Home Office Joinery Ideas, Plus Chris’ Advice to Get the Look Right at Yours

I’ve got more home office joinery ideas than you can poke a stick at in today’s post. So if you’ve been tinkering with the idea of installing something permanent like this in a room at your place, these pearls of wisdom have come at the right time.

It’s fair to say we’re not only exploring joinery ideas here, but going deep with the practical information you need to get across before you even call a joiner. I’m talking ideal zones for the office, desk dimensions, functional requirements, achieving the right look, and so much more.

I’ve installed home office joinery in my own apartment, outside of working with my design clients, so rest assured you’re in safe hands. This post also contains a tonne of imagery from the amazing design team at Metricon. I filmed a video with them on home office joinery you can watch below too. Enjoy the inspiration and advice!

Who’s Going to Use the Office?

I know this sounds like a really obvious question, but you should think about this as a ‘now, next month, next year’ proposition. You’re looking to install home office joinery; it’s a somewhat permanent solution. You’re investing in quality materials that will be custom-made for you and attached to walls. You want to get it right.

Consider if this home office is a just-you scenario, or if in time your partner will use it too. Kids might be in the equation now, or they could come in the future. I would always suggest installing a horizontal plain of joinery that can accomodate more than one person/chair/computer. This is unless you’re absolutely sure it’s never going to be a shared space. 

Once you know this, start to make a list of the things you’ll require in the home office based on how you work. Let’s expand on this below.

Questions to Answer: These Form Your Joinery Brief

Function first: it’s how I approach every single design job I work on, and joinery for a home office is no different. You need to take time to ask yourself the questions below (and more) in order to avoid building a home office that doesn’t meet your needs. A few questions to mull over include:

• Is just one desk OK, or do you want to accomodate more people in the future?
• What about storage? Do you need to keep folders, files, paperwork?
• Do you need to a place to house larger equipment like a printer?
• Do you want to be able to display decor to personalise the space?
• Do you need to pin things? Or do you need to write on a whiteboard at times?
• Do you want some drawers to store stationery and other items in?
• What type of computer do you have? Do you need to store a tower somewhere, or do you have a Mac?
• Do you want this space to be a home office forever, or should it be convertible to something else?

These answers become the brief you’ll give to your joiner, so you honestly can’t afford to skip this step. 

Future Proofing the Room for Other Uses 

Think about it: is it likely the room your home office is in might need to become something else in the future? Not only can your answer effect the joinery ideas and configuration you choose, but the location of the office too.

For example, you might be retiring in five to 10 years, or planning to change jobs, or have kids. So the office in question might be null and void at that time. If you install full wrap-around-the-room joinery it might deem the room unable to be used for anything else.

But if you just did joinery on one wall, that joinery might be able to house a TV and become a media room. It could house a single bed and become a guest bedroom. It could even be a temporary nursery, or a formal dining room depending on how much space is left over.

So, go easy with the joinery if you think the room needs to become something else at some point. Or, future proof it now and leave space for a TV to go on the wall.

Will a Smaller Nook in the Home Work?

If you’ve decided a dedicated room might not be the right approach, there are loads of other areas in the home you can work office joinery into. There are images in this post of home offices tucked into hallways, landings, and even nooks in kitchens where open shelving might traditionally go.

These are all amazing spaces, but whether or not these zones work for you is a question of (here I go again) functionality. How you use the space is everything. A few things to think about if you’re putting joinery in open spaces around the home:

• Zoom calls. Are you a Zoomer? What is going to be behind you on-camera?
• Noise levels. Do you need privacy to take calls away from places like living rooms and kitchens?
• Do you want to look at your work zone when you’ve ‘left work’ and are chilling on the sofa?
• Will a small nook accommodate all of your physical needs (printers, screens & towers, copiers, modems etc?)
• Do you have a chair on wheels? Will you need a chair mat underneath? Will this work in a thoroughfare? 
• How often will you use this zone? If only occasionally, a nook with a laptop could be enough
• Do you need natural light? Dark corners are often terrible for productivity and motivation

Knowing the Ideal Desk Dimensions

We’ve got most of the functionality questions answered, which is great. Now I want to impart a few pearls of wisdom on you around dimensions. Knowing what sort of measurements you should be playing with will hep greatly in determining how much joinery (or zones) you can fit into the space in question.

Width:

You want to go for a desk width no smaller than 100cm. That’s cosy, and it won’t allow you to fit a set of drawers underneath.

Around 120cm in width is comfortable without drawers, but you could squeeze in a very narrow set. A desk wider than 120cm is a great amount of space to play with, depending on what you want to fit in.

If you have more than two metres to play with, you can fit in two desk zones without drawers, or one desk with wide drawers built in underneath.

If you’re hovering around three metres in wall width or greater, you can easily fit in two desks with a set of drawers between them.

Depth: 

The depth of the desk you’ll install does depend on how often you’ll use the desk. A desk with less depth is fine if you’re not at it for eight hours a day, five days a week. 

If you’re just sitting at your desk occasionally with a laptop, a depth of around 50cm would be fine. But I’d not recommend that for everyday use.

Joiners will suggest a standard depth of around 65cm for a desk you’ll use daily. That’ll fit a large screen on it, with keyboard, ensuring you’re not too close to the screen.

Ergonmics are important if you’re at a desk every day, so I would go as deep as you can without it looking ridiculous. You shouldn’t need to go beyond 80cm.

Height:

Standard desk height is 70cm. While the desk width and depth can vary, desk height tends to sit at 70cm. You can go higher if it’s a thick piece of joinery (like in the image below), but just keep in might you’ll need an adjustable chair otherwise you’ll be sitting too low.

Here’s a list of our fave adjustable office chairs on wheels if you need.

The Joinery Should Match the Rest of Your Home

We’ve covered off so many joinery ideas from a functional perspective, now let’s talk about style. This is really important too, so don’t scroll past this part.

There will come a time where your joinery will ask you what you want the office to look like. You know, what colours and materials are you wanting? You do not want to ask if you can phone a friend at this point. You want to be able to guide them on the vibe you’re after.

The golden rule is that the joinery – whether it’s in a dedicated room or in a nook somewhere – should match in with the rest of the home. Don’t have a light and bright coastal theme with oak furniture, and then have an office with black joinery that looks totally out of place against the rest of the home.

Pull colour cues from furniture like your TV unit, sideboards and buffets, shelving, or even your kitchen cabinets. The office should feel like it was always there; built at the same time as the home. You do not want it to feel like a random afterthought.

Completing the Space (It Doesn’t End with Joinery)

If your home office is in a dedicated room, there is so much to explore than mere joinery ideas. In fact, you should really take a step back before you consider joinery and map out the vibe you want to create.

Take a look at the office above, for example. It’s stunning because a lot of thought has been put into the overall design. The joinery is great, but the wallpaper, the lighting, the sheers, the carpet; all elements have been carefully thought-out before joinery came into the mix. 

I strongly suggest you sit down and map out a rough mood board for your room, so you can figure out how you want it to look. This is the program we use to mood board rooms. It’s honestly an essential part of the process.

I hope these home office joinery ideas and design tips have helped you sort out what you need for your own home. Drop me a comment below if you have any questions or need more help!

This post includes images and/or videos of Metricon display homes and events, reproduced with permission. © Metricon Homes Pty Ltd 2021.