Build a Home Office
Create a compact home office center with a desktop and swing-out work area, plenty of drawers and storage, open bookshelves, a large bulletin board and an easy cord organizer.
Does it seem like you’re always shuffling piles of paper trying to find that unpaid electric bill or your daughter’s soccer schedule? Do your dining table and kitchen countertops have a permanent layer of paper? Free up your countertops by building this home office in a guest bedroom. It fits on any 7-ft. 4-in. to 10-ft. section of wall and still leaves room for the bed. In this story, we’ll show you how to plan and lay out the office and then
* buy the right cabinets;
* order or build the desktops and shelves;
* build the cord trough, bulletin board and swing-out desk;
* buy the lighting; and
* install everything in one to two days.
First choose the location for the office and then make a scaled drawing of the wall you’re considering for the desk (Fig. A). Make note of the overall length of the wall, any doors or windows, and the ceiling height. Draw horizontal lines at 29 and 54 in. (Photo 1). These represent the top of the base cabinets and the bottom of the wall cabinets.
Determine the overall length of the desk. Ours is 10 ft., but it can be shortened to 7 ft. 4 in. by eliminating the base storage cabinet. The desk can fill a whole wall, sit in the middle of a wall, or start in a corner and stop somewhere along the wall, as shown in our project.
At this point you need to talk to a cabinet supplier and find out the dimensions of its file drawer bases and wall cabinets. Draw these in on your plan. Don’t leave a span of more than 4 ft. 6 in. between base cabinets or else the desktop will sag.
Also note the end panel that’s necessary to cover the left-hand file cabinet and cord trough. Ours is 29 in. tall (this matches the height of the cabinet) and 30 in. deep. Now order the cabinets and end panel. You’ll be ordering at least two base cabinets and two wall cabinets and one 30-in. deep end panel. If your desk is longer than 7 ft. 4 in., as ours is, you’ll add base cabinets. Base units should be 24 in. deep and wall cabinets should be 12 to 14 in. deep.
Next, order or build the desktops and shelves to the dimensions shown on our plans. For strength and to minimize sagging, make them from 1-in. thick particleboard and glue plastic laminate to both faces. We chose to edge them with a wood bullnose.
The cord-management trough is the backbone of the desk. Once it’s fastened to the wall (Photos 1 and 2), the rest of the desk stacks onto it or fastens to the front of it. The top edge of the trough matches the height of the file drawer bases. While ours was set at 29 in., measure the height of your cabinets to confirm.
The corkboard frame is simply screwed together through the edges of the top and bottom rails (Fig. D). We built ours out of cherry and finished it to match the cabinets. Stain and finish all the sections (corkboard frame, shelf edges, swing-out desk) before installing.
Build the cork inserts by gluing together two 1/4-in. thick panels (Fig. E), then fasten the cork sheeting to the face with vinyl flooring adhesive. Let the cork overhang the wood, then trim it flush with a utility knife after the adhesive dries. Use self-sticking Velcro tape to hold the panels to the frame. Because the frame is held away from the wall, it’s easy to run electrical cords behind it.
Set the wall cabinets onto the corkboard frame (Photo 3). Flush the left-hand cabinet to the end of the corkboard frame. Adjust the right-hand cabinet into the corner to make the space between the cabinets conform to the length of the shelves. The corner cabinet can sit a bit away from the side wall.
Drive screws through the cabinet backs into studs. The screws should be long enough to penetrate 1-1/2 in. into the studs.
Mark the shelf cleat locations (Photo 3) on the wall. Continue these lines onto the cabinet sides (Photo 4). Use a carpenter’s square to make sure these lines are also level. Drill clearance holes and screw the 1×2 shelf cleats to each stud with 2-1/2 in. screws (Photo 5).
Draw a layout line on the inside of the cabinet. Make sure it follows the center of the shelf. Drill clearance holes, hold the shelf in place and drive three 2-in. screws to fasten the two shelves (Photo 6).
Miter-cut the two 3/4-in. x 1-1/2 in. light valance pieces, and then clamp them 1-1/2 in. back from the front and side of the cabinets.
Drill clearance holes (Photo 7) through the edge of the light valance spaced 2 ft. apart. Drive 2-in. screws, making sure to countersink the screwheads.
Lay the cap shelf on the cabinets and fasten with screws driven from inside the cabinets.
Set the left base cabinet flush with the end of the cord trough. Adjust the feet or shim under the cabinet to level it and make it flush with the trough (Photo 8). Footed cabinets are ideal if your floor is carpeted. Drive two screws through the cabinet back into the trough.
Clamp the two right-side cabinets together, then drive 1-1/4 in. screws to make a tight joint (Photo 9). Push the cabinets into the corner and against the baseboard; fasten to the cord trough with several 1-1/2 in. screws.
Cut a square notch in the end panel to clear the baseboard (Photo 10). Fasten this panel with screws driven from inside the cabinet.
Buy a power strip with surge protection and mount it to the wall below the cord trough (Photo 11). All your equipment and lights plug into this strip.
Set the top and the trough covers in place on the base cabinets. Leave a small gap between the trough covers and the corkboard frame so the covers don’t get jammed in and become difficult to lift out. Clamp the top to the cabinets, remove the trough covers, then fasten with screws driven from inside the cabinets (Photo 12). Be sure the screws aren’t too long or else you’ll have a hole in your desktop. Set the cord-trough covers in place (Photo 13).
