OK, so things are getting back to normal in fitted furniture land. the snow is gone and the fitters are back fitting. On Saturday I set off out of London on the M4 and into Wales, right on the periphery of Options’ normal service and installation area, to visit an old customer who was sufficiently pleased with the home office we installed a few months back to invite us back to fit out a new utility room.

Looking at our handiwork helped to focus my thoughts for this weeks post on what fitted furniture units should go above the worktop. As you can see from the attached pictures, this is a serious ‘work from home‘ office, absolutely packed with books and files but we did include some interesting detail, such as the pilasters (columns) and a cornice at the top to emphasise the ‘home’ aspect.

As with most home office installations, the area above the worktop is filled with bookcases, although in this case we have two floor to ceiling bookcases where the worktop ends.

It is usual to leave a space of  450 millimetres (18 inches) between the worktop and the first bookshelf. This space can be used for worktop or, as here, for books or computer peripherals. In this case, we have left a larger space above the worksurface for hi-fi equipment.

Set into the worktop are a number of cable tidies or grommets that allow power and data cables to run from power sockets and other outlets such as arials, phone sockets and a computer to the kit sitting on the worktop.

You will also see in these images that we have put solid doors onto some of the bookshelving to create cabinets for more discrete storage. Often we include glazed doors to allow for the display of collectibles or trophies.

This is a very typical above the worktop design but with some contemporary installations the client prefers a lighter, more open look as here.

Well this is a novel experience,  having lived in our around London for all of my life, I can’t remember snow bringing the south east to a standstill before Christmas ever.  It’s at times like this that I am glad to work  from home and from my custom made loft office (it’s on the Options Website, can you guess which one?) I can just pop out for a bracing winter walk now and again and, thanks to internet technology,  I can design fitted bedrooms and bespoke living room furniture, communicate with clients and distribute the results to Option’s  office and the customer as necessary with very little commuting or, in weather like this, none at all.

More and more people now work from home and at times like these the benefits become more and more apparent.

So, having decided where in the furniture to put the workstation knee space and looked at what cabinets to use under the worktop, we have considered your probable requirement for filing drawers but offices also have other storage requirements.  Cabinets with doors on are useful for storing stationery and equipment.

To free up worktop space, you may wish to have a single door cupboard with one or more pull-out shelves holding printers,  scanners and other computer peripherals.

Your PC is best not housed inside a unit with a door on, because it is likely to overheat. The ideal PC unit should be open fronted, possibly with a pull-out shelf  and possibly with a small drawer at the top.

Other options are narrow three or four drawer chests. I have one drawer full of software CDs, one of  envelopes, another holds spare printer cartidges and the bottom one a collection of computer leads.

Another essential for me is a pull-out keyboard tray. It frees up worktop space but more importantly it sits about 10 centimetres below the top which allows me to type with my elbows bent at 90 degrees with much less chance of causing repetitive strain injury than the ‘praying mantis’ like position with keyboard at dining table height.

The final detail should be a cable trough under the workstation, close to the wall behind, into which most of the spaghetti of cabling that spills out of the back of your personal computer. In the worktop directly above the cable trough is a cable tidy allowing data cables to pass up to the monitor and peripherals.

Next week, what furniture do we have between the worksurface and the ceiling?

Assuming that you are planning to instruct a bespoke fitted furniture maker to design an build your new home office, study or den, you need to include in the brief an outline of your minimum storage requirements.

Naturally, your home office will need at least one desk or workstation and this takes up between 600 and 800 millimetres of space.

I have already considered the merits of putting the workstation diagonally in the corner (see post of 15 November) but sometimes it will need to be within a straight run of worktops. However,  I would strongly recommend avoiding having the desk at one end close to a wall.

So, whether you have workstation in the corner (recommended) or interrupting a straight line of base cupboards, you will normally support the work surface with storage units. These can include: a computer housing, cabinets with doors, drawer units and filing drawers all of which can perform the dual function of supporting the worktop and providing storage for stationary, hobby materials and paper records.

The bases should ideally set the desk top at 750 millimetres or 2ft 6 in. from the floor. This will provide room for a two filing drawer cabinet or one file drawer with two drawers over. Cabinet made file drawers are normally 500 mm wide, as opposed to metal ones that can be narrower. The 500 mm wide, wooden drawer will accomodate a ‘filing rig’ providing metal rods running from the front to the back of the drawer and set 385 mm apart to support foolscap size file hangers (from any stationery supplier) and which are ideal for holding A4 size paper, folders or wallets.

Where space restrictions prohibit the use of a 500mm wide base unit, it is possible to reduce this to 450 mm and use A4 size file hangers. These will still hold A4 papers but are a bit tight for wallets and folders.

An alternative is to have the filing rig run across the drawers and the file hangers front to back. This is a less popular option but does allow for file drawers to be anything from 300 mm to 800 mm wide. This will, of course have a bearing on the number of files to be accomodated.

Next week I will look at what else can be accomodated under your home office desk.

We have looked at the first stages of planning the work area for your home office, study or den. Today, I would like to consider your requirements for storage.

This will depend, to a large extent, on the use to which your office space is to be put: working from home, starting a small business, retreating from the family, hobbies and crafts, writing that book that has been waiting to come out, managing your household acounts, researching your family tree. The list could go on for ever.

Personally, I have two offices: the one in London that I commute to and the one I prefer, in my loft at home in Surrey.

Most homes today contain an ‘office’ space of some sort. What used to be kept in the bureau may now be in a space under the stairs, in the spare bedroom or you may be lucky enough to have a whole room called ‘the study’ or ‘Mum’s office’.

The very minimum requirement these days tends to be somewhere to keep the computer or a space to use a laptop. However, we are still waiting for the paperless office to arrive , and until it does, you will need to store, at the minimum, the utility bills, bank statements and correspondence. Possibly, recipes and other material to support your leisure activities, maps and guidebooks perhaps. Maybe you have a collection of cups, awards or objets d’art that need displaying.

The basic storage units in a home study divide into three categories: those that support the work surface as well as providing storage capacity, those that fit above the work surface, such as bookcases or wall cabinets and those that fit from floor to ceiling to provide maximum, bulk storage. If the room is to double as a spare bedroom or a utility area you may need need storage not normally associated with office space such as a fitted wardrobe.

Next week I will look at choosing which storage units you should build into your home-office plan.

Planning a fitted home office or study? here are some important factors to consider.

Room size: often the study is in what might have been the smallest bedroom. This can be ideal as you don’t need a lot of space to use a computer but it will present some challenges, the first of which is worktop depth. Office desks are usually 800 millemetres deep; anything less can mean that you are very close to the wall and that can feel a little claustrophobic.  However, 800 mm (2 ft 7 1/2 inches) takes up a lot of space in a small room, particularly if your desk is to be on more than one wall. A very popular solution is a corner workstation in an L shape of 600 mm deep worktops a corner arrangement with say a 700 mm wide knee space will give you over 1100 mms from the desk edge to the corner, ample space to push the monitor back and spread out  a sheet of A1 drafting paper or a craft project. The two worktop wings, at 45 degrees to your seating position will be easily accessible and ideal for reference books and notepaper. Add a keyboard  tray under the kneehole and you can pull it out, kick back and enjoy 1500 mm (5ft) of uncluttered space between you and the corner.

Keyboard trays are a controversial item, most people are for ‘em or agin ‘em, but for me, apart from freeing up precious worktop space, the real advantage of a keyboard tray is that you are typing at about 700 mm from the floor, as opposed to 800 mm on a normal desk height, and your elbows are bent at a comfortable 90 degrees, greatly reducing the risk of repetative strain injury.

A flat, pull-out surface on a keyboard tray also makes it ideal for storing a laptop computer and/or using a mouse.

A diagonal corner workstation in an L shaped desk arrangement will provide good workspace and easy access to under worktop cabinets and wall mounted bookshelves