Designer Lotta Jansdotter knows a little something about making the best of small-ish spaces; the 725 square foot home she and her husband used to share in San Francisco is full of ideas and inspiration for small space dwellers. One particularly impressive attribute is this transforming home office and dining room.
It's nothing novel: Plenty of small-space dwellers use their dining table—well, only table, really—as a workspace during the day. But Lotta's solution made this room-transient lifestyle look chic.
From Sunset magazine:
By day, this is a his-and-hers work space. After 5, tuck the laptops away, put the lamp on the floor, and the office becomes a dining space for casual entertaining.
It works thanks to a table with lots of storage. The double-topped table leaves room for books, laptops, cubbies and dishes to be stored out of sight as needed.
It's a great design, and very accessible. We could even see this as a DIY; as you're picking out tabletops and legs from IKEA's a la carte table department, grab an extra top. With some nails, wood glue and a few small boards cut to size, you can replicate the stellar storage of Lotta's desk, too.
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Love her. Great table!
This is great! This why I initially fell for AT, wonderful ideas in relation to small spaces. Living in a small space/apt present challenges that that large homes with multi-levels & backyards do not (although Im sure they've got some-they also have PLENTY of websites & tv shows).
Keep the good ideas & innovative solutions rolling!!!
Great solution for small spaces! This is what we are doing at the moment.
In reality this has been pain in the butt for me. It gets me completely off track to have to store things and then reassemble them in a way that works for me to easily pick up where I left off the next day. I prefer to leave things "in working order" so I can get back into a flow without orchestrating a whole reorganization.... so we are sacrificing some space to make a little cove of an office instead. But again, good idea if there is no alternative.
That is a spectacular table design! Great for small spaces, but I wish there was a good way to expand it with a leaf.
i share a dining space and work space as well. I found a really cute vintage suitcase that holds all of my work stuff. (it even has a pocket on the inside that holds files neatly) at the end of the day i simply close the suitcase.
Great for kids! Lots of storage space for those unwanted servings of peas or cantaloupe.
Do kids really turn down cantaloupe?
Bkbrownstone. I've seen a couple of solutions for folks that like to leave stuff out. One was a table surface that was hinged. Your workspace was a level under and revealed when the dining surface was opened. The other involved a large shallow drawer that was a space to lay out your work and then at the end of the day just close it with your work intact.
It's a great thing for the occasional dinner party. But to do this every night gets really tiresome.
What an awesome idea! I'm always battling the dining table vs. desk/catch-all conundrum, it's refreshing to see a solution this attractive. :)
The initial 2 pix appeared to show that the level of the table could be dropped. Then the article said it's a double topped table. But it seems to be the same top, just with different personal items on top.
Isn't this just a standard table then, albeit with storage at the edges? What's the big whoop?
Personally, for dining I don't wanna see notebooks, laptops etc at the side of the table. I want a clear area that focuses just on dining.
what a wonderful idea! my space is not that small but I am always fighting the clutter of sketch books and pencils and other reading paraphernalia on the kitchen table where we eat by day and hang out in front of the fire by evening. love that it's such a cheap, easy and creative solution!
We actually have desks at home, but still wind up migrating our work to the dining room table. It's not that much trouble to clear it off for dinner, people.
I believe in one of her books, she shows how they made the table themselves. It was a pretty easy diy.
I think the book was Handmade Living.
Seriously? Work on the dining table and during the day, then put the lamp on the floor - and this merits a blog post?
I have been doing this (out of necessity) for a long, long time
So simple and obvious, and so brilliant.
GRAY: I'm currently trying to resolve some storage/space issues for art/work and would like to see a pic of that, if you are able to provide a link.
FISHEGGS: I hated cantaloupe as a kid (still don't care for it), but couldn't get enough of fish, mustard/turnip greens, peas, okra or broccoli (and other things many kids hate).
APEROCOT: I suspect what people are liking has more to do with the included storage cubbies...
RAPIDTRANSITMAN: a simple solution for not seeing the items at dinner time might be to place a tablecloth over the unit. ;-)