How to Create a Cloffice for the Ultimate Work-from-Home Setup

You might consider closed storage if you have a lot of stuff — just hide it behind cabinet doors. This way, you can easily access the items whenever you need them, without cluttering up your desktop. For smaller items such as staplers, notebooks, and writing items, buy an inexpensive desktop organiser, stash all your stuff in it and place it to the side of your desk.

Washington, D.C.-based Realtor John Coleman often works with clients who are short on space and eager to maximize every inch of their homes. From offices (and more offices… and more offices) to nurseries to music studios to mudrooms, the multi-use closet is having a moment. If you’re lucky enough to have an abundance of closet space, these brilliant reinventions are a great way to make the most of every square foot in your home.

L-shaped Desk Setup in Mississippi, US

Pull a chair into your new office and pretend to work for a bit before you start your closet to office conversion. You may find that what looks perfect in theory doesn’t work at all in practice. My cloffice ended up costing about $7,000 all in, with the cabinet, desk and installation making up the bulk of that expense. I also purchased a ZZ plant which seems to thrive without natural lighting.

This space utilizes a wire wall organizer, a hanging mail rack, and a cart to store and display all the office essentials. Don’t settle on a single method when getting streamlining your space. Creative paint jobs aren’t reserved for full-sized rooms only—you can just as enthusiastically infuse tons of much-needed style into a tiny closet office.

Make It Fun For Your Kids

In other instances, we see walk-in closets that serve as multipurpose spaces in which to display clothing and accessories and incorporate a desk setup. No matter which kind of cloffice most speaks to you and your lifestyle, you can’t go wrong implementing one in your own space. We’ve rounded up 16 of our favorite displays, featuring clever details including pops of paint, wallpaper, and handy storage hacks that you won’t want to miss.

• To allow the closet doors to close, choose a seat that fits completely inside the closet when it’s not in use.
• Attached an extra piece of 1″x2″ select pine board to where the desk will slide in.
• Treat this area as you would any other space in your home—albeit tiny, it’s still a room worthy of your special touch.
• The cabinet with door serves as the perfect place to hide your PC, and keep it off your desktop.

To get the length of the bottom pieces, measure from the top of the baseboards to the bottom of the desk supports. “You can never have too much storage space in your home,” says Kimberly Jay, a broker at Compass. She explains that buyers are always checking for closet space — and the more, the better. But if you do have both walk-in closets and additional closets (the dream, right?), and you don’t have an office, it could be a value-add to convert your space. If your closet is really narrow, it could be difficult to fit a full-size desk in it. Rather than have an ill-fitting desk, install a series of strategically placed shelves.

ideas for turning a spare closet into an office

Once you’ve decided on a desk, find an ergonomic chair that supports proper posture and protects your back. Good lighting is essential for a productive workspace, so consider installing new light fixtures to brighten up a dim closet. Above your desk, an existing bare bulb can be replaced with a more attractive multibulb fixture, suggests Delap.

• It’s narrow enough for most closets, so long as you have a reasonable amount of depth to fit it.
• A carefully selected swivel chair offers space-saving benefits in a confined space.

If it’s drywall, attach floating shelves to wall studs — this will provide a solid foundation for your project. After a basic cloffice setup is done, it’s time to take a look at 21 practical ways you can enhance your workspace and make it personal. At the end of a workday, the closet door can be shut to separate the office from the living space. Depending on the kind of cloffice you opt for, it can also become a part of your room’s decor. Barring a floor plan with an actual home office or a shed out back, most people need to use their living space wisely. I bought two magnetic panels from Ikea, and lucky me – they were the perfect size to fit inside the moulding on the door!

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However it is an attractive enough little nook, that we usually keep the doors thrown wide open. I would highly recommend using a good quality roller to get a smooth paint finish. If I could do this all over again, I would have filled in my holes better, and bought a better paint roller! We ended up doing two converting closet to office coats of paint, and were able to do the entire project with just one quart of dark paint. In addition to those changes, we also decided to make our paneling taller than 48″ off the base boards. This was solely to cover up as many holes as possible that were left from removing the existing wire shelving.

• Peg boards are really great for organizing just about anything.
• Thus, what we call a WFH closet, or a cloffice, has evolved into a trend of its own.
• You’ll need to figure out where to plug in your computer, printer, and any other electronics you need.
• If there is a used office furniture store near you, you can find a great deal on a refurbished item and save a fortune.
• We cut our side supports to be about 4″ shorter than the depth of the desk.

You can customize drawers, shelves, and chrome baskets to store those extra items with the greatest order in the least possible amount of space. If there are clothes still in the closet, a wardrobe lift can help you utilize the space all the way up to the ceiling. You can install locker-type enclosures with doors if you want those items kept out of sight while you work. It would also be a good place for retractable features like a hamper and ironing board. They’ll be there when you need them, but unseen all the rest of the time.

You will want to attach the board to studs in as many places as possible to ensure the shelf is properly supported. Once you have all of your measurements, cut your lattice moulding down to size and hang them according to the spacing plan that you determined in step one. As with the horizontal boards, have one person hold the boards level and in place, while the other person uses the brad nailer to secure the moulding to the wall. Once you have the horizontal lattice moulding in place, cut and hang the supports for the desk. Since the desktop will be very heavy, you will need to attach the supports directly into the studs. Using your stud finder, find and mark all studs slightly above where you will hang the supports.

In Allard’s home, this small closet is actually within a bigger closet designed by California Closets’ Kate Kim. “Kate really loved my idea of turning the small closet into a vanity space and brought it to life by adding the desk and overhead shelving,” she explains. Since the beginning of the pandemic, homeowners have come to the New York–based interior designer Sara Mosele with some interesting solicitations. “Requests during the pandemic became really creative,” she tells AD. Mosele’s clients asked for her help designing bars, bike rooms, nurseries, and even at-home saunas. And, to do these projects, they wanted her to transform their extra closets.

Table lamps and wall-mounted sconces provide easy solutions you can plug in. For a luxe touch, hang an ornate chandelier or pendant fixture to make a bold statement overhead. The desktop is literally just a piece of 1/2″ plywood cut to the width of the closet, and the desired depth. Just remember to extend the plywood all the way to the back of the wall and under the shelves. If you paint the walls, and add trim, it will look just like a real bookshelf! But you’ll use way less wood than if you were doing a full build.