Have you ever wondered about converting a closet into a home office space? Or a crafting nook or dedicated homework space for the kids? Get inspiration from these ideas.
Why Convert a Closet to an Office?
If you need a home office space but don’t have a spare room, a spare closet can be a great solution. It might sound impossibly cramped and uninspiring at first, but these examples will show you how amazing it can be.
Converting a closet into a home office can have several benefits, including:
Get Your Office Out of the Way: using your laptop on a dining room table isn’t the best solution for you or the rest of your household. Creating a functional space dedicated to work (or crafting, or homework) fixes that problem.
Space-saving: If you don’t have an extra room for an office, a closet can be a great option to create a workspace without sacrificing too much living space.
Privacy: If you work from home or need a quiet space to concentrate, a closet can help. The trick is it either has to be one large enough for you to close the doors, or one tucked away in a bedroom where you can close the door to the rest of the home.
Organization: Closets are designed to maximize storage space. You can install shelves, cabinets and other storage solutions to make it work.
Cost-effective: Converting a closet will be less expensive than adding on or renovating to get that office space
Aesthetics: As you’re about to see, these spaces can look beautiful, functional and clever. You can add lighting, paint, and other design elements to reflect your style.
What You’ll Need
Shelving. The first thing you’ll need to do is look at your closet’s current shelving. You’ll need to assess whether you can reuse some of it. And if not, whether you can reuse the supports currently holding up the shelves.
Plan the layout. When you decide where everything will go, remember the chair! Whatever else you put in the space, you’ve also got to be able to fit in a chair with you in it. Make sure the layout you decide on has enough room.
Electrical. You’ll probably need some lighting and an electrical outlet installed. This is a job for an electrician.
Choose your desk. Measure the space and decide what size desk you want to fit into it. Your desk can be as simple as a painted board or a complex setup with drawers.
Install shelves and storage. The whole trick to a cloffice is using shelves, containers and wall attachments to hold office supplies, books, papers, etc. Take measurements to figure out the size and style that will work for your space.
Closet Office Conversion Ideas
Home Office in a Closet – How to make the most of a little bit of space
This design really uses every bit of space without looking cluttered. A simple painted board forms the desk, but you’d never know that from looking at it.
Attractive floating shelves hold items you reach for often or want to display. On the side walls, pegboards hold scissors and buckets of pens and pencils and craft supplies.
Magnetic panels are attached to the doors to hold even more supplies. An existing top shelf holds bins of items. It’s brilliant!
Contemporary Office Ideas: Before and Afters of our DIY Closet Office
Imagine taking an ordinary wide, shallow closet and transforming it into really useful office space. That’s what Outfits & Outings did here, and they show you the whole process along with step by step photos.
Yes, there’s a lot to it, but you don’t necessarily have to include every step. For example, maybe you don’t need the lighting.
Just take some inspiration from it, get your ideas together, and go for it.
How to Build a Fold-Out Closet Desk
A fold out desk can make a small closet into a seriously functional office or craft nook. Just fold out the desk or table when you need it and leave it folded up the rest of the time.
This one requires some carpentry, but you don’t need to be a carpenter to do it.
How we Converted a Closet into an Office!
What if all you have is a narrow closet? And maybe it’s in an awkward space, like right up against a stair landing.
No worries! You can still make a functional office out of this space. This example shows a small desk, three shelves and several built-in filing and office supply containers.
Note that this isn’t just for laptops. You’ll have room for a desktop computer with a decent sized monitor.
How to Build a DIY Desk for a Small Space
Now, let’s talk about those of you dealing with really small or weirdly-shaped spaces. If you’ve been looking at the above examples and thinking these people are lucky to have even a double wide closet to work with, this idea is for you.
Whether you’re in a tiny apartment with only a narrow closet or maybe an older home where closets have been used to add equipment and awkward ducts, you may need a custom solution.
Designing Small came up with this irregularly shaped triangular desk to use a weird bit of space in a tiny apartment. It’s a brilliant solution when you don’t have perfect squares and standard-sized spaces to work with.
HOW TO TURN A CLOSET INTO A BEAUTIFUL, FUNCTIONAL OFFICE SPACE
What’s amazing about this one is the illusion of spaciousness. It’s not a bigger closet than most of the others, but it looks like a real desk in a real office.
It’s got plenty of room for double monitors, and everything is covered in wood paneling. An elegant sconce provides good lighting.
You can leave the doors on if you want to be able to close it away. Or you can take them off the hinges completely if you want it to look more like an alcove.
How to Turn a Closet Into an Office
This is an amazing setup! It’s complicated to make, but completely worth the effort – or worth paying someone to do.
The desk has drawers. There are three very sturdy shelves above that will hold so many files, papers, books and more.
This tutorial links you to another tutorial that shows you how to install an outlet.
How to Turn A Closet Into a Craft Room
If you’re lucky enough to have a walk-in closet to work with, there’s so much you can do. When you think about it, a closet this size is about as big as a normal desk space.
So all you need to do is install your desk and some shelves, and you’re all set. You will probably need electricity, which means an electrician installing it.
Walk-in Closet to Home Office
Or you could get seriously fancy and install a full-on desk system. This is lovely, with so much storage above and below the desk.
The nice clean wall on one side, decorated with a painting, keeps it from looking cluttered. It’s a compact space, but an extremely functional one.