Home Office

A few of you by now may have been wondering, "Where are they putting the office?" Have no fear; it hasn't been left off the plans.

When we scaled down the size of the renovation, the architects had to think of clever ways to incorporate the items listed on our brief; one of which was a home office. I didn't really need a dedicated room, so they came up with the idea of putting an office nook in the hallway near the kitchen.

I actually requested for a shallow but wide pantry, as I find food items get "lost" in the back of most regular pantries. As a result, it gave us space on the other side of the wall (in the hallway) for an office nook which incorporates a built-in desk, filing cabinet, cupboards and storage shelves.

Hallway Section (you can see from this diagram that the house will be split-level)

Although the office nook is relatively small, there will be heaps of storage for files, stationery and general things that can clutter up a desk, so it can stay neat and tidy as it will always be "on show." I plan on getting a nice stool which, when not in use, can be tucked in underneath the desk; compact but functional.

Having the office located in our living zone means that I can still keep a watchful eye on the kids when they use the computer - and these tech-savvy kids are onto it already.

The linen cupboard is also located in the hall, rather than the laundry. Having it centrally located means it creates easy access for everybody in the house. The doors on the linen cupboards will have an architecturally-designed batten front which also incorporate the handles, so rather than it looking like a bank of plain doors, they will actually be a design feature of the hallway which will provide a lovely textural element, similar to this:

Model of Hallway

Model of Office Nook/Linen Cupboard

So that's pretty much a wrap-up of the plans for our eagerly awaited new house. The architects are madly putting together construction documentation in preparation for the Tender process which will now probably have to wait until after XMAS. The tender period usually takes around 4-5 weeks, so it will still be a few months before that first shovel hits the ground.