Chris Davies of Cutting Edge Joinery in Surrey is an old hand at creating studies under the stairs. “People are surprised at how many measurements we take when we visit,” he says. Notes are taken on the dimensions of computer screen, fax, printer and scanner, note pads and files. If you habitually use a certain size of envelope, Davies will need to know. He will (discreetly) take account of your own girth, height and left- or right-handedness. Does Sir file to the left? The end result, is more “luxury yacht interior” than “clinical office space”, with larger projects nudging £10,000.
Neville Johnson in Manchester offers nifty bespoke home offices, specialising in details such as concealed storage for printers and scanners and slide-out ledges for keyboards. Prices start at £4,000. Their latest contrivance is the “24-hour room” — a 2sq m ensemble with a remote-controlled bed that flips into the wall and a work station concealed behind sliding wardrobe doors.
If you want a workstation with a truly extravagant twist, you’ll be needing the services of Tim Wood, who designed a desk with a train set in it for one customer.
“The railway desk was for a client who works in the City and loves his gadgets as well as his model locomotives. We designed him a Brazilian mahogany-panelled study, with mahogany shutters and bookcases, and a cabinet for his flat-screen television. and Linn hi-fi with 100-CD changer. The massive desk has a drawer that comes right out on supports to reveal a circular train track.” Although Wood designs and makes individual pieces of furniture for less than £5,000, his ensembles start at the five-figure mark.
When at home, Michael d’Souza, of the Fulham interiors store Mufti, works at a beautiful leather desk he designed himself. “I wanted a desk that was not an eyesore, that people could use in their living room or bedroom, if they didn’t have a study. A leather desk is much warmer than an office desk. I love leather — as it gets older, the patina gets more attractive.” He created the Havana stitched leather desk, with three drawers and leather handles (£1,870). After using his prototype for several years, d’Souza recently came up with a tweak. “I found if I worked at the computer for a long time, the table top would dig into my arms, so the latest version has rounded edges.”
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Those on a tighter budget can get the leather look from Next, which stocks a £125 Espresso faux-leather side table that, although too narrow to be used as a serious workhorse, is an attractive multi-use living-room table that can double as a desk. The rustic look works well as an antidote to office aluminium: Oka’s leggy dressing table-desk is a simple two-drawer affair (£325) in pretty buttermilk-coloured painted wood.
Most of these handsome hybrids have nothing resembling a filing drawer, and you will need another piece of furniture to stash your paperwork. The Mufti range includes a Havana leather two-drawer filing cabinet (£1,015), and a five-shelf, stitched-leather bookcase (£840).
Mismatched pieces can work just as well: for instance, Oka stocks several designs of wooden trunk, from £150, that offer stylish storage for papers and files, in the guise of an occasional table. Best of the range are the “bedside trunks”, stout black- or white-lacquered Chinese-style boxes with brass clasps and handles (£155). An antique campaign chest is an unusual alternative to an office filing cabinet: prices go from about £400 to more than £2,000. Such treasures can be found at auctions, for example, at Bonhams ’ regular furniture sales, and at a few specialist dealers, such as Christopher Clarke.
Joanna Wood, an interior designer with her own shop in southwest London says, “The most important thing about your office at home is to protect your eyes by having proper task lighting.” She recently designed an office-in-a-bookcase for her husband (a breakfront bookcase with bi-fold doors, decorated with fake books, behind which lies space for filing, fax, printer, computer, noticeboards and a pull-out desk top), building in low-voltage halogen lights under the bottom shelf.
For those after traditional tabletop lighting, Wood has designed a couple of pretty, practical desk lights under the label Phillips and Wood: a nickel-plated art deco-style table lamp called Lloyds (£890), and a more slender example called Sherlock (£245), with a glass shade. Both incorporate the two ingredients of good desk lamps: a small footprint and a downward-angled light, to illuminate without glare. Bella Figura has some beautifully proportioned brushed-nickel adjustable “angle lamps” with cone shades in a variety of colours, from cream to deep plum (base £299; 7in shades from £35), a compromise between elegance and functionality.
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Just as desk lighting needs to be taken seriously, so does your chair. Spend days at a time working in a perfectly serviceable dining chair, and the resulting trips to the osteopath will soon cost what you should have spent on a decent seat. Saddle stools — based on the healthy position your back adopts when horse riding — encourage good posture, and start at about £100, but, being backless and armless, can be tiring to use for long stints. David Sameiro at the Back Shop in central London advises budgeting at least £400 for a good chair that offers plenty of support. “Anything under that price will probably be lacking features that will keep your back safe,” he warns.
“Adjustability is the key,” he explains. “The Hoganasmobler 362 (£934) is the best chair we’ve found on the market: it is a Swedish make, with fully adjustable lumbar support, arms, back and seat.”
So, however much you fancied a fling with a Marcel Breuer tubular steel and leather icon, or a Charles and Ray Eames plywood masterpiece, you will be better off settling down with a sensible Scandinavian.