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.

This Pottery Barn desk makes good use of a corner.

A desk is a desk is a desk, right? Not so fast…and not so much.

My L-shape desk (a desk with a return) is better than any desk I ever used in the corporate world. It has two deep file drawers, extra drawers for supplies and a pullout keyboard drawer that I use to hold paper. It not only looks good, it works well for me too.

Your desk may take up too much room in your home office (the bruises on your thighs from running into it are a sure sign) or it may be so small that when you put a card table next to it you still don’t have enough room to work.

Either way, a desk sets the tone for your home office and can affect your productivity.

Consider a few factors when you’re looking for a new desk or when you’re evaluating your current desk.

Size. Your desk needs to fit in your home office. That’s common sense but before you shop for a desk, measure your office so you know how large your desk can be. You’ll need to leave room for a file cabinet, a bookcase or shelving. Don’t forget to measure the doorway to your home office and make sure the desk can make the turn at the top of the stairs.

Material. Whether you pick a desk that’s made of solid wood, out of MDF (medium density fiberboard) with wood veneers, or metal, among other materials, make sure the desk is sturdy enough to move from one place to another. Keep in mind that a solid wood desk can warp, so if you live in humid area you may want to opt for a desk made out of MDF.

Desktop space. Do you need room to spread out papers? A desk with a return gives you plenty of desktop space. You can make use of potentially wasted space when you keep your all-in-one in the corner where the two surfaces meet.

Storage space. File cabinets are ideal for storing reference files, but keep the files you use often at your fingertips. Look for a desk with desktop file drawers that can hold hanging folders. A few extra drawers to hold supplies can be helpful too.

Price. You don’t have to spend a fortune to find a good desk. Along with traditional furniture stores and office supply superstores, check out commercial furniture dealers, warehouse clubs, Craigslist and eBay. You’ll be surprised at what you can find at a reasonable price.

In the blog post “What does your desk say about you?“ I described how the way your desk is arranged speaks volumes. When you take a close look at your desk, you may discover your desk is telling you it’s time for a new one.

Over the New Year’s weekend, she “seriously decluttered, repainted and redecorated” her home office.

The medals she earned from two marathons, the Minnie Mouse drawing by her daughter and the SUCCESS magazine cover autographed by Donald Trump, all hanging above her desk, inspire Debbie every day. Those personal items, along with a setup that’s functional and stylish, reflect her interests, personality and professionalism.

Her 10’ x 10’ home office used to be ivory-colored with a green accent wall. Now the walls are a soothing green with an ivory accent wall. The green containers on her newly cleared out bookcases not only tie in with the rest of the room, they provide extra storage.

Debbie’s L-shape desk has plenty of room to hold equipment on top and supplies on shelves below. In addition to her all-in-one machine, she uses a black & white laser printer for contracts.

Her favorite part of her home office is the fresh green paint, a new chair (a bargain from TJ Maxx), and her pared-down cherry wood bookcases. She took out two sections of the unit to open up more space in her office. Debbie also splurged on a new office chair because she spends so much time in it.

No doubt that this beautiful, well-organized office will make everyone a little green with envy.

Interior Designer Melinda Miles and her husband inherited a pharmacy supply cabinet that had been in their family for years. The quarter-sawn oak cabinet started out in an old, turn-of-the-century drugstore and held pharmacy supplies.  Miles realized that these drawers, with the labels for the pharmaceutical products still attached, were the perfect size for DVD and supply storage within her home office.

Her interior design skills came in handy when she created plans for a hutch unit that could rest on top to house the TV, books and some accessories. Her cabinet guy built the hutch exactly to the specifications to line up with the base, and her furniture refinisher matched the old finish perfectly. Matching a finish is not an easy task.

Now they have a fully functional entertainment center/supply cabinet that preserves a piece of her husband’s history. Her husband didn’t want to remove the old pharmacy labels, but the one that read “Feminine Products” disappeared mysteriously during the redesign process.

Some parts of history don’t need to be preserved.

This computer cabinet from Hooker Furniture includes a drop-down desk, file drawer and pullout keyboard and printer shelves.

A computer cabinet, armoire or an “office-in-a-box” — they’re all the same thing — offer more storage shelves and file drawers than before. Between white boards, drawers and extra storage bins in the door, armoires are filled with function.  As with anything, including furniture, there are always advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:
•Compact and ideal for when space is limited
•You can close the doors at the end of the day
•All of your equipment fits inside
•Some have drop-down desks and file cabinets that roll inside
•It can blend in with the rest of your home

Disadvantages:
•Not all cabinets have legroom
•There’s not always enough space to spread out papers
•There’s limited filing space so you’ll need a cabinet nearby

Something to think about: If you decide to buy a computer cabinet or any other home office furniture, plan ahead and measure your space. One of my client’s enthusiasm for a new computer cabinet was squelched when she realized on delivery day that the cabinet she bought couldn’t make the turn at the top of the stairs.

The Caretta Workspace collection is a beautiful exception. My favorite part of the collection is its cable management system (the ability to organize tangled power cords), which means that finally you can hide those annoying, ugly power cords.

Not only does the collection include solid cherry features, there’s a locked laptop section that’s temperature-controlled (no more overheating), a monitor holder and built-in lighting.  This furniture line is warm and sleek and can be configured several different ways.  That’s especially helpful if you plan to move or you like to change your office around once in awhile.

This is a case of you get what you pay for and in this case, you get a lot for your money.

• Executive desk groups (major office hogs) are being replaced by smaller groupings at lower price points.

• Home office furniture isn’t only for home offices. Families are buying the furniture for game rooms, family rooms and bedrooms.

• Desks are smaller but still functional and they’re on wheels to make them easy to move around.

• Cabinets have fold-down work surfaces to save space.

• Desks for laptop computers are still popular. Why buy a desk with space for a CPU if you’ve ditched your desktop?

• Furniture features flexible configurations. That comes in handy if you move to a smaller space or if you want to be able to change around your office once in awhile.

• High-end furniture manufacturers are continuing to reduce the size of their desks, along with their prices.

For the first time in Las Vegas, less is more.

The Z Gallerie Stefan desk.

Years ago when working naked was something you kept private, there weren’t many home office desks available. The only options were cheap, badly designed computer workstations and desks that fell apart after one or two moves. Now that working naked is more celebrated than shunned, furniture manufacturers—even from the commercial side—have created functional, stylish and even affordable home office furniture.

Some of my favorite places to shop for reasonably-priced home office furniture are Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn, West Elm, Z Gallerie and commercial furniture dealers—they sell to individuals too. Sometimes you can find home office furniture by well known and respected manufacturers at Costco and Sam’s Club.

Before you buy anything, check for quality. You may think you’re getting a bargain but don’t be surprised if you have to replace that same item after a few months. I’m still surprised when I walk into an office supply superstore and see a chipped or dented desk. If it doesn’t hold up in a store, is it really going to last in my home office?

With more decent furniture choices out there, your home office doesn’t have to reflect the corporate office you just left (or feared being trapped inside for at least eight hours a day). Instead, your home office can and should be a reflection of your interests, taste and design sense.