Home Office Features

One at a time

Lateral file drawers

Full-width lateral files built into the desk run, taking letter or legal hanging files on proper rails. They carry serious weight, so they sit on undermount runners rated for it, and they take the place of the filing cabinet that would otherwise stand in the corner.

Pull-out counter shelf

A shelf that draws out from under the countertop to give you a second surface when you need it — for a laptop beside a monitor, for signing something, for laying out paper. Pushed back in, the room reads as tidy without anything having been put away.

Adjustable keyboard tray in a pull-out tower

A keyboard tray set into a pull-out tower rather than screwed under the desk, so it adjusts for height and disappears entirely when the desk is being used for something else.

Full-height pull-out tower cabinet

A narrow floor-to-ceiling unit that pulls straight out, shelved both sides. It is the best use of the twelve or fifteen inches at the end of a run that is too narrow for a door to swing into, and it holds stationery, reams and cables where you can see all of it at once.

Upper cabinets with decorative fronts

Uppers carried to the ceiling with a decorative door front, so the top of the wall stores rather than collects. In a room that is also a spare bedroom this is what stops the office reading as an office when the doors are shut.

Fluted and matte glass inserts

Glass fronts on some of the uppers break up a solid wall of doors and let you see roughly what is in a cabinet without seeing the detail. Matte reads flatter and quieter; fluted has more texture from across the room.

Glass shelving units

Open glass shelves between the closed cabinets, usually lit, for books and objects rather than supplies. It is the part of the run that keeps it from reading as a storage wall.

Contemporary drawer systems and trim

Deco drawer fronts with integrated pulls in the lower run, base molding to the floor and crown molding at the ceiling. The trim is what makes a floor-to-ceiling run in an old house sit flush against walls that are not straight.

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