Home offices

Custom Home, July-August, 2003 by Shelley D. Hutchins

"A home office is a space that has a particular set of needs individual to the client," says Camden, Maine-based architect John Gillespie. "As long as you meet those needs, everyone is happy." The space must meet the basic needs of adequate lighting, ample storage, organizational elements, and appropriate wiring. It also should be flexible in the event that it one day is used for something other than an office. But don't concentrate only on the workaday aspects of this room. Beverly Hills, Calif.,-based architect Jeffrey Daniels adds that a home work space should be inspirational as well as functional.

A Case for Books

"There are currently 24 linear feet of bookcases in addition to two display cabinets and a library table, and I'm adding another 10 feet," says furniture designer Gerald Curry. He worked with an antique dealer client to design this Thomaston, Maine, home office and research library. The homeowner owns scores of valuable and rare books that need to be protected and displayed. Curry wanted the storage pieces to reflect the owner's passion for high-quality furniture, and selected mahogany because of its strength and size. Since it's available in large sections, Curry was able to make the 4-foot-long shelves and the 10-foot-long tabletop from single solid pieces of the wood. The 6-foot 5-inch owner's reach determined the 99-inch height of the shelves, so no step stools are needed. Custom glass doors keep the dust away from brittle pages. "I wanted the glass doors to be asymmetrical," explains Curry. "The upper door being twice as long makes the proportion look more furniture-like, and it was a comfortable break for grabbing the handles." A single 6-inch-tall base section that is scribed into the floor joins the cases together. A cornice trims the top and is screwed into the wall for stability.

Office Wing

Architect Jeffrey Daniels designed and built his Beverly Hills, Calif., house as a showpiece, so when he positioned the home office on the fourth-floor mezzanine, he did so intentionally. "I put the office on the top floor so I could walk clients through the most dramatic spaces," admits Daniels. With a site only 25 feet wide, the house's maximum width couldn't exceed 19 feet. Daniels devised a "New York loft meets Beverly Hills" plan to counter the narrow footprint. The home office enforces that theme by lofting out over a double-height living area. Oversized skylights punctuate exposed Douglas fir trusses to increase the room's height and natural light. Daniels designed a movable "wing" wall made from steel and translucent Lexan polycarbonate to maintain fluidity while adding the option of isolation. Says Daniels, "It is a piece of architectonic sculpture that emphasizes flow, but it also has a practical side." The adjacent door uses the same materials and mimics the wing's proportions. Fourteen linear feet of built-in shelves along with a 5-foot-square maple and ebony table (created by an artist friend) offer plenty of room for drawings, samples, reference books, and more.

Communication Center

The owner of this seaside house in Rockport, Maine, develops hotels in Europe, so his home office is just down the hall from the bedroom for those middle-of-the-night conference calls. Two sets of 6-foot-wide built-ins help keep the various multimillion-dollar deals organized. Architect John Gillespie speced 1 l/4-inch-thick painted pine shelves with file drawers, shallow supply drawers, and pull-outs for times when extra surface space is needed in a hurry. Blending the client's contemporary aesthetic with a traditional cottage-style house led to perfectly square openings--five across and five down. The elements are recessed into the drywall for a clean finish "that doesn't allow for any mistakes or wrong measurements," says Gillespie. Cushy furniture rounds out the utilitarian space to make it more inviting and provide a place for cat naps in the midst of odd work hours.

Soft Landing

"The more you know about the intended use," says architect Dan Scully of home offices, "the better you can design for it." Since Scully knew the owners of this southwestern New Hampshire vacation house would eventually move there full time, it made sense to turn the ample second-story landing into a workplace and library. The 7-by-13-foot nook opens fully to the hall so it doesn't seem claustrophobic. The back center shelf is raised to create a workspace that faces away from the 9 1/2-foot opening should someone want to block out other activity. "Lighting is very important," adds Scully. There is both soft lighting for display areas and task lighting for the desk. Frontal framing on the built-in shelves allows for the full depth of the space to be exposed. Extra storage was added below the countertop for stashing clutter and oversized books or files. The clean, trimless look of the cubby blends with the no-nonsense feel of the entire house. "It's a cave-like sanctuary in the middle of the house," says Scully, "that serves as a quiet work retreat or place to read a book."