In the exciting and continuing saga of my office renovation, my next step was to design the layout of my new office. Thankfully, with the help of Shelly at The Container Store in McLean, Virginia, this task was relatively simple.



As I mentioned previously, I have 10' of wall space that I can dedicate to my office. Beyond the necessary space for my filing cabinet (a 34" wide and 50" tall behemoth), the layout is unobstructed. After talking with Shelly for a few minutes, this is the layout we created:



The three rows of shelving in the upper section of the wall provide 366" of new storage space (that is 30.5' compared to my current 0' of storage). And, the four drawers on the left side of the unit will give me valuable closed storage for extra cables, stationery, and office supplies.



The circled area in the picture above is where my workspace will be located. It's a little more than 2' wide with a special raised shelf for my second monitor. This workspace is a reduction in size from my current setup, but since I'll have storage space with the new setup, this shouldn't be a problem.



The circled area in this photograph is where my filing cabinet will sit. I may decide to add two more shelves above it, but for now plan to use the top of it to hold my phone (similar to its function now).

As far as materials go, I've chosen to use the platinum colored hardware and the driftwood laminated solid shelves. Elfa has two hardware options (white and platinum) and three styles of shelving. I chose the platinum hardware because it looks a little more industrial (our home is decorated in the mid-century modern and industrial styles, so this fits in with what we already have). The three shelving styles are wire, solid, and "decor" (a thicker shelf with a wood-honeycomb filling). Wire shelving wouldn't have been convenient for storing books, and the "decor" shelving came close to doubling the price of the unit. So, I picked the solid shelving in the driftwood color (it looks nice with the platinum hardware). I don't love that the shelves won't match the wood on the filing cabinet, but there are much worse things in this world.

The whole system came to $676.50 (pre tax). This price includes all the hardware, shelves, and drawers. I purchased the unit during the annual winter elfa sale at The Container Store, which means that the price I paid is a little more than 30 percent less than regular sticker price. The sale continues through February 9th.