley lane. Behind the table is a floor cabinet used for storing tools; the drawers came from a school science-display cabinet. The wall-mounted glass-front cabinet for hobby supplies is a vintage kitchen cupboard.
More: Eco-savvy garage
Wraparound workspace
The wraparound counter of a corner work center combines good design and wheelchair clearance.
Wide open workspace
When this kitchen was remodeled to accommodate a family of five, one of the major priorities was to incorporate a homework center with room enough for three computers. The parents wanted to interact with their teenagers when they were on their computers.
More: In plain sight
Shed turned office
Recycled wood makes this new "family shed," used for desk work and summer dining, look old.
Creative craft room
A Mondrian-like geometric arrangement of colors forms the face of a storage unit in the craft room. Mounted with compression poles open and closed shelving holds large items like a sewing machine and computer as well as smaller craft supplies.
More: Eco design goes glam in San Francisco
Kitchen office
With a window seat stretching along one side, and a built-in computer desk edging another, this pop-out kitchen addition becomes a light-filled retreat.
Study/office alcove
This study/office space fits into an alcove beside a pivoting window and is separated from the kitchen by a single-step level change. "It is still in the middle of everything but is tucked off to one side," architect David Coleman explains. It puts inevitable clutter out of sight.
New workspace for a new life
Ed and Lee Riddell s3old their advertising and design company in order to simplify their lives and concentrate on photography and painting. The clean slate gave them a chance to rethink their living space.
Related:
23 amazing home makeovers
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21 fun DIY projects
