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Designing Effective Office Space

Home office design requires knowing if your client will be paying bills, retreating from family or running a full-time business in the space

Clients of Sun Design Remodeling Specialists in Burke, Va., want areas that offer them the ability to organize all their financial documents, magazines, children�s school work and appointments.

Many clients of Bouril Design Studio in Madison, Wis. request that their office appear upscale. They invest in nicer furniture, cabinets and unique ceiling treatments.

There are multiple locations for a home office depending on the needs of the clients. This office by Tigerman McCurry Architects in Chicago offers an entrance that doesn�t interrupt the daily life taking place in the rest of the house.

A home office doesn�t necessarily need to be a separate room. Some homeowners want them integrated into other rooms. Ronnette Riley Architects in New York uses materials and colors to make the office space fit in with the rest of the house.

Rebecca Swanston, AIA, owner and principle of Swanston and Associates in Baltimore, says a home office is any space where someone sets up a computer and desk. A home office can be a niche in the living room or it can be its own room, depending on how it will be used.

If a homeowner plans to work from home and accept clients throughout the day, ADM in Manchester, Conn., designs the office off of the foyer, minimizing the opportunity of entertainment and business paths to cross. When homeowners do work from home, a door is ideal to close off the activities going on in the rest of the house.

Bowen Architect in Sarasota, Fla., has designed offices on the second floor, near the master bedroom. This location offers homeowners ultimate flexibility as the home office is available to them at any time of day or night.

Certain areas in a custom home are especially tailored to each client. The home office is one of these spaces. Trends in office design vary for each homeowner’s lifestyle, which leaves designers with the ever-present challenge of understanding each client individually. Doing so will guarantee a functional office space specific to a client’s way of life.

According to the American Institute of Architects’ Home Design Trends Survey for the second quarter of 2006, home offices were considered by architects as the most popular specialty room. This number increased from 31 percent in 2005 to 49 percent of respondents in 2006. And in a survey conducted by Residential Design & Build magazine in December 2006, home offices ranked first on a list of most asked-for rooms/features.

A home office can be defined in many ways as each person utilizes such space differently. Generally, the home office is a space homeowners use to conduct business.

“There are two classifications of a home office. One is for a person who works at home, wants doors on the room and is off-limits to everyone else [in the house],” says Robert Bouril, AIA, architect at Bouril Design Studio in Madison, Wis. “The other classification is for a person who is running the day-to-day bill paying, scheduling activities and online shopping — the day-to-day business of running a house.”

Another type of home office is one that’s a refuge from the rest of the house. “The homeowner might have a hobby that is carried on in that room. Or it can be a getaway TV room from the kids. And sometimes it does double function as guest quarters with a hide-a-bed,” Bouril adds. “What it’s not is a room for any activity related to your private sleeping and bathing. And, it’s not a public space such as a living room, dining room or kitchen area.”

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