Office in garage, layout advice

[squarlo]

I moved recently and have been working from home in my room since we no longer have a dedicated office. I do, however have an unfinished, attached “2 car” garage that I’m hoping could fill this void.

I’ve attached 2 images for the options I’m considering to get the most out of my garage. Of course, finishing up the entire space would be ideal, but that’s not in the cards for a while. So I’m thinking about using as much “extra” space as possible, while keeping the work simple and affordable.

I’d love any feedback on the solutions I’ve thought up. I’m mostly just looking too see if I’m crazy for taking up a third of my garage for an office.

Talking it through with my wife just now, I realized I could also increase the width of the cove at the bottom of the office. Then put the entry door at the base of the stairs to the house; but I don’t think that would add much to the space, and would just make parking harder.

 

[gtae07]

How much space do you need?

Before the ******* CEO yanked hybrid work away, my "office" at home was a cheap Amazon gaming desk against the wall in my shop, between my toolbox and a parts rack. But then, we never used our cameras for meetings, so I wasn't concerned about my background.

(CEO always hated any kind of flexible schedule or work situation, only allowed it through gritted teeth in the first place because it was the only thing he could do that would stop people from leaving in droves, then finally eliminated it with a companywide message of basically "it's gone simply because I said so, it was my decision alone, STFU" followed by publicly proclaiming a "focus on employee retention" while HR emails to management discussed targets of headcount reduction through attrition)

Working in the shop was great because it was quiet, I could lock the door, and I could set the thermostat wherever I wanted without my wife complaining about being cold.





Sorry for the rant, a bit of a sore subject. Especially since I had to move and the new job is 100% in a windowless office... where I come in to be "co-located" with the rest of the team (who mostly get to work from home), "be hands on" with parts I will never see or touch because they aren't here and never will be, "interact face to face" with people who aren't here, talk to others only via Teams, and "support production" of something that last rolled off the assembly line 40 years ago. If I didn't get up occasionally to piss, I would not see or speak to a single person the whole day.

 

[squarlo]

My current desk is about 5 feet wide, just about 2 feet deep. Add in some room for me to get in and out of my chair, I’m hoping the 5.5 feet up/down measurement is enough. I live in Michigan and need heat for a year round office, hence the walls.

I also want to be able to have some storage for other things: mostly my printer and all the little bits and bobs that we inevitably need to hold on to. I’d love to get a 3D printer in the near future, and I’d feel real selfish if I didn’t have room for my wife’s desk.

The larger plan is to finish and heat the entire garage and use it like a bonus room. Storage, second living room, a hang out space for the kids when they’re older. But this goal has a lot of time and planning and expenses that I don’t think I’ll be able to address before next winter.

I have another garage on my property that is my dedicated shop. I’ve thought about having my office out there, but I would need to maintain the path to it all winter. Without a snowblower, I’m not eager to commit to that.

So here I am, trying to take up as much space in my attached garage while still being able to park in it next winter.

 

[BobnCO]

Looks good to me, I’m also a garage office kind of guy. The 5’-6” is kinda narrow but you already know that and have a valid reason why. I used a section of comfort cove electric radiant heat (with wall mounted set back thermostat), and it works well. I also like the version w/ storage, mine is wider and I have 160sf and still to much stuff around.

 

[hmbemis]

Use tape to mark out your proposed layout on the floor, then add more tape to indicate furniture/etc... move a chair there, sit in it, and try to visualize being in that space for multiple hours at a time...

1. Can you reverse the swing of that door? It either needs to open a full 180* (eliminating 6' of wall space use) or it'll be awkward when you open it have have sort of shimmy around closing it

2. 5'6" is going to be painfully narrow I suspect -- also unclear if you have already accounted for the thickness of the walls you'll be putting up -- I have a small office at work -- it's roughly 8x10 with the door just off-center of one of the 8' walls -- to maximize the space I have a 60"x30" desk placed perpendicular to one 10' wall and spaced 32" from the back wall... meaning my chair has about 32" of space to exist in... it's absolutely workable, but I don't lean back much... I think the fact that when I'm sitting at my desk I'm looking about 6' of empty space toward my door makes it work, if I were looking at a wall it would be rough...

3. If you put a 60" desk against the far-right wall in your drawings that might be more reasonable, you'd be facing a wall, but at least you'd have a large open area behind you...

4. What's your plan for heat/cooling? I saw you have "gas heat" written, what does that mean? Is that the house furnace in the garage or something different? I wouldn't want to be in an enclosed space for long periods with a gas appliance running, especially if by "gas heat" you meant a ventless heating appliance

5. Do you have any space in your yard for a shed? A 10x10 shed run off an extension cord is going to a much nicer office vs. a walled in <6' slice of a garage.

A couple of photos might also help visualized this a bit better.

 

[squarlo]

Using tape on the floor is a great idea. I will need to clean up my space a bit before that’s an option, but I’ll definitely try it out. I’ll be making a small shed on a slab in my yard that was already in place when I moved in; it’s roughly 8’x8’. I’ll be putting lots of yard tools out there and other random stuff I’m sure. All this to say I’ve got some work ahead of me before putting up a wall that I’m discussing here.

To respond to your numbers items:

1. Reversing the door swing is another good idea I didn’t consider; I don’t see why I wouldn’t make that change.

2. I’m not sure if I’m going to place my desk against the right wall, or near the window on the top wall. Either way, I think it’ll be enough space. The tape strategy you suggested will probably help me make this decision. I currently work with my desk facing a wall of windows, but they have the black out curtains drawn 99% of the time. I’ll open them for camera-on meetings once per week.

3. Re the desk position, against the right wall is a new option I hadn’t considered.

4. I’m currently considering my options for heat. I wrote gas heat because my gas meter is right outside that top door, so it’s definitely an option. Any gas heat source would require a vent, I’m not interested in building up CO in my office. I’m also ok with electric heat, although Michigan utilities make gas the cheaper option long term. I also have a boiler for my home, I could plumb it out to the shared wall on the left.

5. I do have space for a shed, but not enough that I’d be happy with the amount of yard left over. I want my kids to enjoy their home too.

Regarding photos, it would just be a bunch of junk. The only things photos would tell you is that my trusses are ~9’ above the slab because of a cinderblock perimeter, and that the door at the top of the stairs is ~6” higher than the bottom of the truss.

Also, I plan on adding a door to access the office from the garage side of the new wall. The door on the top wall in my diagram goes to my yard. This is essentially inaccessible on the winter, so it will not be my main entrance.

I’ve considered reducing the office to the 8’x9’ area in the top left, but that wouldn’t leave much room for anything other than a desk for me and one for my wife. I could move the full width wall down a couple feet and sacrifice the ability to open the van hatch unless I open the garage door, but this is not my first choice.

 

[UserNameAttempt3]

Wife and I have been talking about this as well. Our main house is just over 1300sqft and the garage is close to 27x36. We'd like to finish it out, make it a bonus/movie room and have corner space for our desks. She works from home full time and I'm home about 75% of my time when not traveling. We were thinking of just doing two "pantries" that we could close the doors on like little cubicles and hide them away when clocked out. None of this is happening until we build a detached garage/shop, but looking forward to what you possibly come up with.

 

[ipgenie]

I moved my home office into a 2'x5' closet for over a year. Worked in it every day. The chair sat in the closet opening so it used part of the room and became just a room chair when turned away from the 'cloffice'. It worked fine but is now much nicer to be in the little loft office I built in the detached shop.

Yes, I have snow to clear, the closest bathroom is in the house 80' away, but it's quiet, comfortable and well worth it.

I heat/cool with a mini split. I would recommend something like that for a small space. We live in a cooler climate and enjoy AC a couple of months each summer, but got by just fine for 20 years without it. In my small office, just the lights, computer and monitors put off enough heat to push it into the 80s. Getting the mini split running for the second summer was such a relief.

I'd recommend converting the future 8x8 garden shed into your office and keep that stuff in the garage. My loft office is 9x11 but pretty close to 8x8 if you don't count the stairwell. It's a small but nice size. You might cuss the snow for a few months each year but I bet you'll like that space a lot more as an office.

I just found a pic of my desk space while under construction. I need to take a couple more current pictures. The room is still not finished but it's coming together nicely.

 

[Hooked]

When I started working from home I kept it simple. Built a tall 24"x56" trestle table with foot rests, bought an adjustable height office chair and set it up in my workshop next to the table saw. Plenty of room for computer, keyboard, monitor, and 'workspace'. Temperature control with Space heater in the winter and open doors and fan in the summer.

My grandson now uses the table for his rod building setup.

 

[bdbecker]

Maybe I missed it... does your wife also work from home, or would her desk just be for intermittent use? That would be pretty tight quarters for two people full time. I seriously love my wife - we get along great and have a wonderful relationship. That being said, there is no way in hell I would ever consider sharing a small office space with her.

Snow or not, my vote would be to put it in your detached shop. Get yourself a mini-fridge, coffee maker, and rig up a curtain (or use the background blur) for video calls. Plus, being away from the house a little is a good excuse to get up and walk around every now and then when you need to use the restroom.

 

[dcg9381]

This is my "office". It was purpose built. MOST of it is counter space, which allows 2 very large monitors. I wired it such that all the other stuff is in the closet next to it. Basically fits my chair in and that's it. The "12' block" is actually a mostly glass garage door so I can see daylight...

Got AC and heat? Cars will heat-sink a garage pretty quickly.. and then there is the opening and closing of the garage door.