Who's got a study? What's in it?

[IHeartKingThistle]

Quite excited this year to be moving the bedrooms around upstairs. DD will go into the big spare room, DS will go into DD's current room and DS' current room will become a study/office for DH and I.

It's quite a small square room. I'd like to put an armchair in there that opens up into a bed (large family, frequent guests!). DH works from home a little, lots of conference calls etc. I teach all over the place, am drowning in paper and currently store all my folders in the car. Lots of lesson planning and marking done in the evenings. It's unlikely that we would work in there at the same time but I suppose it's possible.

I'd love to put two small vintage desks against the wall and keep our zones separate but DH thinks a long bench style desk is a better use of space. He is right but I love old furniture!

So what works in your office? I need ideas for storage, organisation and prettiness!

[DickDewy]

Our study has 2 walls lined floor to nearly ceiling with (my) books. It has a big desk with a never used pc and and a printer. We have 3 deep shelves containing board games, jigsaws etc. One big cupboard with household files in. Massive chest of drawers containing a whole load of stuff - linen napkins, votives, tea light holders, the 'posh' cutlery set, the gift wrapping drawer, craft stuff, art stuff, hamster stuff (he lives on the top) etc etc. Quite often there are a least two huge baskets of ironing in there too.

I want to get rid of the desk, desk chair and pc as, although we both work from home about 50% of the week, we only use laptops from the kitchen (dh) or bed (me). I envision a sofa in there instead, but dh is reluctant.

It's a gorgeous room but tends to be a dumping ground.

[IHeartKingThistle]

That's a lot of stuff! We have storage in the rest of the house so don't need it to store anything but work stuff. But I have a LOT of work stuff! I do worry that if would become a dumping ground too.

[IShouldBeSoLurky]

Ours is DP's man cave Alcove shelving, his desk, more bookcases, a sofabed we use for guests, and a build-in wardrobe where things like suitcases, spare duvets etc live. Not ideal. We almost had a row last night about what we will do with its equivalent when we move.

[Muskateersmummy]

Our study has a desk, chair and a bookcase .... And lots of unopened boxes from when we moved in!

[ChippyMinton]

Ours is a junk room since we all now use laptops/netbooks around the house.
I'd rather have a room set up for storage and hobbies/crafting.

[PurpleDaisies]

I'm a private tutor and have masses of folders, textbooks, assorted worksheets etc to store. Our study has a massive bookcase that takes up half a wall, two brightly coloured filing cabinets, a beautiful cupboard from habitat with a painting of a bird on it, another small bookcase and a desk with two mismatched chairs, we don't work in the study at the same time. If I had more space I'd love a tub chair with a big lamp behind it for crafting/reading in the evenings. The bookcases are white but everything else is a different colour. There's also a bright green feature wall. It looks much better than it sounds!

[CottonFrock]

Mine is small, used only by me, with windows on two walls and bookshelves on the other two, a big old desk with deep drawers, and an armchair. And a small filing cabinet that fits underneath, and a printer, also under the desk.

No one is allowed in there besides me.

[happystory]

It will become a dumping ground inevitably, but I don't mind that - unless you're a minimalist type of person! Ours is essentially a desk with drawers, and a PC plus books, files, magazines, etc on shelves. I love it !

[IHeartKingThistle]

Purple daisies yours sounds great - I have the exact same storage issues! Would love to be able to lay my hand on exactly what I needed each day!

[Pedestriana]

Cupboards full of folders for various things (Dh's work and mine), desk each, filing trays (mine), printer (his), general crap (all around), PC and laptop.
Waiting to change the door to the room so we can put a bookcase in.

[BackforGood]

Ours is tiny - couldn't get a bed or comfy chair in there.
We have a filing cabinet - with all the household paperwork in there (incl stuff to do with work contracts, pensions, banking, insurance, the cars, etc.,etc),
a work surface fixed to the longer wall and curved round under the short wall (under the window).
Shelving (strong - that can take the weight) above the workspace for box files / folders / paper for the printer
Printer (on top of the filing cabinet)
Scanner
Box of empty files I rescued that will be useful at some point in the future
Small set of under counter drawers full of things like blu-tac, sellotape, paperclips, rulers, rubbers, pencils, felt pens etc.

[PurpleDaisies]

I basically have masses of different patterned and brightly coloured folders (mainly from paperchase) and a key to what's in each one. I've also got some storage boxes big enough for a4 paper but only about 5cm high for dumping unfiled sheets in and I allegedly file them at the end of the week but it doesn't often happen. The big ikea bookcases with cubes are good because you can easily divide stuff into categories and they also have inserts with doors and drawers to hide things (we don't have one but have seen others do this and seems to work really well).

The Brixham cabinet in this link is my favourite piece of furniture in the whole house but think it might be discontinued now.
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/house-and-homes-blog/gallery/2012/jan/27/surface-decoration-homewares#img-1

[RaphaellaTheSpanishWaterDog]

Ours is not huge (about 13' x 12') and has the secondary staircase ascending from the breakfast room below. We only bought this house a year ago and we are just decorating the study now. We both work from home and DH in particular spends a lot of time in there.

We have a smallish ikea desk - soon to get a second one - and chair, as well as a filing cabinet and a low ikea shelving unit where DH stores his music bits. There is a floor to ceiling original built in six drawer linen press with cupboards over from when the house was extended in the 1920s. This contains much of our business paraphernalia. We are in the process of adding shelves for files/storage boxes in the recess next to the chimney breast where we plan to reinstate a (non-working) fireplace. There's also an antique day bed which is where I work with the laptop /iPad usually swathed in dogs/blankets to keep warm under which are boxes with paperwork etc. Oh, plus a small table for alcoholic beverages!

[KingJoffreyLikesJaffaCakes]

It has 7 bookcases which line 3 walls - nothing fancy, IKEA ones. One bookcase is only half height and has a television on it.

Shelves have books, hobby magazines and hobby stuff in neatly labelled storage boxes.

Has a largeish desk. A swivel chair (inexplicably named Malcolm, no idea why, we don't usually name furniture). And a fold out futon affair which is mostly used as a cat bed.

[JT05]

A single bed, with a trundle bed under, soon to go. A left over from the days when DSs had masses of friends staying!
We used to have the long bench style desk, with the walls lined with book shelves. We re organised so that everything was on one wall. The oak desk is in the middle, a desk height double cupboard each side that has a bookcase on top. One side is for DH, the other mine. But it really is used by DH, I work on my laptop in another room.

[RingUpRingRingDown]

We used to have a big study with a sofa, armchair, lots of shelves etc, but then decided we could better use that room as another sitting room.

Now the study is in a tiny room but with 3 big floor to ceiling cupboards (built in ) for storing stuff out if sight. Otherwise it just has a desk and chair, laptop, printer, phone. It has a fabulous very distracting view over the main road.

[eltsihT]

If you are both using the study have 2 desks.

We have 1 desk and it's a nightmare, I tidy up after myself as I hot desk at work so am used to. Dh has 2 large desks in the office that are his and he spreads out and Dosen't tidy up well leaving stuff on the desk to use later.

[echt]

Ours has never been used as a bedroom. It has a double built-in wardrobe for work clothes, bedding and DH's vinyl collection.

There's a long desk; a door across two filing cabinets. This has the family pooter, printer and speakers on it. Several storage boxes for vast CD collection. A tall Billy bookcase for all my teacher shite.

Another small desk for me to mark work. It has a some storage for my school stuff at the side. Despite this, I aways mark at the dining room table downstairs. The upstairs desk is for winter when I mark in the early morning and only want to heat one room, with the oil-filled radiator.

I have a work pooter in the front downstairs room + DH and I have iPads.

DD has her own pooter in her room.

The study has turned into the room where you go to blast the music.

[yomellamoHelly]

When we had one (for me) it had a massive pigeon hole type set of shelves up to the ceiling on one wall which held all my work, a desk and a chair. Desk (and floor) had to be kept clear (would spread out big drawings etc onto floor when I needed to work on them).
Dh wants one in this house as a place to escape to. (Will probably only happen once the children start leaving home.) I welcome the chance to put all his stuff in one place. Might be a bit packed in there! Will definitely need tardis-like storage system.

[throckenholt]

I have a study. But sadly it doesn't meet any of your criteria for storage, organisation or prettiness.

It basically has a bench along two walls - all covered in stuff, with the pc and monitors at one end. Also a couple of book shelves full of folders, and a filing cabinet.

It is function - but neither tidy nor pretty

[YaySirNaySir]

Sofa bed, large desk with 2 chairs, a rug and a built in cupboard with half a dozen books, files, GCSE guides, first aid kit, stationary etc.
It as a giant wall map of the world where we have stuck pins in the places we have been to.
It's used for crafts, jigsaws, homework and staring at the map thinking about where to go next.
We have also put a noticeboard up which has a whiteboard on the side especially useful for DS who is in yr 11.

[SparklesandBangs]

Our started off with good intentions, customer built furniture including, desk 2 bookcases, cupboards and wall shelves, the family PC and printer was in there any any of the 4 of us could use it.
Now it is DH man cave, the desk and surrounds are piles of paperwork that he is 'sorting' the cupboards are full of tools, bits of computers and more cables than you could ever need. Plus other stuff/projects on the floor as the shelves aren't weight bearing and in 5 years he hasn't fixed them. I only go in there to print out or to grab my files from the bookcase, otherwise I work on the dining table on a laptop as do the DC.
Neither of us work from home regularly and it's good to have an area to contain his junk.

On a side note I now wouldn't keep anything in my car overnight as the previous one was stolen from outside my house. This was from a cul de sac in a low crime area, a modern car with alarm etc.

[metimeisforwimps]

we have 2 desks, which was not my design but just what ended up there. Dh never works in there bit ds1 sometimes sits and colours there while I work, and I use it for sewing as well as work so.the separate desks are useful. There are fitted cupboards in the room, again not our choice, but they contain all mine and dh paperwork and my work stuff, and all household stationary. We also have a small lockable antique draw set where we keep passports and other important/valuable things. I would love an armchair and small coffee table for when I need to do a lot of reading for work.

[ftm123]

I used to work from home a lot, and needed an ergonomic desk set up. Working from bed or the the kitchen table wouldn't have worked. Especially for video conference ( learnt hard way not to dry laundry in study). My study needed curved desk, comfortable office chair, foot rest, wrist rest, monitor, keyboard and mouse. This let me put in the hours without doing my back in or getting rsi. We also had cupboard for filing, shredder, printer, book shelves and always wanted a comfy chair/guest bed but ended up with a wardrobe overflow from the main bedroom.

Good internet connection was essential.

[OneMagnumisneverenough]

Mine is tiny ( about 6 foot square) but is a dumping ground too although I spend most of my leisure time in there and also use it when I WAH.

Ours is as soon as you come in the front door so there are hooks in there for coats and a storage box for gloves and hats. three bookcases along one wall and small unit to the side that has the printer on it.

On the opposite wall I have a large desk with the PC on it and a filing cabinet under it. On the desk is also a set of trays for correspondence and the cats basket as it likes to lie in there a watch the birds out the window. The radiator is under the desk so it's cosy there too. I also have mountains of crap on the desk that needs dumped and the bookshelves are crammed with books and assorted other stuff. DVDs and computer games that are waiting to be sold/disposed off are stacked on top of the bookshelves (these are high - almost ceiling height), also have magazine type boxes on the bookshelves for papers etc too.

Oh and I currently have a broken PC propping the door open. and I have my laptop stashed under the desk too, along with the router etc and base unit for the PC.

and I have a chair :)