What do you do when you don’t cook or eat at home, but you need to set up a home office? You may do exactly what entrepreneur and author Mandy Williams (aka Black of Red & Black) did, and convert your dining room into a home office.

Mandy isn’t your traditional author or business owner and doesn’t take a conventional approach in her personal and business life. Her approximately 15.8′ x 15.7′ home office is the perfect example. She could have converted a spare bedroom, corner of a family room, or a formal living room into her workspace, but how conventional would that be?

Mandy’s well-hidden home office is still disguised as a dining room, thanks to the wall of wood. Unless you opened the cabinets, you’d never know that behind the Wenge wood doors are several file drawers along the bottom, a slide-out printer stand, and open shelving for storing loose-leaf binders and  various office organizing boxes/sorters. She also has cubbyholes for paper, notepads and envelopes.

Her gorgeous custom-designed, glass-top table with a leather base looks like a dining table but can be used as a conference table or desk.  Not unlike many dining rooms, Mandy’s office is filled with natural light (often the best in the home).

Not eating or cooking at home seems to be a good trade-off for a stunning home office.

The holidays are only a few days away and you still don’t know what to buy your favorite home office professional or your own holiday list is still blank?

Whether you’re looking for the perfect gift for a friend, spouse or business associate who’s just started working from home or has worked from home for years, look no further. As a self-proclaimed home office product junkie, I’ve scoured stores — both in person and online — to find the 8 home office must-haves this holiday season.

Click here to see all 8 gift ideas in my guest post for genConnect.

I’m the first to admit that I’m an office supply addict. If I like a product’s design, color, and even material, it’s hard to resist buying it for my home office. But after donating more supplies than I care to admit, I don’t buy anything unless I know it will serve a specific purpose.

Consider a few things before you shop for more office supplies.

• When you buy supplies you know you won’t use, you waste time, space, and money. My dad taught me that if something is on sale and you don’t need it, it’s not a bargain. Yet if you see a product you know you’ll use often, there’s nothing wrong with stocking up.

• Look for sales and special prices online. The best time to find office supplies on sale is in August during back-to-school promotions. Reams of paper are cheap, printer cartridges are usually on sale and you can buy pens and pencils for pennies. Bizrate is one of my favorite sites to compare prices on supplies and office equipment.

• As much as possible, buy supplies in advance. All-night convenience stores and drug stores are the last places to find bargains on office supplies, but often the only option you have for a late-night office supply run. If you’ve had to leave home at night to buy a new printer cartridge or paper, you know how much of a hassle it is to find a place that has the supplies you need.

• Take a close look at what you already own and see if you can use something for another purpose. Stacking bins can temporarily hold papers in progress, silverware trays work well to organize loose supplies in a drawer, and clear shoeboxes are ideal for storing extra supplies in a closet or cabinet. If you can make something you own do double-duty, you’ll save time, storage space and money.

The next time you get the urge to get organized, don’t rush out to find a quick fix. Instead look at what you already own. You never know…the last product you bought may not be helping you get organized, but instead keeping you from getting organized.

What happened the last time you decided to get organized?

Have you ever heard anyone complain about having too much room to store everything they need to have in their home office? It’s about as likely as someone saying they have too much money, they need to gain weight, or they have plenty of free time. (I wouldn’t mind having more of the first one, less of the second, and plenty of the third!)

Finding extra storage space in your home office can be frustrating and challenging. Before you start stashing extra supplies, products and equipment in other parts of your home (where you’re likely to forget you own them), be creative. Either make use of what you already own or invest in a few storage pieces.

Make furniture do double duty

This small storage ottoman (I’ve also featured it on the Bare Essentials page) can give you additional seating in your home office, and has room inside to store files, books, or extra supplies.

This leather cube is small enough to fit next to or near your desk. While it looks good, it works well to store things you need to access quickly, but don’t need to keep within view.

If you don’t care whether or not the ottoman is leather or faux leather, there are less expensive options.

This large storage ottoman can give you an extra place to stretch out in your home office, and plenty of room inside to store bigger items. I bought one for my family room and I use it to store old photo albums. (My new photos are stored online and after certain events, I’ll order small photo albums from Snapfish.)

Although it has clean lines, you could use this in a contemporary home office or a traditional one.

Dressers, converted bars and armoires are ideal for storing supplies. The best part about them is the amount of supplies they can hold and their ability to hide supplies from view. And they’re more interesting than a standard storage cabinet or a computer cabinet.

The Tate Entertaining Bar can hold supplies and even your laptop. What I like best about it is if you want to move it out of your home office, you can use it as a bar in another room.

Would that be considered thinking out of the bar?

Think vertically

If you added shelves to a spare bedroom closet, would you have enough space to store books, supplies and even a file cabinet inside? If so, add simple-to-install shelves within your office closet. Even if you’re not handy, you could install wire shelving fairly quickly.

Several years ago I installed an Elfa shelf unit in my younger son’s closet. This is one of those “if I can do it, you can too” examples. It didn’t take long for me to put up the shelving unit. All you do is secure a thick bar to the wall and attach brackets to it.

Note: Time-wise, it’s easier to place bookcases or metal shelving inside a closet instead of installing built-ins. Space-wise, though, you’re wasting valuable space above, below and beside where you’ve placed the portable shelves.

If you don’t have a closet or storage cabinet in your home office, install shelves near your desk or create a desk within a wire shelving unit. This is the perfect idea for a smaller home office.

One of my favorite organizing supplies (and storage tips) is to use a magazine holder for magazines (of course), but also to hold blank paper and extra file folders.

You can give yourself more storage space by taking supplies out of their original packaging. Also, it’s easier to find extra supplies and see what you have quickly, by storing them in clear containers.

Nothing’s permanent

When you have limited space or you rent your home and can’t attach anything to the walls, a standing bookcase is the perfect storage solution. This EFFEKTIV storage cabinet/bookcase from IKEA has two open shelves at the top, while the rest of the shelves are behind doors.

A storage cabinet or a bookcase is also ideal if you’ve converted a bedroom into a home office and will want to convert it back when you sell your home.

If you tend to be a pack rat, add doors to your shelving unit. If not, you should be fine with open shelves.

You don’t have to spend a fortune to add extra storage space in your home office. Look around your house for furniture you’ve stuck in your basement, attic or garage. Instead of letting it collect desk, put it to work.

How have you created extra storage space in your home office?

Get a grip

My exterminator would cringe if he knew I was promoting spiders, but he’ll have to get a grip…actually a grip similar to the one the SpiderpodiumTablet® has on iPads and other Tablet PC’s. Sure, it’s creepy with its 8 legs that bend at all angles, but I always say that function (it can hold your tablet in place or let you view it at any angle) trumps beauty. The Spiderpodium Tablet, made from Advanced Tech “SoftTouch Rubber,” is available in black and graphite.

Put on the hog

Working from home can be lonely. Take a break from the silence with the iHog. This hog-shaped iPod/iPhone docking station has 4 speakers that deliver 360 degrees of sound…they’re loud!

Whether you choose the iHog in pink, white or black, consider sharing the iHog with your family. You don’t want them to think you’re a pig.

A functional skyline

Your home office may not overlook a city skyline, but you can get the next best thing with the Skyline Desk Organizer. This laser-cut wood holder has two spaces for mail or letters, and a space for pens and pencils.

This is one of the more interesting and creative supply organizers I’ve ever seen. Its neutral color will match any home office and its narrow design will leave you with plenty of desktop space to work.

Photo courtesy of Sligh

When I bought my first home office desk several years ago, it fell apart after I moved it three times. I definitely got what I paid for…almost nothing. I replaced it with a desk that cost a bit more, but it was reliable and functional.

As the number of home offices has continued to grow, so has the quality of home office furniture. Finally, there are plenty of home office furniture options available and the days of dealing with cheap, flimsy home office furniture are over.

Whether you’re setting up a home office for the first time, or you’ve decided it’s time to replace your existing furniture, you don’t have to spend a fortune. In fact, you may not have to spend any money at all.

Consider these four options for home office furniture:

High-end furniture

If clients visit your home office often, it makes sense to spend more on furniture. High-end or premium furniture looks expensive because, well, it is. Premium furniture comes in a variety of woods including oak, maple, pine and mahogany. Instead of gluing fronts directly on the drawer, high-end manufacturers use dovetail drawer construction. Other features include a latching keyboard pullout — you can use it instead as a drawer — and high-quality ball bearings.

A good place to find high-end furniture is through commercial furniture dealers. Some premium furniture manufacturers include Sligh, Paoli and Hooker Furniture, and you’ll find other options at Design Within Reach and Desk by Design.

Mid-range furniture

Mid-range furniture offers some of the same benefits of high-end pieces, but is more affordable. The drawers either have dovetail construction, or fronts nailed (rather than glued) to the drawer. They also have nice finishes and even come in a variety of colors. Mid-range furniture uses a combination of wood and MDF (medium density fiberboard).

A few retailers that carry mid-range furniture include Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel, Restoration Hardware, Ballard Designs and Computer Furniture Direct. One of my favorite manufacturers is Aspen Home.

Economy furniture

Economy furniture, mostly RTA (ready-to-assemble), is designed to function at a low price and often is made from less expensive particleboard, or from MDF that’s rated lower than what’s used on mid-range furniture. On the surface of RTA furniture is laminate, melamine or some other type of veneer that changes the look of the furniture and gives the surface added protection. Sometimes plastic is used on metal glide systems to save money.

RTA lines are available at various office supply superstores and discount stores including Office Depot, Staples, Office Max, Target, Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club and Costco. Ikea is another good resource.

Inherited furniture

The last category includes home office furniture you’ve inherited from family members, picked up at antique shows, or even found online. This is the type of furniture whose value you can’t judge by how much you paid for it (if you even had to pay for it). A well-made traditional desk your grandma left you in her will, may have sentimental value which makes it even more priceless.

You may want to bite the bullet and buy high-end furniture to impress your clients, or stick to a mid-range budget and create a home office that’s functional and well-designed, just not outrageously expensive. Whatever direction you go, make sure your home office fits your budget and your style.

One last point: make sure your furniture fits through your home office door or up the stairs. If not, it doesn’t matter how nice it is.

(BTW, I don’t get paid to recommend any of the resources in this post. The truth is, I’m a furniture addict and I spend more time researching home office furniture than I care to admit.)

How have you furnished your home office? Share your comments below.

File and fold

You may work in your home office day after day, but some days it’s better to mix it up and work somewhere else. When you need to take files with you, the Bungalow file tote can handle the job. It’s sturdy enough to hold plenty of letter-size hanging folders, yet folds up for easy storage. It also works well for storing files in your home office, but something this stylish deserves to be taken out once in a while.

Stick with it

One of the (many) things I don’t miss about my corporate days in a stuffy office is my old, grey desk accessories. I’ve done my best to make sure that my home office doesn’t resemble anything close to my old corporate office. Instead of bland accessories, I have colorful and functional ones. The Poppin tape dispenser definitely fits into that category with its selection of eight colors.

Stick ‘em up

There’s no doubt that a valuable photo or piece of art is worth framing. But when you have inexpensive art that you may change out soon anyway, why bother with frames? The Re-stickable Decal Photo Frame makes framing simple, and hanging even easier. The best part is that you can move the frames from room to room without putting any holes in your walls. Each pack comes with eight frames that stick to your walls or windows and won’t damage walls or paint.

A whale of a holder

When you think of cute animals, you may not think of a whale, but when it’s the size of a pencil holder and is a pencil holder, it’s hard not to say, “ahhhh.” This handcrafted holder, made from white pine, beech or redwood, holds pencils and paper in the top and back and can grip something in its mouth, too.

Each Wood Whale is signed, numbered and “packed for migration.”

Fixing the filing blues

There’s nothing exciting about filing, but that doesn’t mean that your file cabinet has to be blah. This powder coated cabinet in a beautiful blue and cool green can brighten any home office. It has one letter-legal file drawer and two storage drawers (dog not included).

SugarSync is one way to store you data virtually

You’d think that after I drowned my computer a few weeks ago, I would have moved on. For the most part, I have, but I still can’t help reminding everyone I know about how important it is to backup information often. In another guest blog post, Chelanie Israel shared tips for backing up data. Another way to back up data is through virtual drives.

Guest post by Chelanie Israel

I’m asked often about virtual drives. Do they work and are they worth it?

A few questions

The questions you have to answer before you can determine whether a virtual drive solution will work for you are:

1. What are you backing up on the virtual drive?
2. How much space do you need?
3. Are you going to backup manually or use software?
4. How much do you want to spend?

The cost of online space

Online space can get very pricey. If you are backing up just the basics: your address book, calendars, accounting data, passwords and settings, online storage is very cost affordable. If you are using less than 5 gigs, you can sign up for quite a few services for free.

If you need more than 125 gigs of space over a year, virtual storage is probably not something you want to consider, unless you need the comfort or ease of not having to move a drive someplace else. You also need to verify that the service you are using fits your requirements.

The difference between backup and online storage

Virtual storage is a good solution, but only if you use it effectively. When looking for an online solution, you need to know the difference between backup and online storage. Carbonite, Mozy and iDrive are backup sites, not virtual storage.

DropBox, Box, MobileMe, Huddle and SugarSync are virtual storage. The difference is virtual storage allows you to access your files from multiple devices ( i.e. computer, iPad, internet access). Most online backup drives do not. Instead, they work with a single computer.

Whichever way you decide to backup your data, it’s important to take steps to protect your information.

Chelanie Israel, aka Miss Mac, has worked with Apple Computer since 1986. She worked for Apple for 16 years, Adobe for 9 years and has worked with Intel, View Sonic, and Sling Media as well as many other leading technology companies as a vendor representative over the last 20 + years.

It’s in the bag

Finding a bag that can double as a home office isn’t easy. Believe me, I’ve been looking for that type of bag for over a year. The allrounder does the job perfectly. It’s large enough to hold a desktop file holder inside, along with supplies and a laptop. It will even fit under the seat in front of you when you fly. The best part is that this bag comes in different, stylish designs that have anything but a stuffy, corporate look.

A case for opening a cold one

Your cell phone case may protect your phone but can it open a bottle or can? The “Be A HeadCase™“ case has a built-in, stainless steel bottle/can-tab opener on the back of a hard-shell plastic case. This “why didn’t I think of that” case for your iPhone 4/Verizon iPhone 4 or iPhone 3G/3Gs includes a bottom cover slot that makes it easy to charge your phone without taking it out of the case. It also comes with a free app that plays your favorite song or sound and displays a photo when you open a bottle or can.

Spink before you drink

Maybe I still have my dead computer on my mind, but this cup holder, named the Spink, could have kept my glass right next to my computer instead of letting it go bottoms up on my keyboard. The lever-powered suction cup on the bottom of the Spink will keep your mug, water bottle or glass in one place and more importantly, your computer safe.