A home office gets used every day, often by more than one person, and it is usually the room where cheap furniture gives out first. Drawers stick, file rails sag and a desk that looked fine in the box starts to wobble. Here is how to plan a home office in solid wood that will still work well years from now.
Start with how you work
Before choosing a single piece, think about the work itself. Do you spread papers out, or work mostly on a laptop? Do you need to keep files close at hand, or are most of them digital? Does anyone else share the room? The answers point you toward the right desk and the right storage, and they save you from buying a beautiful piece that does not fit the job.
Choosing a desk
- Writing desks are light and simple, with a drawer or two. They suit a corner of a living room or a guest room that doubles as an office.
- Pedestal and executive desks have drawers on one or both sides, including file drawers, and give you a large work surface.
- Library table desks are open underneath and work well in the middle of a room, where both sides are on show.
Measure the space you have, and leave room to push your chair back. If you work at a computer most of the day, check the desk height against your chair so your arms rest comfortably.
Wood file cabinets
A solid wood file cabinet is one of the most useful pieces in a home office and one of the easiest to underestimate. A few things to look for:
- Drawer construction. Files are heavy. Look for dovetailed drawer boxes and full-extension slides so the drawer opens all the way and stays square under load.
- Letter or legal size. Check which file size the drawers are built for before you order.
- Vertical or lateral. A vertical file is narrow and deep, and fits beside a desk. A lateral file is wide and shallow, so it can sit against a wall and double as a printer stand or a low credenza.
Bookcases and credenzas
A bookcase or credenza ties the room together and gives you somewhere to put the things that are not files. When the desk, file cabinet and bookcase come from the same collection, in the same wood and finish, the office looks like it was planned as a whole rather than gathered over time.
Choosing the wood and finish
Cherry, walnut, quarter-sawn white oak and brown maple are all popular choices for an office. Cherry deepens to a rich red-brown as it ages, quarter-sawn oak shows a distinctive ray fleck, and brown maple takes a stain evenly. Our guide to which woods hold up best in Charleston’s humidity goes into more detail, and you can see every option on our wood species page.
Plan it with us
You can see the desks and file cabinets we build, and the offices we have furnished, or browse the whole office collection. Then bring your room measurements to the showroom at 1750 Sam Rittenberg Blvd, Monday to Saturday from 10am to 6pm. A furniture specialist will help you plan an office that fits the way you work.
