A DESIGN WORTH INVESTING IN
Functional, attractive home office setting
With the shift from a workplace to working from home, Suzanne Dansereau found it made a world of difference to invest in a functional, comfortable and attractive home office.
“I was working a lot from home even when I was working full time for Les Affaires,” says the business reporter, who began working as a full- time freelance journalist about a year ago.
Her desk started out in a small bedroom of her 1,000 square foot Plateau condo. When that felt confined, Dansereau said, she moved it into one end of her living room, behind a bookshelf.
“It was functional, but not ideal,” she said of her former office setup, which was only a desk and chair. “It was a continuation of the living room.”
Without dedicated space for all her documents, she said, “Things were kind of all over the place.”
After a complete redesign, she now has an ergonomic, custombuilt office that’s distinct from the adjacent living room that shares its natural lighting – and creative design details – with a redesigned front entry.
“My office now gives personality to the whole apartment,” Dansereau said, pointing out the floor- to- ceiling integrated bookshelves, a sliding ladder, the curving, solid maple built- in desk and repurposed French windows.
When Dansereau’s boyfriend, Michel Naggar, moved i n, the couple decided to find a designer who could reimagine the whole home.
“The first architect who came over, his measurements were wrong, and he couldn’t even draw freehand, so I figured that couldn’t work,” Naggar recalled.
“I was hanging out at a French r estaurant call ed La Gargote des Antiquaires on Notre- Dame Street,” said Naggar, who told his friend, the restaurant owner, about his and Dansereau’s predicament.
“The owner of the restaurant said, “There’s this guy who comes here, and he’s doodling all the time. I think he’s a designer.”
That designer, Vincent Vandendrouck of Mouvement Creatif, visited the Plateau home and proposed removing the wall between the living room and the corridor that led into the apartment.
“The corridor was gloomy,” Vandendrouck said. The wall wasn’t structural and removing it brightened up the entryway, and allowed for it to be enlarged.
Vandendrouck designed Dansereau’s office, i ncluding i ts U- shaped solid maple working surface, which on one end hosts a built- in filing cabinet, and at the other end turns toward the entryway, bends twice, and turns back at a lower elevation. The practical effect of this attractive design is a bench with an armrest in the airy entry.
The height of Dansereau’s desk is 28 inches, unlike standard desks that are 29 or 30 inches high.
“Ergonomics is very important because I’m short and I don’t want to injure myself,” Dansereau said. She hired an ergonomist to make recommendations; she said her neck had been bothering her from looking down at her computer screen, so now her computer screen is at eye- level. Her office also includes a footrest that supports her feet at 45 degrees, and a chair with armrests.
“When we did the renovation, we also tried to throw away as little as possible,” Dansereau said.
“But not only recycle, reuse. That was very important to me, the reusing of my French windows for example,” she said, referring to the panels that divide her office from the entry, without blocking light. “That was great.”
Dansereau said the maple used to make her desk would have come from within 100 kilometres of Montreal. “I believe in sustainable development, so I try to source materials that are close to me,” she said. “We have wood here, why not take it?”
Mathieu Pellerin, of Mat Pel Ébénisterie, executed Vandendrouck’s design.
“It’s very difficult to have trace- ability of ( maple) wood in Quebec,” Pellerin said, adding however, the wood likely came from the Eastern Townships.
“The idea with this project was to keep it as ecological as we could,” he said. MDF used for the integrated bookshelves were free of formaldehyde and other volatile organic compounds, he said, and glues and finishes were low on VOCs ( volatile organic compounds).
In terms of construction, Pellerin said, the curves in the maple were his main challenge. Curving furniture, he said, is usually made by bending plywood and covering it with veneer.
He finished the maple surface with Livos oil, he said. “It’s going to age the wood more interestingly.”
“The overall look is great,” Dansereau said of her office, which she has been using now for five years. Still, there are aspects she would’ve done differently in retrospect.
“The ladder could have had wheels to roll more smoothly, and the metal bar ( supporting it) could have been a nicer material, like chrome or stainless steel.”
She said it was a mistake to not having overhead lighting installed. “Because money was a problem, we didn’t do it,” she said. “Now, I regret it.”
The convenience of having a desk at home also comes with its own problems. “It makes you work more when you work from home,” Dansereau said. “You can always go check something.”
I believe in sustainable development, so I try to source materials that are close to me. We have wood here, why not take it?