This ‘Room That Time Forgot’ Became a Beautifully Zen Home Office
Like finding the right hairstyle or the perfectly fitted dress, sometimes being happy with your home requires custom solutions. That’s something design blogger, Rue magazine co-founder, and Sage Living author Anne Sage realized after her husband, Ivan, had been using their home’s second bedroom as a makeshift remote office and closet for three years. Without proper storage or planning, the room became an overflow of the couple’s shoe and record collections, castoff furniture, and hand-me-down shelves. “It started to feel like the room that time forgot—and I felt guilty that Ivan had to work there all day,” she says.
Anne knew that investing in custom shelving would be a worthwhile investment, even for their rental home. But after contacting several carpenters who quoted her in the $15,000 range (“well beyond my budget,” she says), she didn’t know if her vision would be possible.
Then a friend told Anne about California Closets. Actually, a few friends did: It turned out that many of Anne’s pals had used the storage experts for everything from closets to pantries to media rooms—and each project was tailored to their different lifestyles and budgets. Since California Closets sends a designer right to your house (!!), Anne scheduled a free consultation with a local pro, Darlene. They talked through design ideas (Anne knew she wanted the space to be streamlined and serene with bookshelves surrounding the room’s picture window) and realized that, because of California Closets’ track-mounting system, the built-ins could be done at a fraction of the cost the carpenters had quoted.
When it came to the nitty-gritty details of the design process, “Darlene was the expert,” Anne says. She talked Anne through details like moldings and toe kicks, then recommended unexpected features—like a pull-out drawer for the printer, a shallow cabinet to hide cords, and cutouts for nesting computer and sound system cables—that were crucial to how the room would function. After tweaking a 3D rendering, they’d settled on a winner: the Natural finish from California Closets’ Albero Collection.
Darlene stuck around for the installation—which happened in a less than a day…way less time than Anne’s carpenters had quoted—and managed everything. And during the install, Anne and Ivan went about their workdays as usual. Everything went off without a hitch.
The finished custom design is so seamless that it’s hard to believe the room hasn’t always been this way. And the main goal of the space—to create a well-designed office and closet for Ivan—was achieved. “Ivan is such an efficiency nerd,” Anne says, noting that he loves the spring-loaded cabinet doors, hidden cord system, and shoe shelving. “He’s thrilled with the versatility and function that the California Closets built-ins afford.”