Masculine home office design in attic. Gray modern cabinets, wood desk, white walls, Herman Miller office chair. Attic living room with gray sectional sofa, floating media console, and tv. Interior Design by LC Interiors, best interior designer in Naperville, Illinois.

10 Sep How to Convert an Attic into a Home Office

Posted at 07:59h in General by

Need more space but don’t want to move? That’s exactly what our clients told us, so we looked to the only unfinished space in the house: the Attic. Most people turn their basements into an extra room, or even an extra floor of the house. But, have you thought about converting the attic into a functional room? Here we show you how we converted an attic into a home office with a lounge space, wet bar, powder room, and plenty of storage.

The unfinished Attic space.

 

Understanding The Space and Design Constraints

Space planning is the first step to figure out what is possible in the attic. Design constraints like square footage, ceiling heights and slopes, and support columns need to be considered. Figuring out how much space you have to walk around or where you can sit at a desk will help you understand the space’s capabilities. You will also need to know where the stairs can be placed to access the attic, and for that, you will need an architect. We worked closely with Meyer Design in Naperville, IL on this space.

 

Left: Attic floor plan Right: Attic floor plan with ceiling lines and skylights

Our floor plan was generally open, with one column. The room is rectangular with ceilings sloping down towards the longer walls. We were able to add three skylights along one of the sloped ceilings that let in lots of natural light. The architect helped us determine where we could easily access plumbing and where to place the powder room. If you have a design constraint like a column, think about ways to incorporate it into the design.

The Attic Floor Plan

Attic home office floor plan

Left: Attic floor plan with furniture and built-ins. Right: Attic floor plan with ceiling lighting layout.

We determined we had enough sq footage for two areas: a work area and a lounge area. We placed the sectional under a sloped ceiling since you’d be sitting there anyways, and we determined where the walking pathways could be. To incorporate the column, we hid it in a 4′ wide wood-paneled wall and placed the desk against it. The wall was the perfect spot to mount a large computer screen while hiding work clutter. A wet bar was installed on the other side of the 4′ wall since plumbing could be easily accessed from the powder room.

 

Masculine home office design in attic. Gray modern cabinets, wood desk, white walls, Herman Miller office chair. Interior Design by LC Interiors, best interior designer in Naperville, Illinois.

The Attic home office workspace has lots of desk space and plenty of storage.

 

The desk was designed to be open on both sides to allow for two people to sit comfortably without taking up much room.

 

 

Masculine home office design in attic. Living room with gray velvet sectional sofa skylights, storage, floating media cabinets, tv. Modern masculine wet bar in attic home office. Gray cabinets, beverage refrigerator, white walls. Interior Design by LC Interiors, best interior designer in Naperville, Illinois.

Lounge area and wet bar in Attic.

The wet bar is complete with a beverage refrigerator, ice machine, and dishwasher drawer. Light streams in through three skylights.

Attic Storage

Modern attic with storage, chair, gray carpet, white walls, skylights. Interior Design by LC Interiors, best interior designer in Naperville, Illinois.

Cabinetry along the sloped walls adds storage in otherwise unusable space.

Lower cabinets were placed along two walls where the ceiling slopes and would otherwise be wasted space. Push latch hardware was installed to keep a clean and modern look. Holiday decorations, seasonal clothing, etc. can still be stored in the Attic while creating an additional floor of living space.

Click here to see the rest of the project photos.