Home Office Furniture Trends

If you resolved to cut the clutter and get organized at the start of 2011, then new home office furniture will help you keep your resolution … this year and beyond. Unlike designs of decades past, a new crop of office furniture is scaled and outfitted to address the way people work at home: with a laptop or tablet, and multiple mobile devices that need to be charged every day.

“We’re seeing a shift to smaller desks,” says Lori Stengren, Vice President of Sales and Merchandising for Honquest Furniture for Living. “Some of the scale is going down to what looks like the student desk of decades past. The trend is toward L-shaped surfaces, and key to the look is a low profile.”

She cites Universal’s New Lou working desk and organization credenza and hutch, part of the Pennsylvania House brand, as leading the way. The 31-inch-high desk is laptop friendly; the credenza (58 inches high with the hutch) offers six drawers, a keyboard drawer, an integrated power outlet, a printer pullout shelf, expandable work surfaces, and a shelf with a power outlet. A new take on the Louis Philippe style, the collection is constructed from alder solids; subtle distressing creates a more casual vibe.

Low-profile home office configurations create a more open look, unlike the bulky credenza, hutch and desk combinations of years past. As a result, home office furniture is moving to more public rooms in the home, namely the family room and living room, according to Stengren.

To suit the style expectations and space limitations of a home’s more public rooms, executive desks are slimming down, she adds. While smaller in scale, they don’t skimp on style.

Sligh’s Serenity floating pedestal desk, for example, is a modern profile crafted from hardwood solids and Eucalyptus veneers from Portugal, Chile, Brazil and Australia. The open, floating design offers two file drawers and an assortment of suitably scaled companion storage pieces.

New work solutions are appearing in the bedroom, as well. High-performance silhouettes that incorporate a TV cabinet, drawer chest, writing desk and electronics charging station all in one are replacing the outmoded armoire. Aspenhome’s Reede’s Landing DeskChest is among the first to market.

Whether it’s the place you update a Facebook page and check the stock market or run an at-home business and pay bills, the right media-friendly desk awaits. “There’s a solution to help you organize no matter what your task,” Stengren adds.