The Home Office Book [Hardcover]

Donna Paul (Author), Grey Crawford (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 10, 1996

The Home Office Book explores all aspects of creating a workable, comfortable, and stylish office at home. A rich source of ideas, information, and design solutions, The Home Office Book also comes at a timely moment, as one in five Americans works from home today.

Author Donna Paul, a contributing editor to Metropolitan Home, brings her experience and expertise to an analysis of forty-five home offices around the country, looking at how and why they work. These locations offer practical, innovative possibilities for storage, lighting, seating, work surfaces, entrances, reception areas, and much more. Whether the office is tucked into the corner of a living room, installed in a second bedroom, or housed in a converted garage, The Home Office Book suggests ingenious ways to work with the space available. Some of the home offices are designed with one user in mind; others are to be shared with a mate or associate. Many of the offices must perform double duty, sliding out of sight or converting when needed into guest quarters, dining rooms, or additional living spaces.

The more than 250 color photographs--showing entire rooms as well as wonderful details--offer practical and creative design ideas. With its extensive source listing, The Home Office Book will be an invaluable resource for anyone who dreams of going into business at home.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

These two books take different approaches to the topic of home offices. Zimmerman looks at the nuts-and-bolts practicality of planning a home office. For those unfamiliar with the design considerations involved in setting up an efficient, comfortable home office, he gives advice on everything from where to set up an office to the type of electrical power needed to supply all the gadgets. He includes an extensive section on furniture and product resources as well. Through numerous color photographs, Paul shows everything from small offices to ones in converted out-buildings. She considers how each look was accomplished, but her book is useful mainly as a way to show how the ideas from Zimmerman's book can be attractively incorporated into the home. Since technology now allows more and more people to work at home, both books will be useful for public libraries. (Illustrations not seen.)
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

This book is 180 degrees removed from the practicalities offered by such home-office experts as Paul and Sarah Edwards. Although a nod or two is given to budgets, the photographic showcase of 45 home offices is exciting, breathtaking, and, yes, usually expensive. Of course, design ideas proliferate, acting as a real motivator to do something for the home working environment in which 20 percent of us live. A cast-off, stainless steel shoe rack becomes a wall-bound book and magazine holder; old bowling balls perform as humorous finials for a bookcase; and restaurant shelving now holds a myriad of office papers and products. Metropolitan Home editor Paul segregates her examples by category, including home offices for solo practitioners, for firms with employees, in loft areas, for working couples, and in separate buildings. Great running commentary and top-quality color photography--for home workers to whom money is truly no object. Barbara Jacobs

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Artisan (January 10, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1885183305
• ISBN-13: 978-1885183309
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 9.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,336,921 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Unfullfilled Expectations, March 12, 2000

By 

Barney D. Streit (Tucson, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Home Office Book (Hardcover)

This glossy book depicts some really beautiful and unique home (plus one on a boat) offices. However, it could have been so much better!

Missing are floorplans and dimensions of the offices shown in this book. Also missing are sketches depicting the relation of the office space to the rest of the home - something useful to those contemplating new construction. What species of wood comprises those cabinets, and how were they finished? How was that floor made? The reader must guess at these and dozens and dozens of other questions the photographs evoke.

Instead, the author chooses to annotate the photos with useless comments such as where a pillow was made... the owner's collection of inkwells... what artist drew the prints on the wall... you get the idea. One gets the notion Ms. Paul never once asked herself what information would be desired by someone buying her book. She seems more interesed in the interior decoration aspects of home offices than their design.

16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lush Beautiful Pictures full of Great Ideas, March 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Home Office Book (Hardcover)

I'm in the process of building a home office. I wanted something that had style but not at the expense of productivity. This book gave me lots of ideas. The book is full of bold, handsome pictures that cover all kinds of looks.

I checked out a LOT of books for this project, and this was my favorite!

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Inspiration, May 11, 2002

By 

Trudgette "Movie Lover" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Home Office Book (Hardcover)

The Home Office is a great and unique source of inspiration. This book has been a wonderful resource for me in organizing and defining my home office. Donna Paul has written in-depth and high quality chapters on an enormous variety of home offices (totaling 45) located across the United States. The photographs by Grey Crawford are exceptional.

My personal experience with this book has been to be inspired to use what I already have in a creative (and inexpensive) way and to incorporate into my home office personal items and a personal touch that I would not have used in a downtown high rise office.

If I could only have one home/decorating book, whether or not specifically for a home office, this would be the one. It's great!