Dear Gail: We just moved into our first apartment and need to create an office space. It is a large one bedroom and we would like to place a desk in the bedroom, but we also want to maintain the look of the room without seeing any desk clutter. Any suggestions? Pam & Paul
DEAR PAM & PAUL: There are many ways to create a home office within the space of your apartment without giving up the look of the room. First you really need to consider whether the bedroom is the best location. Will you both be working at the desk and at what times? Do you need this area for working on projects that require quiet concentration, work or for paperwork and computer access?
I always prefer to place an office area in a room other than the bedroom if it is going to be used for work. Your bedroom should be a room where you can go to rest and let go of the work activities of the day. But if the bedroom is the best place for you, place it where you will not have a direct view of it from the bed. Your mind needs time to rest and relax and you might not be able to do that if you are lying in bed looking at work that needs to be done.
One option would be to place it in a corner and then have a folding screen that you can open across the area when you’re not using it. This will also hide any clutter that might accumulate or paperwork you are working on. You can purchase an inexpensive iron or wood frame screen and add coordinating fabric or even use a bed sheet that matches your bedding. There are also some lovely painted screens, ones that have photo frames on them, rattan and wicker. You can also make them out of doors.
To make the closed screen look, like a part of the room and not something hiding the desk, accessorize the corner. Place a floor plant, an uplight and large floor accessory on the side you will not be opening and closing.
Another way to disguise the corner is to place drapery panels on each side that you can tie back and then drop down at night.
If you don’t already have a TV armoire in the room, you could use an armoire-type unit which has a drop down desk, conceals your computer and your clutter.
You could also build a unit and also give yourself extra shelf storage if your bedroom has the wall space. Take two bookcases and either attach a desk top between the two or use a free-standing desk. Then to conceal the desk area, you can attach bi-fold doors, a folding screen or drapery panels to the bookcases.
If your bedroom is large enough, try angling your bed and bringing it out into the room enough to place the desk behind the bed. Now, you don’t want the desk to act as your headboard, but again a folding screen or drapery panels can be a nice headboard option. You’ll need to leave enough room so that you can easily get behind the bed to your office area. This can also be done is a long room, except that you bring the bed straight out from the wall instead of angling it.
You can also take the last idea and actually build a headboard that will also function as your desk. On the bed side it will look just like a headboard. It can be upholstered, painted or stained. On the back it will have all of the same items like a desk: drawers, shelves, keyboard tray and lighting. Build it tall enough so that everything located on the desk side is concealed and securely attach it to the bed.
Other ideas are to use a roll-top desk, decorative writing desk, or bakers rack. If your desk will be open to view, I would suggest that you purchase attractive desk accessories to keep your desk organized and the clutter out of view. Be creative and use decorative boxes, baskets, hat boxes, fabric or paper covered boxes, or whatever coordinates with your theme and color scheme.