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The Home Office Furniture Guide

Home office furniture hangs on one early decision, and it is which way the desk faces. That settles which wall takes the shelving and whether the back of the desk has to be finished. Everything below follows from it, from clearance through to cost.

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How Much Clearance Does a Desk Need?

A desk needs 27 inches of clear height and 30 inches of clear width under the top for your knees, and 36 inches of floor behind the chair so you can push back and stand. A bookcase on the opposite wall needs 30 inches in front of it. Those four numbers decide whether a room works before any furniture is chosen.

Knee space is the one people never check, and it is the reason an otherwise good desk becomes unusable. The workable zone runs from 9 to 27 inches above the floor, and 30 inches is the width below which you end up sitting at an angle instead of square to the desk.
Measure Allow What it buys you
Clear height under the desk
 27 inches
 Legs, and a chair that rolls under
Clear width under the desk

 30 inches
 Sitting square rather than at an angle
Behind the chair 36 inches Room to push back and stand
In front of a bookcase 30 inches Pulling a book out, and opening a door if it has one

Shelf depth is the other measurement worth settling early. Our bookcases are built at 12 or 16 inches deep, and the difference decides whether the shelves hold paperbacks and files or binders, boxes and equipment.

What Does a Home Office Need?

A working home office is three things: a desk, something to sit on, and somewhere to put what you are not using. The desk gets decided first because it fixes the layout, and everything else arranges itself around where the desk faces.

Storage is the part that decides whether the room stays usable. An office without enough shelving turns into a room with piles in it, which is the point most people start working at the kitchen table again.
Desks

Desks

Writing, executive, corner, U-shaped and partner desks in solid hardwood, built to order.

You Will Be Looking At This From 18 Inches

A desktop sits closer to your eye, for more hours, than any other surface you own. Grain and colour that read as subtle on a screen read as very present at working distance, so order the chips before you commit.
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Which Desk Should You Choose?

A writing desk suits a laptop and a notebook, an executive desk suits a permanent setup with drawers and files, and the corner, partner and U-shaped desks exist for people whose work spreads. Choose by how much surface stays occupied when you stop working, not by how much you use in a session.

The ladder below runs from the smallest footprint to the largest, and the prices track the amount of hardwood involved rather than anything else.
Desk type Choices Starts at
Writing desk

 19 $853
Student desk

 3
 $2,598
Executive desk


 19 $3,473
Corner desk
 6
 $6,998
Partner desk

 3 $10,988
U-shaped desk

 4
 $11,443

How Wide the Desk Needs to Be

Measure what is on your current desk at the end of a working day rather than what you use at any one moment. The things that never get put away are what set the width.

A laptop and a notebook need far less than a dual-monitor setup with a keyboard tray's worth of space in front of it. The honest test is whether there is anywhere to put a printed document while you are typing.

The limit is the room. A desk wider than the wall it sits against forces it into the middle of the floor, which is a layout decision rather than a desk decision.

The Top Surface

Most of our desks are offered with a solid wood top, and the Writer's Series adds a leather inlay as an alternative. The inlay is quieter to write on and gives the desk a defined working area inside the frame of the wood.

Wood tops are the more hard-wearing of the two under daily contact with equipment, cables and a mouse.

The limit is that this is an order-time choice. The top is built into the desk rather than fitted afterwards, so it cannot be changed later.

Whether the Back Shows

A desk pushed against a wall only needs three finished sides. A desk facing into a room shows its back to everyone who walks in, and an unfinished back is immediately obvious.

Several of ours are built with a finished backside for exactly this reason, including the Boulder Creek writer's desk.

The limit is that it has to be specified. Decide where the desk will face before you order rather than after it arrives.

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How Should You Lay Out the Room?

Point the desk at the wall if you need to concentrate, into the room if people come to see you, and into a corner if the room is doing a second job. Where the desk faces decides the bookcase wall, the lighting and how finished the room has to look.

The four layouts below cover almost every home office. Read them against the room you have rather than the room you want.

Against a Wall

The desk faces a blank wall with the room behind you.

It suits deep focus work and small rooms, because the desk takes the least floor and the wall above it becomes usable for shelving. Only three sides of the desk are ever seen, so the back does not need finishing.

The limit is the view and the entrance. You work facing a wall with your back to the door, which some people find genuinely uncomfortable over long hours.
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Facing Into the Room

The desk sits away from the wall with you looking back across the office.

It suits anyone who takes meetings, sees clients, or simply wants to see the door. It also puts the desk where the room's best light falls rather than where the sockets happen to be.

The limit is that everything shows. The back of the desk, the cables and the chair are all on display, so the desk needs a finished back and the room needs somewhere for the clutter to go.
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Amish Liberty Corner Desk

Into a Corner

An L-shaped or corner desk uses two walls and the angle between them.

It suits rooms doing double duty as a guest room or a den, because it keeps the office contained to one corner. It also gives you two working surfaces, which is the layout people with paperwork and a screen usually end up wanting.

The limit is delivery and permanence. A corner desk is large, it comes in sections, and it is not a piece you move around the room on a whim.
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Jefferson Partner Desk

A Shared Office

Two people work in the same room, either facing each other across one desk or on separate surfaces.

It suits couples working from home and a parent sharing a room with a studying child. A partner desk puts two people at one piece of furniture, while a U-shaped desk gives one person a workstation on three sides.

The limit is noise and floor space. Two people in one room need the square footage for two chairs to push back at once, and the layout does nothing about the calls.
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Get the Layout Right Before You Order

Tell us the room dimensions, which wall the desk is going on and where the door and window sit, and we will tell you which desks fit and which layout the room actually supports.
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Which Desk Chair Should You Choose?

A desk chair with a gas lift is the right answer for anyone working a full day, because seat height has to match the desk rather than the other way round. Arms or no arms is the second decision and it depends on whether the chair has to roll under the desk.

Our desk chairs are built in solid hardwood on a swivel base, which is a different object from an upholstered office chair and ages differently. It is worth knowing which one you are buying.
Amish Mission Side Desk Chair with Gas Lift

Side Desk Chair

A side desk chair has no arms, on a gas lift swivel base.

It suits desks with a low apron or a keyboard drawer, because without arms the chair rolls fully under the desk when you stand up. In a small office that is the difference between walking past the desk and edging around it.

The limit is support over long hours. No arms means no forearm rest, which some people stop noticing and others never do.
Amish Starr Executive Arm Chair with Gas Lift-Desk Chair-The Amish House

Arm Desk Chair

An arm desk chair adds arms to the same frame and base.

It suits full working days and anyone who reads or takes calls at the desk rather than only typing. The arms carry some of the weight your shoulders would otherwise hold all day.

The limit is clearance. Arms have to fit under the desk apron, which is the measurement to check before ordering rather than after.
Amish Clark Executive Chair with Gas Lift

Executive Chair

An executive chair is higher backed and larger in every dimension, usually upholstered on the seat and back.

It suits an executive desk and a room where the chair is part of how the office looks. It is the most comfortable of the four over a long stretch.

The limit is footprint and roll-under. A high-backed chair is a large object in a small room and it will not disappear under a desk.
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How Should You Store and Shelve It?

Open shelving for what you reach for, doors for what you would rather not look at, and a credenza or a file cabinet for paper that has to be kept. Most offices need two of the three and almost none need all of them in the same piece.

Shelving is also what makes a home office look like a room rather than a desk in a spare bedroom. It is worth more visually than anything else in here.

Open Bookcase

An open bookcase has fixed or adjustable shelves and no doors, built at 12 or 16 inches deep in widths from 24 to 60 inches.

It suits books, files and anything you take down often, and it is the cheapest way to turn a bare wall into storage. Heights run from 36 inches, which sits under a window, to 84 inches, which fills a wall.

The limit is dust and display. Everything on an open shelf is visible and everything on it needs dusting, so it is the wrong choice for cables, chargers and paperwork.
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amish bookcase shown in oak

Bookcase With Doors

The same cases are offered with doors, either glazed or solid depending on the design.

It suits equipment, files and the half of an office that should not be on show. Glazed doors keep the display and lose the dust; solid doors hide the contents entirely.

The limit is access and swing. A door needs room to open in front of the case, which is the 30 inches the measurements above already ask for.

Credenza

A credenza is a low cabinet that sits behind or beside the desk, at a height you can use as a second surface.

It suits a printer, a scanner and the equipment that has to be near the desk without being on it. In an office where the desk faces into the room, the credenza is what goes against the wall behind you.

The limit is capacity. A credenza holds less than a bookcase of the same width because it is lower, so it supplements shelving rather than replacing it.
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Lateral File

A lateral file holds hanging folders side to side, in a cabinet built to the same standard as the rest of the room.

It suits anyone who genuinely keeps paper, and it is the piece that stops files living in boxes on the floor. Some are built with a bookcase above them, which puts filing and shelving on one footprint.

The limit is weight and cost. A full file cabinet is heavy, and this is the most expensive way to store paper you may not need to keep.
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Which Office Style Should You Choose?

Style matters more in an office than in most rooms, because the furniture is large, the pieces are seen together, and the room is often on camera. Every style below is built in the same woods and finished in the same stains, so this is a decision about line and hardware rather than material.

Pick one and hold it across the desk, the shelving and the chair. An office is the room where mixed styles show fastest, since the pieces sit within a few feet of each other.
Mission

Mission

Slatted sides, squared legs and joinery left on show. The study style, and the one most people picture when they picture a wooden desk.
Traditional

Traditional

Carved detail, moulded edges and a heavy base. Built for an executive desk in a room meant to feel formal.
Shaker

Shaker

Plain faces, slim legs, small knobs. Disappears into a room that is not only an office.
Farmhouse

Farmhouse

Thick tops and visible knots. Suits a desk that lives in a family space rather than a dedicated study.
Transitional

Transitional

Classic shapes with the carving left off. The answer when the office has to share a room with something else.
Contemporary

Contemporary

Square edges, slim tops, understated hardware. Reads lightest on camera and in a small room.
Amish Houston Double Pedestal Seven Drawers Desk with Finished Backside

Which Wood and Finish Suit a Working Desk?

Choose the species for how it behaves under your hands and the stain for how the room is lit, then order chips before anything is placed. An office is the one room where you are within arm's length of the furniture for eight hours, which changes what matters about both.

Grain that reads as texture across a dining room reads as pattern at working distance. This is the room where that difference is decided.
amish sewing cabinet shown in oak

Grain at Eighteen Inches

Open-grained woods like oak and quartersawn white oak show a pronounced figure, and on a desktop directly under your eyes that figure is part of the working surface.

Closed-grained woods like brown maple and hard maple present a quieter, more even face, which is why they suit a desk shared with a monitor and paperwork.

The limit is that neither is wrong. This is a preference rather than a specification, which is exactly why it has to be seen rather than chosen from a description.
Amish Kingston Executive Desk

The Surface Takes Daily Contact

A desktop meets a keyboard, a mouse, cables and forearms every working day, which is more sustained contact than most furniture ever gets.

Solid hardwood handles that because the surface is the material rather than a layer on top of it. There is no veneer to wear through at the front edge where your wrists rest.

The limit is that wood still marks. It is a working surface, and a desk that has been used for ten years will look like one.

Amish Freemont Mission L-Shape Desk with Hutch-Corner Desk / Hutch-The Amish House

Matching What Is Already in the Room

An office is frequently added to a room that already has something in it, whether that is a bookcase, a built-in, or a floor you are not replacing.

Take the chip to the piece you are matching rather than working from memory, and check it under the light the room actually has, which for most offices is a screen and one lamp.

The limit is that an exact match is rarely achievable and rarely the goal. A deliberate contrast reads better than a near miss, particularly across pieces bought years apart.
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Or Take the Whole Room From One Design

Eleven of our office designs are built as complete collections, among them Jefferson, Lincoln, Manhattan and Paris. Ordering from one of them means the pieces are drawn from a single design rather than matched to each other afterwards, which is the easiest way to get a room that looks considered rather than assembled.
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Amish Lexington Low Back Office Chair

What Does It Cost and How Long Does It Take?

Bookcases start around $678, writing desks around $853, desk chairs around $720, and executive desks around $3,473. Most pieces are built to order and arrive in 8 to 12 weeks, with delivery and in-home setup at a flat $239 however many pieces are on the order.

An office is usually bought as a desk, a chair and shelving, and the shelving is where the cost scales. One 36 inch bookcase and a wall of six are the same decision repeated, so it is worth deciding the full wall before ordering the first case.

What Happens After You Order

Lead time Most office pieces are built to order and arrive in 8 to 12 weeks, depending on which workshop is building yours
Quick Ship

 Selected pieces and configurations ship in 3 to 5 weeks, plus two more weeks for delivery
Delivery Flat $239 across the lower 48, with in-home setup. Alaska and Hawaii excluded
Warranty
 One year against defects in materials and workmanship
Financing
 Available at checkout on eligible orders

Order the shelving with the desk if the wall is going to be filled eventually. Cases bought a year apart are finished in different batches, and on a run of bookcases standing side by side, that shows.

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What Amish Furniture Costs

What Amish Furniture Costs

Where to Start With a Home Office

Measure the knee space and the floor behind the chair first, then decide which way the desk faces, because that settles the finished back, the shelving wall and the light. Size the desk against what never gets put away. Add the seating, then the shelving, and leave the style until the pieces are chosen.

If you would rather not guess, call us at 615-819-2772 with the room dimensions and which wall the desk is going on, and we will tell you what fits.

You can also browse the full range of Amish office furniture at your own pace, or sit at the desks in our showroom on Nolensville Road. We are open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm.
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Frequently Asked Questions

Twelve inches holds paperbacks, files and most hardbacks, and is the depth to choose if floor space is tight. Sixteen inches takes binders, archive boxes and equipment. Our bookcases are built in both, so the decision is what goes on the shelves rather than what looks right.
On many designs, yes. Doors are chosen at the time of order on the same case rather than being a separate product, so you can run open shelving on one wall and doors on another in matching wood and stain.
On some desks. The Writer's Series offers a wood top or a leather inlay on the same frame. It is specified when the desk is built rather than fitted later, so decide before you order.
Yes. Several designs, including the Boulder Creek writer's desk, are built with a finished backside for desks that face into a room. Tell us which way the desk will face and we will confirm which models suit.
Usually, because they arrive in sections. The measurement worth checking is the turn at the top of the stairs rather than the doorway. Send us the narrowest point and we will confirm before the order goes in.
Most do. Our desk chairs are built on a gas lift swivel base so seat height can be matched to the desk, which matters because a built-to-order desk is a fixed height and the chair is what adapts.
Yes, particularly at 72 or 84 inches and in any house with children. Anchoring is quick, it costs almost nothing, and it is the one step people intend to come back to and never do.
On several designs, yes. The Writer's Series has a matching bookcase built to sit on its desks, and some larger desks, including the Signature corner desk, come with a hutch as part of the design. It is specified when the desk is ordered so the proportions and the finish line up.