Home Sweet Home-Office Furniture

Whoever coined the phrase, “Don’t try this at home,” sure wasn’t talking about working from a home office.

A 2009 Forrester Research study found that more than 34 million U.S. adults telecommute (work from home) at least occasionally. That figure is expected to increase to 63 million by 2016. Add the self-employed and those of us who just set aside some space in our home for such things as online shopping and bill paying, and it’s clear that having an office in the home has become indispensable.

Three years ago (when we last reported on home-office furniture) traditional and high-end furniture-makers were launching furniture lines that blended office functionality with home decor on a wide scale. That trend continues. Now you even can find power strips that let you plug notebook computers and other electronic devices into outlets that are built into dining room and coffee tables. In other words, today’s home-office furniture further blurs the line between dedicated home-office space and places where you can work at home.

And home-office chairs aren’t taking a backseat when it comes to innovative tweaks either. Not only will you find a larger array of models that have easy-to-adjust controls, but you also will find chairs that do away with the need for adjustment mechanisms altogether. 

FORM AND FUNCTION. When it comes to home-office furniture, the most important consideration, obviously, is that it allows you to accomplish whatever work that you intend to perform on it. We’ve become used to cable-management systems and outlets that let you plug computers, printers and other equipment into desk furniture. Now a few desks and workstations boast a built-in charging station for cellphones and personal media players, as well as built-in USB hubs that make it easy to link three or four devices (think printer, mouse and external hard drive) into one jack that then connects to your computer’s USB port. Also showing up on more desks and workstations are high-speed data ports in which you might plug a wireless router.

Adding to all of this good news is that furniture that comes with these features now costs about the same as furniture that didn’t have these features 3 years ago, says Neil Rosenbaum, who is senior vice president of merchandising for retailer Raymour & Flanigan.

Today’s home-office furniture can be identified also by its downsized pieces. Highly ornamented executive desks—some as wide as 72 inches—have been supplanted in the home-office market by 66-inch-wide desks that have cleaner lines, says Hank Long of manufacturer Hooker Furniture. And because there’s now a larger selection of desks in 42-, 48- and 50-inch widths, you don’t have to plunk down as much cash to get pieces that still say “executive.”

Closed units—secretaries, armoires and drop-lid desks—also have dwindled in selection in the past 3 years. One example is Martha Stewart by Bernhardt, which now offers only one of these units, compared with six such models 3 years ago. Although he doesn’t expect closed units to disappear, Long predicts that models that are designed more as enclosed writing desks—and not to accommodate a notebook or a desktop computer—largely will be available only in antique stores. In other words, you won’t find many new models like this. As a result, you might be able to find some bargains. We found closed units in March that were marked down to $350 from $550; retailers told us that they were freeing up space for more-popular (read: modular) items.