Designing the Home Office

Designing a home office can be tricky, especially when it means sacrificing square footage from another space. Do you give up the guest room? The playroom? Eleven years ago, we found ourselves cramped into a corner of a garage-turned-bonus-room, sharing our “office” with a litter box, a laundry closet, and a TV area. Glamorous, right? That experience pushed us to evaluate our work needs and establish priorities for our renovation.

We were just starting our own firm at the time and we had young kids in the house. We wanted all the benefits of working from home, but we desperately needed a separate, inspiring workspace to make it work.

So, how can you create a space that functions effectively, reduces clutter, incorporates natural light, provides privacy, and can also be closed off when necessary? It’s about finding a balance: working from home while feeling energized in your environment. In our field, it’s also crucial to have a space that feels inviting for clients. Sometimes, this requires sacrificing another less-used space to enjoy the advantages of a true home office.

Once we finalized our essential needs for the rest of our home, we were left with a relatively narrow space. However, with vaulted ceilings, ample glass, and a location adjacent to the patio, it held great potential. We furnished the area with custom built-ins, plenty of counter space, and abundant daylight, transforming it into an office we genuinely wanted to spend time in.

One of our biggest pet peeves is cords—there are so many. Despite everything being wireless, cables seem to multiply. To tackle the mess, we built a hidden cable tray along the back of the desks, with long slots for easy access. We also added an extra-large closet with heavy-duty shelving for printers and scanners. Although we still have two file cabinets and building samples everywhere, we’re moving closer to a paperless setup, using Evernote to store documents digitally.

When it comes to client meetings, our office isn’t large enough to accommodate a table. Instead, our dining table or patio offers double duty as our go-to meeting spot.

A shoutout to Corvus Design/Build for helping us bring this vision to life and to JC Buck for beautifully capturing it all.

As always, we used Pinterest for some inspiration. See our Pinterest board here: Cadence Home Office Board