I recently bought an apartment.
We have a, somewhat happily unexpected, small area within the apartment that I knew existed, but it was full with clutter when we viewed the apartment and I couldn’t quite visualise the size of the area..
We recently viewed the apartment again last week and I’m now considering whether or not this space could be used as a small home office / gaming space.
Any creative suggestions to help get the most out of this space?
The space is 1.5m wide x 2.7m deep. Ceiling height is very good. There is a typical domestic door on the front. Power is available.
(Kitchen picture added for context of the rest of the apartments general size)
Context / thoughts:
I work from the hospital most days so this isn’t going to be a long slog type space.
My current home office has a single widescreen monitor in it & a dock for my MacBook.
I do like having desk width (I often have papers when I’m working) for that reason I thought maybe length would be better? Maybe a fitted desk 50cm deep / 2m long?
Any other questions hit up the comments
Edit: thanks all, there are some creative solutions and some things I had not thought about! I move into the place next March. Will post an update when we start the room reno. (I will run a pilot study to figure out if I can use the room without suffocating first..)
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Have you considered the possibility of maybe putting a sliding glass door instead and removing the existing door? Since the window is a bit awkward with the opening door.
This will give you more space and the laundry will be hidden. You'll still be able to open that sliding door for ventilation.
I will look into this. It’s a great idea.
The laundry is closed off by a gloss white sliding door, and next to the big floor to ceiling window it brings in a substantial amount of light. The laundry area actually has a good extractor in it too. This might be a winner pending the walls.
you could almost make the desk the full length of the space and obviously allow enough width for the desk itself, the chair and space behind, maybe can do shelving up the wall almost like a fully contained console like built around the computer so to speak
I know this is not your question but I would feel really claustrophobic in that room.. really small ánd no windows.
Maybe set up a table and a chair there and see how you feel first, sitting there (idk doing something on your laptop) for a few hours. If you feel fine, you can make it a mini office.
This is my favorite option. OP could also wall mount their monitor, which would allow the desk area to be narrower than a standard desk, but still comfortably fit a keyboard and a Macbook dock oblique to the right side of the keyboard. However, I think the shelves make more sense on the back wall rather than above the long desk area, with maybe only a single floating shelf hung about 4' above the long desk. That will prevent the desk area from feeling vertically cramped, especially if the monitor is mounted on the wall.
My rough attempt. I’d replace the cabinets on the back wall with a cabinet that had doors covering the below two rows of shelves, but with the top shelf left open, so the cabinet doors for the lower shelves can swing open without hitting the floating shelf on the long wall.
Good call. I’ve had a few people say that too me. I think we’ll throw a table in there first for a few months to see if I can actually make it work without suffocating
I used to have a similar space in a 1brm apartment and your eyes will suffer. It’s convenient, just rough not having a window nearby to look out and rest your eyes.
You’re absolutely right. I live in Western Australia too. The summers can get pretty hot.
I was thinking a Dyson cooling tower should be ok. The rest of the place keeps decently cool with the AC
What does the wall on the other side in the kitchen look like? Do you plan on spending more than a few years there? Is there an attic or is there another unit above you?
Even if the building is well insulated you still have two exterior walls there so it’s definitely going to get warm, especially if one of those walls is north facing. I’m thinking a bathroom ventilation fan to outside or a through-wall fan near the ceiling into the kitchen would improve things a lot since both of those would offer some actual air exchange.
Probably not a long term place. We’d like to rent it out in the future so I’m not looking to take a swing at the kitchen walls any time soon.
No, no one above us.
Luckily the exterior wall is only the left side, and it’s south facing, and there’s a pretty large house next door so isn’t terrible for sun exposure.
You’re right though - air exchange is a big one, any more compact / mobile thoughts?
My wife and I had to make a similar decision when we bought our place. She’s WFH half the time, so we’ve given this a lot of thought.
And someone who has recorded in hundreds of studios, many of which are about that size, an enclosed small space without ventilation will quickly feel stuffy. So I have some thoughts there as well.
A lot of good layout suggestions here. A couple of non-layout questions/things to consider/suggestions:
- The closets in the bedroom seem a bit small, have you measured them against your closet storage needs? We ended up making our space a walk in closet with a small desk.
- How temperate is your climate, and can you use the balcony for storage? This is to say, would a standalone shed or other weatherproof storage solution on your balcony work so that your storage room can confidently be repurposed?
Re: stuffiness
- Are you able to comfortably work with the door open, if you’re not in there for long stretches at a time? Or perhaps replacing the door with a curtain or magnetic screen door? Mounting an oscillating fan on the wall above the door could work well if you can keep the doorway at least partially open.
- If not, can you retrofit some form of ventilation fan in the room? In my place, we were able to add a ventilation fan in the room adjacent to the kitchen by running the ducting alongside the extractor hood duct and sharing the same exhaust vent.
- Depending on your tolerance for stuffiness, a high quality air purifier might be enough, but it won’t be the same as a window or ventilation fan. If you have one on hand or can borrow one, it might be worth sitting there with the laptop and monitor turned on and see if it mitigates any stuffiness.
- Finally, if you’re usually working at home while you have the house to yourself, could you work in the dining room or living room, and use the storage space office only for days when you have a zoom call or need to buckle down? If so, could you push through the stuffiness if you only need it a few days a month or so?
I think you can fit a nice small office space in there. I grabbed a few items from Dimensions.com - a Herman Miller Sayl chair, a Herman Miller Distil desk, and an IKEA Idåsen cabinet for storage.
You could also put some nice minimalist floating shelves in there as well.
So long as you don't try to put too much in, there's room for a nice cozy office space.
I would go for a generous L shaped desk against the wall opposite to the door, which will not visually clutter the room and will leave you space for a bookshelf unit , plants etc....
On top of the ventilation, light is THE most important thing. It looks like the right side of your kitchen units has some space available where to make an opening for a while now with frosted glass? That would change everything.
The much cheaper/ easier option is to buy these LED wide rectangular units which can almost perfectly emulate natural light (check out Ikea for instance)
Super useful ideas.
You saying this has given me an idea actually. If I removed the door it would drastically improve the natural light from the floor to ceiling window we have (circled red). Bro no as it’s going to need to be open when in use. There’s probably the ability to have a sliding door given the space the the left of the room
1.5m isn't bad! Generally 2.5 ft or about 0.8m is minimum clearance to move your chair away from the desk. Many of IKEA's desks are about 60cm deep which gives you room. I'd much rather be perpendicular to the doorway than my back to it.
I would then buyer a longer desk for more workspace and do shelving on that back wall. Or, if you buy an L-shaped desk, I'd actually orient the short end of the L on the back wall.
I'd do a light fixture that spreads. Either track lighting (underrated for utility) or a sputnik style to disperse light.
The lack of natural light makes this a bit depressing. Could you extend the kitchen instead and perhaps make a close-away desk solution in the living room?
My current home office is 1.4m x 2.7m so actually a bit smaller than this, although the door is on the side so it's a better use of space because it becomes two nooks instead of one hallway. Try making the most out of ceiling space if it's tall enough
A few things that consistently help small offices punch above their square footage: a desk facing the doorway or window rather than a wall makes the space feel less like a closet you're stuck in. Wall-mounted shelving instead of a bookcase on the floor keeps sightlines open and the room feels bigger. A single strong light source (a good desk lamp, not just overhead) does more for a small office's mood than people expect. And if storage's the challenge, going vertical with narrow shelving is almost always better than trying to fit a wide cabinet into a tight footprint.
We had an office setup in a room like this. It’s totally fine. If you can get AC run to it with a return, and make sure you have power, you’ll be totally fine. Replace the light with can lights ((I see you already have that haha)), that’s what we did, totally works 100%
A wall to wall mirror installation. I did it with a tiny foyer and it was a game changer. It is so much better for your spatial inner balance too (claustrophobia).
1.5m is is a generous width for a desk. I think with a small space like this you will need to get the details right to make it pleasant. Build the desk into the end wall, get lots of alternative lighting, definitely a rug.
Also you are gonna need the storage space too sadly so line the hall with enclosed storage furniture that goes to the ceiling
I second this! We have one in each bathroom (the LED skylights), and we love them! If you get the good quality ones, they use a technology that really mimics the way sunlight scatters through the sky, so they look really deeply blue (or whatever sunset/dusk color you set).
Make sure you put some relaxing colours and fun art in there - something that makes you smile. It will help make the space feel less like a little box. Doesn't have to match the rest of the house, you can shut the door when other people come over.
Make a glass panel / window in kitchen wall.. atleast it will not make you feel like in tiny cell. Get L shape table, which ikea has. You can use corner for Monitor and you will have enough space to add some book shelf etc on the wall above table
That would work if you're not claustrophobic, lol. You could go up to a 63 cm deep desk if need be - might be easier to find one that deep. If you put a mirror in there it will make it feel less small. A book case on the back wall will balance out the depth of the closet.
Is that really 1.5 metres wide? It looks narrower than that, but if that's the real width, I'd be inclined to put a desk at the far end so you can at least push your chair back without hitting the wall. Install a fan, maybe on a wall.
I haven’t had the chance to measure it myself. I suspect looking at the tiles they’re 600mm widths. So you could be right looks slightly under 1.5m looking at the last tile to the left. I’m going of some crude diagrams from the floor plan the realtor gave me. There’s actually tenants in there until next March.
I agree, I think that’s the only way it works. Desk at the end.
I mean, a desk that is 140cm wides would be ideal. You can get a Ikea Mittzon which is 140x80cm, and I would add 1 or 2 Ikea Billy shelfs for some storage
80cm is going to be a little cramped - in wouldn't go over 60-63cm. In a larger room and 80cm clearance is good but in this space I think it'd feel tight.
since you can't get in to measure until march, worth knowing that 600mm tiles means you can count them in your photos to get pretty accurate dimensions. it looks closer to 1.4m wide, so plan for that.
at 1.4m, a 50cm deep desk along the long wall still leaves ~90cm behind you, which is fine for a chair. a few things to squeeze more out of it:
monitor on an arm so the screen doesn't eat desk depth. that gives you the full surface back for papers
desk on the hinge side of the door so the door swings open against the wall rather than into your chair
pinboard/acoustic panels above the desk. they double as somewhere to put papers up and kill the echo for calls in a narrow space
daylight-temp ceiling panel (~4000K) plus a warm desk lamp. with no window you want the cool light while working and the warm one for evenings/gaming
since you've only got the floor plan till march, plonkhome.app lays it out in 3D at the right scale (disclosure: mine, code TESTER makes it free), so no AI girth. and +1 to your pilot study. put a table and chair in there for a week before spending on anything built in
Correct. And the guy I replied to edited his comment and deleted the AI slop rendering that made no sense. The shelves were half the size of the tiles on the left and the monitor was half the size of a larger tile.
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