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Maple & Cherry Home Office |
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Maple & Cherry Home Office |
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(Click any photo for a close-up view)
(Click any photo for a close-up view)
This project originated from the need to better utilize the space, while upgrading the aesthetic appearance, of a dedicated home office room in the client's home. Like many customers that I speak with, their home office setting had "randomly evolved" over several years, resulting in a mixed collection of furniture pieces, storage solutions, and poor use of space. We started with a "clean sheet of paper" and concluded with the design seen in the photos above.
Two of the four walls in the room were allocated for very long (10 foot+) his and hers work surfaces, made from cherry, with plenty of space for desktop/laptop computers and associated paperwork. To avoid any obstructions under the work surfaces (and the associated banging of knees/shins), they were securely bolted to the wall studs using heavy-duty metal brackets. This approach allow both husband and wife to freely roll their chair along each wall in unhindered fashion. Cable management grommets were installed along the back edges of both work surfaces to route computer and telephone wires under the counters where they would be less intrusive. In addition, special "laptop ports" were installed flush in the work surfaces to provide quick, convenient hookup of the power and network cables for the client's laptop computers.
One of the remaining two walls was assigned to enclosed storage cabinets, all made from maple. Upper cabinets, using doors with concealed hinges, were used for storage of typical office supplies material. Hanging just below the upper cabinets, a custom set of open storage "nooks" was fashioned to hold frequently accessed paperwork and files. A set of base cabinets, with full-extension lateral file drawers, was also placed on this wall. The cherry work surfaces were extended straight over onto the filing cabinets, providing generous space for the printer/copier and the fax machine. As seen in the photos above, the client selected some very modern-looking, satin-finished door/drawer handles to complement the contemporary design of the frameless cabinets.
The final wall in this room was fully populated with adjustable bookshelves, also made from maple, to store all the various books in the home office. One interesting design detail on these shelving units was suggested by the client - to extend the cherry work surfaces around through the maple bookshelves by building one of the shelves in each bookcase using matching cherry lumber. This clever suggestion results in a nearly seamless band of dark cherry elements around the entire perimeter of the room, which really grabs the viewer's attention when entering the space. However, this formal, dark cherry appearance is nicely balanced by the natural, light colored appearance of the remaining maple cabinetry.
Overall, this project resulted in a much higher level of user comfort, space utilization, and design uniformity. In fact, the biggest challenge in the entire project was how quickly the client's could move back into the office and start using the shiny new cabinets, even while installation was continuing.... :-)
For other home office cabinet installations, please visit the Home Office page. To take a look at other contemporary styled projects, please visit the Contemporary page.
Cabinet pricing is dependent on a wide variety of factors that can drastically alter the final cost. Cabinet quantities/sizes, material selection, construction methods, accessories, and finishes all impact the pricing. The maple and cherry office cabinets shown on this page cost approximately $5,100, including materials, labor, and installation.