There are two ways to go with home offices – follow the same décor as the rest of the home so the office just “fits in” or, as in this case, create something quite different to separate the work environment from the living environment.
You can tell a lot about a person by his or her work space. The person who works in the office above clearly likes four things – reading, symmetry, travelling and privacy. Reading because of the amazing circular ceiling library. Symmetry because of the way the circular hole in the ceiling matches the circular motif on the floor. Travelling because of all the treasures collected from around the world. And privacy because there are no windows.
There’s nothing really special about this office itself – what’s amazing is the incredible integrated desk and storage furniture that stretches across an entire wall. Looking more like sculpture than furniture, the unit was designed by avant-garde Los Angeles firm Synthesis Design and Architecture (SDA).
Sometimes we don’t have the luxury of devoting an entire room to our work. So we have to make compromises regarding the home office. But, as it turns out, all you need is a desk and a chair. This two-person home office folds away to become a beautiful timber wall with loads of hidden-away storage space.
All of the home offices we’ve seen so far have been tucked-away private spaces devoted to head-down bottom-up dedication to the task-at-hand. This office is different. With 180-degree views, this one brings the outside in – we’re just not sure we’d be able to get any work done with a view like that.
This office is dedicated to the principle that you don’t need much space to create a completely separate workspace from your home environment. The good thing about offices is that you just don’t need that much headspace – making an attic the ideal office.
Maybe all you have is a stairway – why not tuck your office into that space underneath that would otherwise be wasted? This home office may be small but it has everything you need – shelving, storage, a fake old-fashioned telephone, and a posey just around the corner from the kitchen!
It’s happened to all of us – we work late, we get tired, but rather than brave those baffling stairs on the right, we just fold down the bed and collapse into it.
We have to admit there’s nothing amazing about this his-and-hers home office – except the colour of the walls and sculptured lighting strip. Sometimes that’s all you need to transform a mundane workspace into something that little bit special.
