Having a Home Office is always a great addition to the ever regular bedrooms, bathrooms, living room, dining room and kitchen.  It’s a wonderful room for a family computer, a homework spot as well as paying bills or creating projects.  But what if you actually work from home?  What if you need a space to literally work.  There are many people who do this (myself included) and they need a space of their own to type, create, research and store.  But in this day and age, with a bitterly declining economy, adding extra rooms is near impossible.  Or perhaps you’ve had to move into a smaller home or apartment that doesn’t have that extra space you need?  What can you do?  Well, with a small home myself, I am always searching for small home solutions.  I recently discovered a trend that you’re sure to love: Move your Office into your Closet!  Check out these closet offices I’ve found to see if you may want to move your office and consolidate your space.

I have seen this one all over the place.  It is a very simple, general bedroom closet that has been perfectly formed into an office.  It’s looks as though all they’ve done is add 3 sturdy shelves – one of which is large enough to be the desk – probably an outlet, and a chair.  Of course there are the storage containers and decorative pieces to make it feel more inviting, but if you pull the chair away and place it in the corner of your room, this closet has bi-fold doors that hide everything so sweetly.

When you open the coat closet in your entryway, you will get hit with a burst of color in this office space!  If you are planning on attempting this, painting the entire inside of your closet with an entirely new color sounds great to me!  Maybe you need something to keep you awake?  This blue will do it.  I chose this image because it was a great example to me of what you can do with that extra coat closet you really don’t need.  Well actually, now you do need it!  The one problem most people have is, where to put the printer.  They are so big and bulky, but most of us don’t use it all that often.  In this example, they placed it sideways on a top shelf so that it’s out of the way but easy to reach your recently printed paper.

I found this closet office at Apartmenttherapy.com where they had some great examples.  What I loved the most about this office is that they really made it their own and weren’t afraid to spruce it up with color, fabrics and furniture.I think that if you have a closet this size you should take advantage.  I thing about making your closet an office is that you have to find storage for the items that were in the closet beforehand.  But if you don’t need a large desk, I think you should do what they’ve done here and add drawers and shelves to the side and a smaller desk.  I’m also a huge fan of the fabric covered message boards.  You can make these with cork boards or a magnetic board.  I also notice the over head hanging light which is perfect if your closet doesn’t get much direct sunlight.  It’s slender and sleek and not in the way.

So pretty, right?  This one is also from Apartmenttherapy.com and I just couldn’t resist it.  Obviously this is a bedroom and the office just fits perfectly inside the probably previously doored closet.  Of course, I love the colors, but the curtains also struck me.  I reminded me that you don’t have to completely close off your office or hide it away, you can add a little extra color and intrigue with curtains.  But translucent doors will give you the same effect if you want something a little more sleek and modern.  The key I feel to these Office Closets is adding bursts of color and keeping it organized.  You want this to be a place you can work in without feeling overwhelmed, but you also want to feel like you are at home with colors and personal objects.  This example does all of that.  It doesn’t look overly organized, but it’s tidy and fresh.

When I saw this one, I knew it was something to write home about.  Literally!  My mother is a seamstress and does an amazing job.  She is also a very organized and neat individual.  But she has so many fabrics and threads and ribbons that she began moving things into my room after I moved out.  It looks like a monster in there now!  When I saw this I thought of Ma.  The walls lined with wallpaper give this closet an artsy and comforting feel, while the small, separate storage drawers make for keeping all of your little sewing supplies in their own home.  I had to crop this pictures, but what you can’t see is that the top shelf housed all of the fabric in color coordinated stacks.  The idea is great, but practically I see that becoming a mess.  Large storage boxes with colored labels on the front will be better.