Closet Worker

Home Office Computing, Jan, 1999 by Marilyn Zelinsky Syarto

Turn a modest closet into a fully functional home office by learning to maximize every inch of space

IF YOU DON'T HAVE A SPARE ROOM IN YOUR HOME TO dedicate to an office and can find another place for your winter coats, why not consider a closet for a workspace? Shoehorning the essentials of a home office into a closet is easier than you think, but it does take a little creativity, as well as the willingness to figure out how to use every square inch of vertical space.

That's what Frankie Welfeld did when she and her husband, Skip, moved into a loft apartment in Chicago. "When we moved in, I didn't know where to put my office," says Welfeld about the already divided three-bedroom loft. "After reviewing a dozen solutions by our architect, one idea seemed perfect--a closet home office."

To some, working in a closet may seem no better than working in a windowless cubicle in a corporation. But Welfeld looks at the prospect differently. She views her space as a built-in worksurface with storage rather than a confining office in a closet. Welfeld's three-foot-deep, nine-foot-wide closet is slightly larger than most typical closets (which measure two feet deep and five to six feet wide), but the techniques described here can apply to any size closet.

To give it a lighter feel and have it match the other elements in her office, architect Maurice Blanks replaced the top of Mobley's black lacquer desk with a maple worksurface. To finish the desk, Blanks designed a hinged drawer that pulls down and out for the keyboard and mouse, but tucks away when not in use.

Next, three sets of 48-inch-high, 24-inch-wide maple kitchen cabinets were installed above the worksurface. "The upper cabinets make such a difference in how much I can store in this space," says Welfeld.

Finally, the sliding closet doors were replaced with four panels of maple framed sliding doors inlaid with translucent glass. The doors stack easily behind each other to one side of the closet, clearing the way for the desk file drawers to slide open. "When people come over, we like to keep the doors closed with lights on low and the computer screen glowing through the glass doors," says Welfeld. Though she faces a wall, Welfeld says enough light comes over her shoulder to make working from a closet feel very comfortable. For this reason, she highly recommends finding a sunny spot to set up shop.

RELATED ARTICLE: SNAPSHOT

NAME: Frankie Welfeld

PROFESSION: Freelance writer and information coordinator for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Echo Center (an interactive learning center)

HARDWARE: Gateway G6450, HP OfficeJet 610 printer/fax/copier

SOFTWARE: Intuit Quicken, Microsoft Word

DESIGN MISSION: To turn an ordinary closet into a dedicated home office that is efficient without feeling claustrophobic.

RELATED ARTICLE: TIPS FOR DESIGNING A HOME OFFICE IN A CLOSET

Closets come in all sizes, but most any can be converted into a workspace. Chicago-based architect Maurice Blanks offers these tips for planning a closet home office space:

* Make sure your closet is over 24 inches deep so you have adequate space for a desktop computer. If you plan to use a laptop, you can make due with a more shallow closet.

* Ideally, you want to leave room to slide a chair into the kneehole of the worksurface so it can be hidden when the doors are shut. Blanks notes that in Welfeld's closet, there are six inches between the front of the worksurface and the closed door, giving more than enough clearance to fit a chair and close the office doors. The back of a typical ergonomic office chair is three to five inches deep.

* Always plan for more lighting than you think you need. Instead of relying solely on direct task lighting (which can create too much heat within a small space), install recessed lighting in the ceiling. To bring in more ambient lighting and make the space seem even larger, flank the sides of the closet with one or two upward facing floor lamps (anything else will be too hot, as well).

* Mount standard 30-inch-high cabinets to the inner closet wall. Measure carefully so that the doors open fully. One good bet: Mill's Pride kitchen and closet cabinets, many of which are 12 inches deep (available at Home Depot).

* The best doors for a closet are bifold doors that fold out of the way. If you need to fold the doors out even further for a wider opening, you can rehang the doors with L.E. Johnson's folding-door hardware kit #1601 (800-837-5664, www.johnsonhardware.com; $21), which makes the folding door lie flat against the adjoining wall.

MARILYN ZELINSKY SYARTO is the author of New Workplaces for New Workstyles and Practical Home Office Solutions (both McGraw-Hill).