Workshop Office Combination… Making it make sense

Figuring out how to make a workshop office combination actually make sense. Lately I’ve been spending more and more time working from home on my computer and also playing a considerable amount of Fortnight with my dad, Lodi and several nieces and nephews. Which all adds up to my “office” being glaringly insufficient. I’m tired of sitting in our entryway / dining room lol. Call me spoiled because what a first world problem to have but dang it, I really wish I had my own office space.

The truth is its perfectly possible to squeeze in a desk just about anywhere but I’m already doing that in our entryway.

Goodness knows I could fit it upstairs in our master bedroom but I like to game later than Lodi sometimes goes to bed so NO.

(Also I just hate having to combine spaces if I don’t have to – our master bedroom works wonderfully just doing what its supposed to be doing.)

I could also make an office space in the basement but that would take my office from me if we have any guests staying down there. (And the basement is the choice space for the majority of our guests as it gives them an entire floor to themselves for privacy, their own bathroom, kitchen etc.)

Lodi is currently using our guest bedroom as his gaming station having hooked up his PlayStation 4 to our guest bedroom TV. It was being totally under utilized most of the time anyway and Lodi could always move to the living room TV just by moving his PlayStation.

I started on a few tentative plans to build a loft bed in there so I could move my desk into the guest bedroom too but I would, once again, lose my office if anyone stays there.

If I were just gaming like Lodi I may have felt differently about it but I’m working from home a lot more now and am getting pretty desperate for a real office where I can shut the door. Not to mention, my desktop is our hub for all important private information for our household.

Moving our main office hub when we have guests is not easily done!

So that’s what got me thinking about other underutilized portions of our home.

My brain immediately headed to our workshop / back entry doggie door.

Its hard to make the statement that we don’t use it because we use our workshop constantly… but we also don’t use it at all.

Does that make sense?

This farm would cease running without our workshop… or, at least, without what is IN our workshop.

The space itself is really just a holding area for all of our tools… It would actually be more accurately described as a tool shed!

Yes I’ve painted and refinished furniture in there and even done a certain amount of building but its tough to keep the mess from floating into the rest of the house so I avoid it if I can.

Also, it may be a nice sized room for a bedroom, but its a pretty TINY workshop!

Because of that I do all my major “workshop” work out in the garage or just outside anyway.

SO: What if I made it my workshop office?

Yes, I’m combining spaces yet again and the idea of putting my main computer hub in our “workshop” does kind of sound like a disaster waiting to happen… BUT WHAT IF?

The majority of my computer work is for this blog… and all of the work required for blog projects start right here… in this workshop.

Thinking about it like that it doesn’t even feel like I’m combining spaces but actually just bringing all of my tools together in one space.

Does it seem odd? YEP.

Does it make sense for weird little old me? YEP.

Combination craft room offices is a totally common thing so why not a workshop office!?

Yes, its a bit of a mess lol but in all seriousness those workshop “benches” aren’t benches at all but tables my mom purchased for me years ago to use for desks in my home office.

WAY back our current guest bedroom actually began its life as my home office until I needed to get my workshop out of the basement so our largest bedroom became our workshop well than I needed a guest bedroom so my office became our guest bedroom and my office moved to the entryway.

Thus landing us right here

I did some purging and rearranging, getting as much away from the work benches (my “new” desks) as I could – utilizing the bench and shelves I made last year in the closet.

The floors are a mess but I kind of like the nonsense of spilled paint etc… Reminds me of a Jackson Pollock painting.

There was a bit of clearing out that ended up with empty bins and such stored elsewhere in the house. I have two rolling file cabinets / drawers that I moved side by side to under the left handed desk leaving me to fully use the other table.

Moving my desktop and gaming laptop out of the entryway was thrilling!

I am SO SO excited guys, this was like an Xmas present to myself!

I GOT TO SPREAD OUT!

Its still a total mess (lol) with some serious work to do in here to really improve the space but its all simple projects that I cant wait to tackle.

The first thing I plan on doing is building some shelves to sit in that empty spot to the right of my new desk. That will help free up some of the currently jam packed closet space. (You can see our poor closet took the brunt of creating space for me.)

That gorgeous bankers chair is still a love of my life but, seriously, a couple of hours is about as long as it can be comfortable… and I’ve spent hundreds of hours in it.

So a gift to me will be a new office chair someday too.

I have two painting projects in here now. I moved the long white table in here from the entryway and I’m going to give it a coat of black paint and, also, a shelf underneath it for even more storage.

The tables (desks) also need a new coat of black paint.

And just one last thing.

I really need a lamp as the lighting in here is FIERCE. Which is great when working on projects and things but not so much for my eyes when I’m at my computer!

There’s some work to be done but I am so excited!

Very happy with my new workshop office!

Next up, with my office out of there I have a new updated look for our entryway to share too!