So, we have decided where the bed is to go and on which wall to place the fitted wardrobes.

That might be enough because you may have now filled all the available space or because your choice is to have the drawers and cabinets free-standing. Perhaps you would rather not have everything to match or you prefer a few antique or distressed pieces within you design scheme.

Hovever, you may like the clean lines and lack of nooks and crannies of a modern fully fitted bedroom, or perhaps you just wish to maximise your storage whilst minimising the tidying or maintenance aspects.

You will probably need one or two bedside cabinets or, ‘night stands’ to our Amercan friends. these are often free standing, for ease of bed making, and can include one two or three drawers, an open space or a cabinet door, or a combination of any of these. Sometimes, a pull-out tea tray is added.

Many women now prefer to make up in the bathroom these days but some still like a dressing table in the bedroom, this is usually made up of two stacks of drawers with a kneehole space in between; often with a shallow drawer for make up or jewellery. This bridging drawer can have divisions and felt lining for seperate types of jewellery.

Other requirements might be: a window seat, a particularly nice option if you have a good view, and this can also provide extra storage for bulky items such as spare duvets. is usual to have a radiator under the window and this can be seen as a barrier to a window seat, but as you can see on the plans below, their are ways around this.

This is a typical design for a fitted bedroom in a south London victorian house with high ceilings and of generous proportions.

More on designing bedroom furniture next week.

OK, so you have decided on the size of bed and where to put it in the bedroom.

The next important decision is on which wall to put the fitted wardrobes.

In a very small bedroom, it is possible to have what is called an overbed arrangement; i.e. a wardrobe either side of the bed with a bridging cupboard over the bed.  Not the ideal solution in my view but it does maximise the storage. The disadvantage is that you wake up in a cupboard!

Of course, in some modern houses and flats the bedrooms are so small that an overbed is the only solution.

Older houses often have a chimney breast in the bedroom and that feature is normally too narrow to put a double bed on, and it is on the opposite wall to the door, making the door wall the obvious one for the bed, which is aeshetically better on that side rather than having wardrobes restricting the door opening or imposing on the entrance. Effectively, the chimney wall is usually the default choice for wardrobes.

The next decision is whether to opt for a separate installation in each recess and, if there is room, some cabinets, drawers or a dressing table on the chimney breast, possibly with a shallow bridging cupboard over. One limiting factor is that chimney recesses are rarely of a width that divides easily by the standard 400 mm, 500 mm and 600 mm wardrobe door widths. One solution here is to opt for a bespoke fitted furniture maker who can make the doors in the necessary width.

Or, you can take the wardrobe doors right across the chimney and either have reduced depth storage in the middle section or, space permitting, choose the traditional break-front option.

In a reduced depth wardrobe, the choices include: shoe racks constructed from parallel rows of hanging rail, sloping shoe shelves with a small frontal lip, narrow shelves with an upstand at the front and, possibly, two or three front-to-back hanging rails for coats or dressing gowns.

More design ideas for fitted bedrooms next week.

Now here’s an interesting development in the rapid growth of new media and the implications for home-improvement companies like Options Furniture.

Some time ago, we decided to stop expensive advertising in colour supplements and home-interest magazines and to devote all our advertising budget and marketing effort to making our website the only portal, apart from the very important issue of personal recommendations, for attracting new customers.

Naturally, we are keen to enter into dialogue with prospective new clients as quickly and effectively as possible in order to put our case for Options being the first choice of bespoke furniture supplier. With this objective in mind, but mindful of our our stated principles of avoiding hard selling tactics or dubious marketing practices like pretending that our prices are discounted by 50% (‘does anybody do this’ you may ask. You betcha! It is universal practice amongst major home improvement companies!) we have what are called ‘responders’ or ‘calls to action’ liberally spread across our website. In common with all our competitors, we ask our respondents to provide us with a telephone number so that we can open the sought after dialogue.

Understandably, some people are reluctant to give us their phone number for fear of being subjected to ‘nuisance’ phone calls. This creates a dichotomy between our  legitimate wish to enter into dialogue and provide useful and relevant information and the prospective client’s legitimate objective of preserving their privacy.

Full marks therefore to Irene in Berkshire who, enterprisingly, asked for a brochure by replying to a blog post rather than using one of our usual responders, thereby avoiding the need to disclose a telephone number. We will review our policy on this, but, in the meantime, here is the text of my response:

Dear Irene

Thank you for your enquiry via the Options blog.

Unfortunately, I am unable to send a brochure because; as a policy decision recently taken in this fast changing world of communications media we, as a small private enterprise, have decided that the cost of printed brochures, which can only show a minute proportion of the 700 odd photos available on the website and cannot be as easily updated, is now prohibitive.

However, I am more than happy to answer any of your questions and even give a design and quotation by email if you would find this helpful. For this I would need a sketched plan of the room with all dimensions. Naturally we would need to do a proper survey if you wished to proceed but many of our clients prefer to have a clear idea of cost before inviting us into their homes.

In terms of what is available in finish and design, we make all of our furniture individually to the clients’ requirements and the choice is almost infinite. If you have any ideas of your own, we can almost certainly interpret them as closely as the availability of raw materials and the laws of physics allow. If however you are bereft of ideas, I would invite you to look through all the images in our Photo Galleries under Fitted Bedrooms, Fitted wardrobes and Client Galleries and also look at Everything you Need To Know – Ranges for the basics of doors and finishes. However, the choices do change as we discover new inspirations or clients ask us to interpret their original ideas.

Please reply directly to me with any questions you have and feel free to call me on 07946 317753 if you would find a conversation helpful.

As a small private company, we eschew all the hard-sell tactics and the false discounting widely used in the home-improvement industries  and welcome the opportunity to communicate with potential clients in a way that they find most agreeable.

John Gooden

Marketing Manager and Senior Designer
Options Furniture

Naturally, we are delighted to hear anybody contemplating the purchase of bespoke fitted furniture for the bedroom, or any other room, by email, carrier pidgeon or man-with-forked-stick, and we will be as sympathetic to their prefered method of communication as possible.

Hello, welcome back from the Christmas break and happy New Year to all our readers.

I ended 2010 with a series of blogs posts looking at how to plan or design your own home office or study and I thought it might be good to start 2011 with some thoughts on how to set out a fitted bedroom.

The first point of reference is, of course, the size and position of the bed. Most people prefer to sleep facing or at a right angle to the window raher than with their head to the window, principally so that they can see the sky on waking. Also, the window wall is often the coldest part of a bedroom and usually where the radiator goes, making it dificult to have a headboard which might, in any case obscure part of the window and rob the room of light.

The size of the bed will partly be a factor of whether it is to be a single or a double (I have never heard of a triple bed but it might be an option). Couples occasionally opt for twin beds but this option is largely reserved for the elderly, young children sharing or the stars of early 20th century American romantic comedies. Bed sizes can be confusing; in the UK the traditional double bed has always been 4ft 6inches (135 cm) wide, a small double is 4ft (12o CM) wide and a single 3 ft (90 CM) wide. Small singles and bunk beds are usually 2ft 6inches and in the 1960s a large double or king size of 5ft or 1500 CM was introduced and today we have a super king size 6ft (180 Cm wide). These are still the designations given by the National Bed Federation and the Sleep Council, however, these sizes refer only to the mattress size and the frame or bed ends can add a considerable amount.

A further complication arises from the fact that we now import beds and mattresses from all over the world and in particular from Europe and, to a lesser degree, America. All of these countries have their own standards for bed sizes and, no doubt we will soon be buying from the developing world and certainly China with a whole new range of ’standards’.

So, before even thinking about designing your own fitted bedroom or talking to a fitted bedroom designer, start by deciding what size bed you are going to use and how much spoace it will need.

Next time I will be looking at what you need in the way of cabinetry.

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

The main reasons why some customers opt for sliding door wardrobes rather than hinged door fitted wardrobes are:

 (1) cost, and it is true that sliders can be cheaper, although this is often due to the simplified wardrobe interiors, without backs and sides; but if you choose budget wardrobe systems the type of door, i.e. hinged or sliding, is not a major cost factor. What is important to remember with wardrobe interiors consisting only of partitions, shelves and hanging rails fitted directly onto the walls is, apart from the aeshetics, the serious risk of condensation, leading to mould, if any part of the wardrobe is on an outside wall.

(2) Space saving and access, also partly true, but remember; to function properly a sliding door wardrobe needs to be at least 50 mm (2 inches) deeper than a hinged door installation. If the position of the wardrobe is  wardrobe is close (say 500 mm or less) to a bed you may think that a hinged door, when opened to right angle, will block your access. This would be true if all doors only opened to 90 degrees, however, there are modern, concealed hinged available that allow doors to open up to 180 degrees, effectively flattening the them against their neighbours.

There is another alternative to hinged doors and that is bi-folding doors, which combine some of the benefits if both types of wardrobe door. Like sliding doors, bi-folds run on a track system and, when closed, are almost indiscernible from conventional doors but ,when opened, they  slide and fold in pairs to reveal an opening almost twice as wide. Bi-folds work particularly when in corner installations where, like sliders, they remove the need for a corner post, or panel.

Another  disadvantage of sliding doors is that they will not work well in installations  in older houses, particularly in major cities like London, where  ceilings can be very high and clients often like to take of advantage of that ceiling height by fitting two, or even three doors above each other.