Space jam - furnishing home offices - Technology Information - Cover Story

Home Office Computing, July, 1997 by Catherine Greenman

We Show You How to Outfit Three Offices In Awkward Locations--With Everything From Furniture To Technology

Some of us have homes where a spare room with good light, space, and peace and quiet fortuitously combine to make up the perfect work environment. But some of us--we'd venture to say most of us--would call ourselves lucky to have an extra closet for, say, coats. Those of us who fall in the latter category have to be a little more creative when it comes to setting up a home office. Thanks to today's space-conscious furniture, which you can buy off the shelves at national retail stores, as well as compact technology, it's easier than you think.

Although attics often have slanting ceilings that limit their height in certain areas, they're generally wide enough to make great offices for more than one person, according to expert space planner Nina Hughes of Hughes Group Ltd. in New York City. The trick, she says, is to spread out horizontally with desk and file furniture, such as these five-foot-wide modular units from Workbench, which you can rearrange and expand when necessary. The computers, monitors, and other office equipment sit on top of the units, which are placed beneath the ceiling slant--making good use of otherwise unusable space.

This two-person workstation is outfitted for a PC and a Mac user, with a Dell Dimension XPS M200s system on the left and a Power Computing PowerBase 200 system on the right. Hewlett-Packard's LaserJet 6MP can handle heavy-duty print jobs, so two or more people can enjoy quarrel-free printing. An HP DeskJet 870C provides the option of color ink-jet output. The HP ScanJet 5S will keep paper clutter to a minimum by feeding important documents into your desktop system, and Brother's IntelliFax-1270 can do double-duty as your fax and phone. If you need quick Web access, installing a router such as SBE's netXpand Routeman is a seamless way for up to 11 people to share one ISDN line. Furniture Cost: $2,796 Technology Cost: $8,343

When a limited amount of space in your home makes it necessary to fit an office into one of your rooms, a slide-out credenza such as this one from Sligh furniture will let you hide your workspace during off-hours. It has enough desktop space to let you spread out during the day, and it's roomy enough inside to store a surprisingly comfortable folding chair plus all your business hardware when the workday is done. "As anyone who runs a small business knows, the office tends to take over your life," says Hughes. "This way, you can close it up and have a life after six or seven o'clock, in the same room!"

On the equipment side, a portable notebook is the ideal way to keep your work inconspicuous. With a 166MHz processor and 32MB of RAM, NEC's Versa 2655CDT rivals the speed and power of many desktop systems. Pint-size peripherals such as an Iomega Zip drive, Canon's B J70 color ink-jet printer, Polaroid's PhotoPad Snapshot scanner, a Sharp UX- 187 thermal fax machine, and an APC surge protector make for extremely well-equipped--and when need be, covert--headquarters.

Furniture Cost: $3,300

Technology Cost: $4,685

Tiny Dormer

Thanks to vertical shelving, even the narrowest space can accommodate a home office. "When you have a limited amount of work surfaces, the only place to go is up," says Hughes. For this four-foot-wide dormer, Hughes chose a Door Store desk with a tall, open shelf that can store books and files and still allow light in and a view through the window. A rolling side unit provides extra desktop space as well as surface area for other peripherals.

The Compaq Presario 3060 is an excellent choice for small quarters because its upright passive-matrix screen generates little-to-no heat. And because it's flat, it can fit into extremely shallow spaces. Okidata's OL600e outputs excellent laser-quality prints and has a very small 12-by-14-inch footprint. When you don't have an inch to spare, the Pulsar ES2 surge protector ensures worry-free work and fits snugly under your desktop. Visioneer's PaperPort Strobe, a slim, new, color sheet-fed scanner, rounds out this Lilliputian power station.

Furniture Cost: $427

Technology Cost: $3,127

Where to Buy

Attic Space

Quattro Home Office corner desk unit (Workbench, 800-656-7891, $199; all prices subject to change)

Slide-out keyboard tray (Workbench; $79)

Two-drawer file cabinet (Workbench; $299)

Lateral file (Workbench; $449)

George desk chairs (The Door Store, 800-433-4071; $149)

Baja conference chairs (The Door Store; $99)

Hissingen adjustable table (Ikea, 800-434-4532; $149)

Left Side:

Dimension XPS M200s desktop PC (Dell Computer, 800-388-8542; $2,179)

700P 17-inch monitor (Hansol Multitech, 888-426-7651; $899)

Altec Lansing ACS290 speakers and subwoofer (bundled with Dell system)

Right Side:

PowerBase 200 (Power Computing, 800-769-5917; $1,495)

20-inch Optiquest Q100 monitor (ViewSonic, 800-888-8583; $1,149)

LaserJet 6MP (Hewlett-Packard, 800-752-0900; $949)

DeskJet 870C (Hewlett-Packard; $499)

ScanJet 5S (Hewlett-Packard; $249)

netXpand Routeman (SBE, 800-214-4SBE; $575)