At Work at Home: Design Ideas for Your Home Workplace

Like Powers's _Living with Books_ and Ellis's _At Home with Books,_ which I've reviewed in the past, this is the sort of lushly illustrated volume anyone with similar interests will sit and drool over. If you work at home, or if you need a second space at home for the overspill from your office job, you have a number of options: Claim a corner of an existing space in your house or apartment (living room, kitchen, even a niche off a hallway), convert a spare bedroom or even a walk-in closet, move into the attic or the basement (if you live in the part of the country that HAS attics and basements), make a separate dedicated space out of a garage or other outbuilding, or even construct a new space on your property, either attached to your house or semi-isolated in a handy patch of woods. (My own home office, like many others, used to be a kid's bedroom, and I haven't done much to it; it still has the Winnie-the-Pooh ceiling fixture.) The author walks you through all these possibilities and has you think about zoning and property-line setbacks, and floor and ceiling materials, and light sources and plumbing, and active storage and bookshelving. He also points out the need to control your workspace, to separate work from home life, and to identify "swing spaces." How much space do you really need? Maybe not as much as you think. Consider as a guide the acronym "CAMP," which stands for Computer station, Administrative station, Meeting station, and Project station. The need may be minimal (I never have clients in my home) and some of the others may be combined (I do admin work at the same work table where I do projects), but looking at it this way will lead you to reconsider your own SoHo. The pictures in this book, naturally, will make you jealous of those with the design talent and the money to establish such luscious work areas. The nicest and most unusual, not surprisingly, belong to architects working at home. Nevertheless, even with my own relatively simple needs, I picked up a number of ideas on how to optimize my own space.

This is the ultimate book for planning an office at home. These practical suggestions will inform and inspire. The examples pictured spaces are so inviting, you'll enjoy looking at this book even if you work elsewhere! Highly recommended.

If your home office looks like it does not belong there, or it appears as though you are co-ordinating a world relief project in a disaster area, this book is for you. Included here are some wonderful floor plans (large and small areas) and beautiful photographs that will give you ideas on how to incorporate an efficient and attractive office space into your home. No, you do not have to move to the garage and you do not have to "live among the ruins" any longer. Whether you are renovating an existing room, planning to add on an extra room, or building a completely separate facility, there is something here for everyone. If you find yourself with more files on the floor than in the filing cabinet, an inefficient computer station (there is nothing like getting tied up in the phone cord, while trying to find a vacant space on the top of your desk to maneuver that little mouse around,)it is time to make some chaanges and this book is for you. One is only limited by the size of their budget. Great ideas, great book!