Our Best Built-In Desk Tips

As working from home becomes more and more common, so do the ideas for built-in desks and home offices. Here are some points of discussion regarding custom built-in desks today.

Built-In Desk For Home Office

If you’ve got the space or you’re planning a build from the ground up, creating a home office that includes a built-in desk or shelves is a great way to ensure your workspace has the look and organization that you’ve always dreamed of.

Whether it’s for a work-from-home space, a children’s homework room, or more of an office/den, built-in desks can provide a practical workspace alongside lasting design character and flow in your home.

However, if your floor plan doesn’t allow for a completely separate office, many other spaces in the home lend themselves to becoming a built-in desk nook. This way, the built-in desk takes advantage of a smaller existing space, often near the kitchen or just off the main living room. Depending on your family’s space and lifestyle, a built-in desk in an office or nook is a nice way to stay close and keep communication easy. These are perfect spaces for sorting mail, managing weekly menus and schedules, and housing the family desktop—all out in the open where they’re conveniently accessible to anyone in the family, any time they need them. However, this option does have possible drawbacks.

While the open concept office can serve certain lifestyles well, disadvantages could include distractions from a nearby television or constant traffic through the living room or kitchen, as well as a lack of privacy to ensure working projects and clutter remain outside the view of unexpected guests. One way to combat this is to design your built-in desk and cabinets with plenty of storage space behind closed doors and drawers. Keeping shelves available for decorative displays can be a nice way to personalize the space with cohesive style, all while tucking away private work documents, in-progress projects, and general office clutter.

Some even consider having their built-in desk located in a room that’s already dedicated to a bit of mess, like the mudroom or laundry room. This way, any disarray can be shut away from the main living and entertaining areas of your home.

Best Built In Desk Ideas

If you want to add a built-in desk to your home, be sure to consider  a few things such as electrical wiring, flooring layout  and lighting.

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If you’re building new, It’s wise to have a rough idea of your built-in desk layout before getting to the electrical phase,. I recommend ensuring space just below the desk’s surface for plugins, so you can neatly tuck most wiring away through a grommet in the desktop without them getting tangled near your feet. You may also want to consider outlet access for lamps in a larger office that might need a reading corner lit up, for example. If you plan to have a desk in the middle of a space, be sure to plan for wiring in the flooring so you don’t have to have cords stretch across the floor.

Another thing to consider is the surface material for your built-in desktop. It should be one that accommodates a computer, books, and pen and paper without difficulty. For instance, having a stone desktop is considered quite durable and can be beautiful. However, it is expensive and colder than other materials. On the other hand, a solid wood desktop is a good alternative. They are classically good-looking and can be refinished if necessary. They also provide a warmer working surface.

Once you have a good idea what your built-in desk will look (and measure) like, you’ll want to pick out office furniture that compliments your office’s style, functions well in the space, and works within your budget. For instance, do you want a rolling office chair? Or does a large, leather wingback fit your aesthetic better? Have you made sure to allow space in your office design for the furniture you dream of? Likewise, make sure you have space for the upholstered sofa you’ve had in mind for visitors and family members. You’ll also want to consider other office furniture like bookshelves, display cases, rolling carts, artwork, and sconces or lamps.

Lighting is another important element in any working space. You’ll want to ensure the best possible lighting for both flat desk work and a computer screen where glare or poor lighting could quickly become your office foe. Plenty of natural light along with some softer and optional lamp-like wall sconces can be perfect solutions.

In most spaces, you’ll want to create your built-in desk, shelves, and cabinetry from similar materials as in the rest of your home. But that doesn’t mean they can’t also have unique and creative designs all their own.

Built-In Desk Design

In most spaces, you’ll want to create your built-in desk, shelves, and cabinetry from similar materials as in the rest of your home. But that doesn’t mean they can’t also have unique and creative designs all their own.

Custom built-in desk designs range widely from home to home and aesthetic to aesthetic. Ideally, the overall tone of your home office or built-in desk nook should complement the rest of your house in form and color, but there is plenty of room for standout design elements.

Adding a splash of color to your built-in cabinets, particularly in an area dominated by clean, white walls, is a great way to make the space distinctive and purposeful.

Another way to customize the look of your built-in desk and cabinet design is with special touches like unique cabinet door cutouts and design, mullions, or specialty hardware.

Another consideration when creating a custom built-in desk is sizing, amount of additional cabinetry and shelving, and organizational needs.

For instance, if I had all the space in the world, I may be able to imagine a spacious and dreamy built-in desk for my home office. But if I had very limited space to work with, there are some important things to keep in mind. I’d start with a minimum of 30” wide for seating space. Desk depth should be a minimum of 24”, but 30-36” is more comfortable if you’re using it more often. If you create a deeper desk, you’ll need to consider deeper shelves as well. However, the upper shelves can be hard to reach, so consider open shelving to make commonly used books and other items easier to access. Just make sure to leave at least 22-24” of clearance above the desktop for your computer monitor. I’d add a limited amount of closed upper storage as well.

Another necessity for a great home office desk would be a drawer dedicated to filing with at least 12” of height. Another drawer or cubby should be big enough to accommodate a modern printer. You could have a dedicated trash bin or adapt a drawer as a garbage pullout. Lastly, I’d add one or two more drawers for miscellaneous office tools (between 4-7” of usable height) and writing supplies (2.5-3.5” tall) and call it good.

Do I Need Cabinets With A Built In Desk?

I’d emphasize again that each built-in desk and home office is going to be unique to the needs of the people working in it. That said, critical design and layout decisions in an office seem to revolve around a few key functions aside from the computer screen and desktop surface: printers, trash, and filing. All of that likely means you’ll need and want cabinets with your built-in desk.

More often than not printers are now either on a rollout in a base cabinet or sitting in a tower cabinet at about waist height. Not many of us want to waste precious and uncluttered desktop space with a cumbersome printer, especially if not used daily. Trash cans are another commonly “hidden” office necessity and are most practical in a small pullout drawer, or behind a small door in a base cabinet. Filing cabinet drawers usually need a minimum of 12” height and can consume a lot of base cabinet storage.

All said and done, there are very few “rules” that need to be followed when designing and building a custom built-in desk cabinet. As long as it creates a workflow that serves your purposes and is a place to comfortably and happily work from, it’s a great space to make completely unique to the design tastes and needs of you and your family.

Why You Need a Built-In Desk

I don’t imagine that many people need convincing they’re in need of their own built-in desk and cabinets for their home office. But if you’re still on the fence, here are a few of the benefits of built-in cabinetry and why we think having one is a great idea for your home.

• They provide dedicated space for work and study, away from distractions.
• Built-in desks can be customized to your exact working needs, whether those needs are occupational, physical, or habitual.
• Personalized built-in desks create organizational havens as well as positive mojo—both of which increase productivity.
• They allow for entertaining spaces to remain uncluttered by work and school projects.
• They immeasurably increase the inherent style and charm in your home.
• Home offices with custom built-ins are very popular home buyer requests, which makes creating one a worthy investment.

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