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I love the idea of getting more out of the spaces in your home that are generally overlooked. If you have a fairly wide hallway, you could use that space to do double-duty as a small office.
Just find a narrow table and a small chair that tucks COMPLETELY under the table when not in use. Go minimalist with your office supplies. And, if your hallways are dark, use bright colors to decorate and bring in some good lighting.
That said, I have to wonder if sitting in a hallway would feel odd, with roommates or partners walking past you all the time. Anyone tried this? How’d it work out for you?
It probably wouldn’t work well for like schoolwork or anything you brought home from work. But it would be perfect for writing letters, putting stamps on mail, and paying bills.
My grandmother has something similar to this concept in her house. In the hallway that runs between the front door, kitchen and living room (and right next to her phone) she has a standing desk height desk that folds out from the wall she uses to pay bills, take notes while on the phone etc. It also has a cork board to pin messages to. It’s literally a life saver for her now that my grandfather has so many doctors appointments (and bills)to keep track of and I imagine it was heavily used when she had 5 kids at home.
I love the idea of a standing desk. I’ve looked into buying one for my office at work, but the ones you can buy from office furniture stores all have one fatal flaw: they’re HIDEOUS.
I’ve seen a lot about DIYing standing desks on IkeaHackers and such – maybe there could be a future post there???
I would love to see this! (And if I do it myself, I’ll send it in.) I’ve been yearning for a big open top standing desk for a long time, and now that I finally have the space for it (art/guest room!), I no longer live by good second-hand stores. Hmmf.
At our old house, my parents had turned the front door nook into an office. We never used the front door anyway, because our driveway came in at the side door (and we’re not that formal). One side of the “hall” had a coat closet, but the other side was a large computer desk with printer, shredder, etc. It worked for us.
My parents have now moved, and we’ve had to do some rearranging to fit our lives into the rooms of the new house. There was a small office space next to the master bath, and my mom needed more closet space, so they put closet rods going front to back on both sides. The built in desk goes along the whole back wall, and my mom still uses it as her office space. She calls it her “spy closet.”
neat little nook – but mostly *i want that art!*
Right!? I loved the nerdy computer nerd symbols! I bet one could easily recreate that a la this tutorial: http://offbeathome.com/2012/06/leaf-art
Didn’t Stephen King talk about having a hallway office in On Writing?
I don’t know, but I’ve been told recently to read that book!
Yes he did. And I love that book. I have 2 copies of it (one in softback that I read often, and the other in hardback (1st edition).
I think how well a hallway desk would work out for you would depend largely on what you need for motivation, concentration, inspiration, and privacy. For instance, I would love this because I feel more motivated and when I’m around other people, I concentrate best and feel more inspired when there’s a lot of noise and activity going on around me, and I don’t feel shy about people looking over my shoulder while I work.
In my old apartment, there was a wide hallway that led from the front door, past the kitchen, into the living room. I ended up setting up my sewing machine and other craft stuff there, and it worked out awesome! With narrow shelving and the nifty vintage stand I have for my machine, the hallway still ended up about the normal width of a hallway!
I basically HAD to do this in my old studio. It had a really neat zig-zag hallway between the bedroom/livingroom/kitchen and the bathroom. I put up a curtain rod to separate it from the br/lr/kitch and simply set up my desk, printer, rubbermaid drawers, bookshelf, computer, etc. in the hall. It was perfect!
This is actually what we did in our house. Our hallway is actually the size of a small bedroom, and we don’t have an extra room. So one side of the hallway has a rolltop desk that we recieved as a gift and across from that is a small kids table that we have pushed up against the wall to use three sides, and then at the end we have our piano and guitars. It really does work out quite well.
We don’t have a hallway space, but I feel like on one hand — it would be awesome and involved. On the other hand — I get really anxious if people look at what I’m doing, or if I *think* they might be looking.
That said, the art is *amazing*.
This is the solution the boy and me had to come up with in order to deal with our severe lack of space in our current apartment. I am the one working with a computer, so the hallway is mine.
The room itself is kinda long but my desk isn’t deep so it works out great. I kept all the furniture white to brighten up the dark room (no windoooow 🙁 ) and put up two magnetic boards as moodboard possibilities and to have something to look at instead of a window.
It works great for us! Maybe I should take a photo…
When I was growing up and computers weren’t yet common-place in homes, my parents used to have a computer on our landing. There was a little patch of space just the right size for a desk and chair, so we put the communal house computer there. Dad had his own in his office, but my mum, brother and I used the landing one. We never really got disturbed by each other’s comings and goings, except for when my bro had LOUD music on (the PC was right outside his bedroom door). Running the internet from there was a little challenging as we had to run the phone cable from my parents’ bedroom across the top of the stairs and all the way down the landing to use it, but it worked out okay! I think if it had been housemates rather than family, or noisy/ messy children it might not work so well. My brother and I were both teenagers so it worked out fine.