Home office: worthwhile expenditure?

tired_dad

We have a 'spare reception room' - call it a study.

Want to deck it out properly as a home office and the options are to

1. Get a cabinet making company to install a fitted study/home office
2. Buy desk/bookcase etc and place them accordingly

What are your thoughts on this?

Option one means it will have to stay as an office. Option 2 means its function can be changed.

I appreciate option 1 will cost $$$ but do you think the fitted feel would be appreciated by potential future buyers?

TIA

Rodney_Trotter

What's the size of the room?

Ebe_Scrooge

I would have said option 2 is best - cheaper for you, and gives future buyers the option of using the room for any purpose ( spare bedroom, playroom, junk storage, whatever ) rather than having the hassle and expense of ripping it all out if they don't happen to want an office.

I_have_spoken

Very unlikely custom install will add appeal IMHO.

fluffymuffy

We have a home office as we work from home. It has a table made from a piece of kitchen worktop with Ikea legs screwed on. And two metal filing cabinets. And a cheap Ikea office chair. It's a real office (we really use it) and it cost about £200. Was it worth it? Sure.

DaftyDuck

We have two home office rooms, a his n a hers. No, a cabinet-made layout would not suit either of us... a home-office is almost certainly peculiar and personal to the individual, and the job they do. I work with three separate computers, have no paperwork whatsoever, and an essential sofa for my cats. My wife has one laptop + screen, heaps of papers delivered each day, a huge microscope on a very solid table, and junk... so much junk I have nightmares ....

So, like an expensive suite of fitted bedroom furniture (we have wardrobes, thanks), fitted furniture would put us off.

Never, when selling (or planning selling) a house narrow the market. Fit it up as an office? Sure, it'll appeal to someone who wants an identical office to yours, but not to those who want a pad for the adult kid to crash, a room for sewing, a space for the great danes, somewhere to store the canoe, a downstairs lovenest, a TV/film suite, a store for ebay products.... even another sitting room.

Option 2.

lauralouise90

If you work from home or have kids in secondary school/university then I think option 1 is the best.... it'll feel like a working environment rather than bunging a pc in the spare room.

We have a home office as I often work from home and it just separates home life and work a lot better.

I'd love to see pictures when you're done.

tired_dad

Thanks, interesting views.

We have 3 kids all at school stage. Currently the dining room gets most of the desk time.

I was thinking of the fitted style because it just feels so much more solid and substantial.

At the moment it has odd shaped filing cabinets and bookshelves. What I need to to look for a nice contemporary matching set of units.

If I can't find what I want will look at the fitted office option.

27col

It's a shame that MFI is not still in business. Our study/office is fitted out completely with their home office range of units. Very well designed and not particularly expensive at the time.

Ben84

It can look very tidy, but I've never really liked fitted furniture. It's just a bit too stuck to the walls! I like being able to move things around, adjust stuff over time. Buy and sell items too. So I would stick with individual items you can move around.

Mander

Personally I'd go with bookcases etc. rather than something fitted. Our second bedroom is primarily a home office with a futon in it for guests, which we have furnished with the ubiquitous Ikea bookcases and matching desktops. In the event that we have a baby, however, we will most likely switch rooms. That would be a lot more complicated if the furniture was built in.

In fact we chose this house over a similar one in the same neighbourhood because we didn't want to mess around with ripping out the built-in cabinets in the other house. Granted that place was a little extreme -- there were so many cabinets it felt like a ship's cabin, and the style was very much not our taste.