Can you Feng shui my study please?

[Adsibob]

This is the way the architect set up my study after I told him that I didn’t want my desk up against the wall, or facing the window, and that I needed a sofa bed so that I could sit on it when I want a break from the desk, and so that we could use the room as a guest room on the odd weekend.

He has sort of done what I asked, but it just doesn’t look right to me. An immediate change I would make is put the chair on the other side of the desk as that way I’m diagonally facing the doorway, which is apparently a good thing in Feng Shui. In more practical terms, being able to easily face the door, without me actually facing it directly, but being able to turn my head 30 or 45 degrees towards the door is helpful. That way I can greet/see/talk to visitors at the door from my desk and  if I’m on a work call i can see anyone who comes in and make face contact with them to indicate I’m on a call - helpful for when my kids come in. 
 

But I’m still not sure about the desk effectively touching a bookcase that is under the window sill. I think being that close to the window will cause glare on my screen in the afternoon (that window faces South-West-West) and it just doesn’t feel right. 
 

Do I just move the desk towards the centre of the room a couple of feet away from the window (as well as moving the chair so that it is on the other side of the desk)? Or is there a better option? 

[SteamyTea]

9 hours ago, Adsibob said:

Or is there a better option

Move in and shuffle things around until you feel comfortable.

 

I worked in an office where we all had our backs to each other.  I put silly pictures on my screen saver, then got told off as it 'lowered the tone of a professional office'.

[joe90]

1 hour ago, SteamyTea said:

Move in and shuffle things around until you feel comfortable.

That’s ok but you need to plan sockets, lighting etc. I have an occasional office/guest bedroom and the desk is in the corner with sockets, tel skt etc above and below desk height.

[Adsibob]

5 minutes ago, joe90 said:

That’s ok but you need to plan sockets, lighting etc. I have an occasional office/guest bedroom and the desk is in the corner with sockets, tel skt etc above and below desk height.

Yes, this is precisely why I’m asking. Electrician is fitting the first fix for the floor sockets tomorrow. To avoid running a lead across the top of my floor and avoid that trip hazard, I need to fix the position of the desk (to within 60cm or so) now.

[SteamyTea]

My laptop has batteries.

 

In my experience, electrical sockets are never, ever, in the right place.

[ProDave]

Personally I would swap the room around and have the sofa bed by the window and the desk under the skylight.

 

If the desk is adjacent to a wall, I would not be using floor sockets.  It's easier to put more wall sockets, or at least provision for a mains ring main cable all around the room so extra sockets can be added anywhere you want them on a wall.

[SteamyTea]

29 minutes ago, ProDave said:

the desk under the skylight.

I like to look out a window when working. I am a first class daydreamer. 

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23431260-200-how-to-daydream-your-way-to-better-learning-and-concentration/

 

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21428691-900-daydream-your-way-to-creativity/

 

[Adsibob]

5 hours ago, ProDave said:

Personally I would swap the room around and have the sofa bed by the window and the desk under the skylight.

 

If the desk is adjacent to a wall, I would not be using floor sockets.  It's easier to put more wall sockets, or at least provision for a mains ring main cable all around the room so extra sockets can be added anywhere you want them on a wall.

Thanks @ProDave. To clarify, desk won't be against the wall. I rather have it away from a wall, as I think that makes the desk more the centre of the room, and given it's my study/man cave, I feel i can get away with that sort of space inefficiency. It also keeps the walls free for bookcases.

 

Interesting idea about having the desk under the skylight. What's your thinking behind that? 

[ProDave]

43 minutes ago, Adsibob said:

 

Interesting idea about having the desk under the skylight. What's your thinking behind that? 

I started with my desk facing the wall under the window.  Unworkable, in the afternoon when the sun comes round You have the glaring sun behind your PC monitor.

 

I now have the desk on the next wall round so facing a blank wall with the window to the side.  Very late in the day the sun can shine right on the monitor, so not as bad but still unworkable late in the day.

 

Most offices I have worked in the desks are a long way from windows.  In my workshop I have a bench under a roof light and that seems to work well.

 

So putting your desk under the roof light might be better for lighting and the room is still small enough to look out and daydream if you want to.

[ETC]

[Onoff]

The Bristolian school of Pocsterism dictates one's computer monitor should not be visible to anyone entering the room. 

[Onoff]

In all seriousness it'd be nice to down tools and chill on the sofa during a break from the office side completely. Pity you haven't a floor to ceiling window you could put the sofa in front of. 

[Dan F]

I like @ETC's second option personally.  Seems to meet your requirements too.

[Adsibob]

So a year and bit on I have implemented @ETC's first option:

 

Thank you very much @ETC I am working here most days and it seems to be working very well.

I now need to sort out my cupboard doors which are shown on the right of this image as four sliding doors. Sliding doors remain a possibility, but it is much easier to DIY hinged doors, so I'm exploring if that is an option, how that would work.

The width of that wall is 3335mm. If i were to have 6 x 550mm doors, with 3mm gaps between them and 10mm gap between the outer edge of the door and the perpendicular wall, the elevation would look like this:

 

I should explain that this room is in the loft so there is a height restriction towards this side of the room. The maximum height at that edge of the room is 1285mm. I have some furniture on the right as shown here:

The cupboards would start where the herringbone flooring ends. You can see all the junk I'm trying to hide, lol.

 

The thinking behind making the "doors" at either end of the wall fixed, is that the one on the right is going to be largely inaccessible anyway because of bureau that you see on the right of that photo. That is 49cm deep. Even if that wasn't there and one could open the 55cm door behind it, much of the space in that corner of the room is actually taken up by an UFH manifold. That only occupies 15cm of depth from the right hand wall, but i want to box it in and sound proof it a bit, so that will take up another 15cm or so.

 

And with the sofabed that is going to go opposite the bureau (see @ETC's first amended drawing), the opposite corner will also be fairly inaccessible. But part of me thinks maybe I should set the sofa bed further away from the cupboards to make that corner more accessible. 

The sofa I'm considering would have these dimensions:

 

So lots to think about.

 

What do people think of regular hinged doors vs sliding doors in this scenario?

 

Regular doors is something i can do myself and I'm fairly confident i will get a good finish. I can get MDF cut to size at my local Selco and then paint it. Whereas sliding seems harder to pull off, requiring a decent sliding mechanism. It needs to look good and function well!

 

[Pocster]

On 22/11/2021 at 17:02, Onoff said:

The Bristolian school of Pocsterism dictates one's computer monitor should not be visible to anyone entering the room. 

Whilst late to the party ( busy cleaning up bodily fluids ) . A screen should never face the doorway ! - In coming humans should not see your “ hobbies “ .  

[Adsibob]

42 minutes ago, pocster said:

Whilst late to the party ( busy cleaning up bodily fluids ) . A screen should never face the doorway ! - In coming humans should not see your “ hobbies “ .  

The screen does not face the doorway. The screen faces me, and I’m facing the doorway. That is because I ignored my architect’s layout and went with @ETC’s recommendation to put the chair on the opposite side of the desk.

Edited January 13, 2023 by Adsibob

[ETC]

Would go with hinges. Sliders can jam.

[Adsibob]

2 minutes ago, ETC said:

Would go with hinges. Sliders can jam.

I was hoping you would say that.
 

so now the questions remaining to determine are:

 

1. should I keep the door on the far left (not the one with the manifold in) openable and have the sofa 56cm away from that wall of cupboards so that I can open the door. 

 

2. if I were to do that, how big a sofa could I get away with before the sofa is occupying too much space in the room to unbalance it (the idea being that the area to the right of the doors is the study, whereas the sofa area is the snug/man cave. I’m looking at a Sofabed that comes in three sizes, 180cm wide, 200 and 215cm (and in each case 100cm deep).

 

3. other alternative is to make the manifold cover door 49.5cm wide and then have six 47cm doors, enabling the sofa to go 8cm closer to the wall of cupboards and still be able to open that cupboard.

[Russdl]

4 hours ago, Adsibob said:

but it is much easier to DIY hinged doors

Have to disagree there. You can get custom ‘wardrobe’ doors, obviously very small ‘wardrobe’ doors. DIY’ing those is a walk in the park. 
 

There are several companies out there that will make the doors to the exact size you want (height, width) with the external finish you want, and supply the tracks you need and a couple of hours later you’ll have a flash looking concealed storage space. 

[Kelvin]

Makes mental note to speak to our architect on Monday about actually adding a chair somewhere in the house. 

[Russdl]

25 minutes ago, ETC said:

Would go with hinges. Sliders can jam.

Soz, but I have to disagree with that as well. 

[Adsibob]

1 minute ago, Russdl said:

Have to disagree there. You can get custom ‘wardrobe’ doors, obviously very small ‘wardrobe’ doors. DIY’ing those is a walk in the park. 
 

There are several companies out there that will make the doors to the exact size you want (height, width) with the external finish you want, and supply the tracks you need and a couple of hours later you’ll have a flash looking concealed storage space. 

Could you direct me to such companies please?

[Russdl]

@Adsibob I guess I’m obliged to now 🤣

 

Standby…

[Russdl]

Can’t find the ones we’ve used without digging into our archives but here’s an example

 

Scroll down and you’ll see some mini ‘wardrobe’ doors in an eve space that may fit your bill?

[Adsibob]

1 hour ago, Russdl said:

Can’t find the ones we’ve used without digging into our archives but here’s an example

 

Scroll down and you’ll see some mini ‘wardrobe’ doors in an eve space that may fit your bill?

Thanks @Russdl. I spent a bit of time on their website and costed up some doors. It came to £1450 and it’s rather a bit of a compromise on the look, as they didn’t have exactly what I wanted, which is just a plain slab door that is painted in our choice of paint. 

On the other hand, the first MDF door supplier i found online will provide six MDF 18mm thick doors in the size I need, with hinge holes already drilled, for £360. So once I spend the money on paint and hinges, it’s about £1000k cheaper than the sliding door supplier you linked to.

Edited January 14, 2023 by Adsibob