Designing A Dream Home Office
As more and more Americans work from home — be it running a business or telecommuting for a job — the home office, which was once relegated to a small corner in a kitchen or perhaps a dank basement, is finally receiving some well-deserved attention.
Today, we’ll take a look at how one crafty business owner is taking her work home:
Amy Bloom – Self-employed author in Durham, Conn.
Like many home-based business owners, author Amy Bloom started out at the kitchen table. However, in such a prime spot, distractions were hard to avoid. “When I walk into the kitchen and see dirty dishes,” she says, “I have an impulse to [clean] them.” Combined with simultaneously raising two young girls, it’s no wonder she had difficulty focusing.
About six years ago, Bloom finally began designing her dream home office — that is, a writer’s shed in the woods near her home in Durham, Conn. To build the 14-by-14 cottage-style structure, Bloom asked a carpenter friend, Roger Bryson, for help. Nearly eight weeks and $15,000 later, Bloom’s home office, which sits about 200 feet from the main house, was complete.
The cedar room is austere with just a desk, window seat, bookshelf and a couch. But perhaps most notable about the space is not what it contains but what it lacks. For example, there’s a computer but no Internet, no phone and no view from her desk. “It has everything I need, including the absence of what I don’t need,” she says.
Photo by William Wright.
cassy on June 26th, 2008 11:03 pm
I love her place! I think an author really needs a quiet place to work at, away from many interruption for her to concentrate and create a nice idea.
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