• Check out the full post over at DEFINING THE DESIGNER WORKSPACE.

When asked what my ideal live/work space would be, the question initially was digested as an overwhelming proposition. Ideals tend to overcomplicate and a truly meaningful place to live and work would be one where life’s complexities could be peeled away and where the simple answers for difficult questions could be tackled with both focus and calm. Given the opportunity to add or subtract, I believe the space I would most prosper within would be one of minimalism, but with well devised tech and storage options, maximizing the transition between work, relaxation and play seamlessly.

I find my most memorable moments of inspiration happen in two disparate places: in the bath tub (which I try to enjoy at least once every few days) and while hiking outdoors away from the madding crowds. In both cases, it’s because of the solitude and quiet each allows I find myself thinking and creating freely; internal dialogues, problem solving and just free-form visualization happen either while soaking in the tub or climbing into a creek carved valley. It’s a wonder I haven’t yet tried to work from the tub, considering my affinity for hot baths.

So where does that leave me now with the question of my ideal live/work space? Currently I work in a very small home office, really just a closet made into a noir darkened niche comprising of a shallow desk, some installed shelving, a task chair and a few computing components. Despite the tight quarters, it works well for what I do as managing editor, and as is the case in many design problems, due to the limitations I’ve been forced to edit, minimize “things” while maximizing utility. Taking what I’ve learned from both this home office and the previous slightly larger (but still quite small) home office, the desired space I’d most want is not one enlarged spatially, but a work area detached from my living space…but only a few footsteps away from a main living area.

Noek Design design these beautiful prefabricated shelters called deckhouse (above); the sheds evoke the feel of a traditional Japanese structure in their simplicity and the honesty of the materials used. Sliding doors and an expanded deck which melts the idea of indoor and outdoor space. I’d love to have one of these deckhouses situated in a darkened, lush garden with a pond or fountain just outside the window or placed on top of a hillside amongst trees with a distant view in similar fashion to Peter Daniel Frazier’s The Cube (below).

Solar paneling on the roof would provide a modest amount of energy for a lazy fan or ambient LED lighting and the overhang would help reduce the glare on the monitors (alongside the lush garden or tree heavy surroundings). I really love built-in features that were more popular amongst mid-century architects, so the dream desk would be a floating affair, an extension of the interior space itself rather than a separate piece of furniture, complemented with shelving above for books and compartments to hide away clutter.

The floating desk would also feature cable and wire guides underneath and in the back, while hideaway grommet style USB and power port connections would make charging or connecting and peripheral a breeze. And although I currently use a laptop setup and like the flexibility it allows, if I had a dedicated dream space, a more powerful tower model hidden underneath the desk would permit me to use to wall mounted 24″ panels (Photoshop is a hungry, hungry child and it always wants more RAM and a faster GPU).

I’m an avid iPad user, so the option to incorporate the tablet into my desk would be useful when I don’t need it in hand, but I want it nearby for use. If you’re an 80′s kid like myself, you might remember corporate bad-boy, Ed Dillinger’s desk from the original TRON (below). It was a touchscreen dream machine, and till this day I admire how the UI’s graphical presence could easily disappear into the darkness of the surface when turned off. I’ll settle for a flush mounted USB charger and docking solution, with a slide door which would hide the flush docked iPad into the desk.

Basically, I want a space where the tech is deeply incorporated into the space, but hardly noticeable, where quiet and solitude help facilitate focused thought, but with a clear connection to the outdoor world surrounding the small home office. The close proximity of a tub would also be appreciated, but now I’m just getting fantasy-land ridiculous!

What do you listen to while you work? What I’m working on usually determines what I’ll listen to. Since most of the time I’m either writing or editing, the majority of my daytime music is composed of instrumental tracks. Ambient, classical, shoegaze, chillwave, jazz, hip hop beats…anything that won’t interject unintended lyrical influence. If I’m in Photoshop, then the whole library of 20,000 tracks is usually on shuffle and can bring up anything from Iron Maiden to Charlie Parker.

How do you listen? Since both my girlfriend and I work at home, I’ll regularly don my noise-canceling Audio-Technica QuietPoint headphones if I want to listen to anything beyond the lower end of the volume dial. They do a great job of drowning out the sound of traffic in the background and the cries of our cats for snacks in the foreground. When I’m just listening while browsing online, then a pair of Bowers & Wilkins MM-1 speakers do a fantastic job of filling in the small closet-size home office space I work within. They’re superb desktop speakers, though the low end probably would do well with the addition of a separate sub.

And for just relaxing or while cleaning the house, then I’ll turn on the vintage Bang & Olufsen system and put on a record to listen to. Our collection is a mix of my girlfriend’s Northern Soul/girl bands and my 80′s-90’s hip-hop albums, so you never know when they’ll be an impromptu dance party in our living room.

Do you have any favorite music websites/providers? The Quiet Sounds. These podcast mixes are made for late nights with the lights out, except for the glow of the monitor illuminating your room. If you’re into Brian Eno and Angelo Badalamenti with a splash of Washed Out, I’d highly recommend a listen to a few of these hour long mixes. Gorilla vs. Bear is another favorite music blog alongside the Kitsune Noir Mixcasts, while Cocaine Blunts is where I check in for new and old hip-hop tracks, and The Funky 16 Corners for yesterday’s diddys.

Does music influence your work? I don’t know if music evidently influences my work for Apartment Therapy and Unplggd, but a recent extended headphone-listening session on a slow evening led to me creating a couple desktops or my personal blog.

Where do you find music recommendations? Who influences your musical taste? I usually discover music in the same way I research topics for work and leisure, meandering between Tumblrs, music blogs, friend’s tweets, Facebook mentions. I’m sort of all over the place when it comes to musical interests, but I would admit the cinema heavily influences what I’ll actively investigate. Lately I’ve been falling back in love with Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound production, thanks to a recent screening of the documentary “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector.” Last night I watched a surfing film, Sipping Jetstreams, and now I’ve got the combination of music and imagery floating in my head, egging me to call it a week and enjoy some summer sunshine. Surf and skate films are definitely a goldmine of good music.

GREGORY’S PLAYLIST

Mysterious Skin soundtrack, Robin Gurthrie & Harold Budd

Wouldn’t It Be Nice, The Beach Boys

Honey, You Know Where to Find Me, Morrissey

The Black House, The Blue Sky (Stars vs. Montag Mix), Stars

Wet Hair (Japandroids Cover), Teen Daze

He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss), Grizzly Bear

Trap Door (Ft. MF DOOM), Jake One

As It Is When It Was, New Order

Michael, the Lone Archer of the North Shore, Deastro

Symphony No. 9 In D Minor (Ode To Joy), Ludwig van Beethoven

The Want And The Waiting, The Six Parts Seven

All of the Signature Sounds, Volume 1, DJ Premier

Images: Gregory Han

Location: Silver Lake, CA

Size: 6′ x 3′ Closet

Around this time last year I was happily enjoying working in a newly renovated home office I had designed and optimized for my workflow, furnished and accessorized with small space living in mind. It was a bright, cheery and ample space in an otherwise small studio apartment.

And then we moved.

I knew when we moved I was in for a drastic change in regards to my work area, since the 1 bedroom apartment we were migrating into was a space I actually photographed and toured for an Apartment Therapy Los Angeles house tour in late 2009. Our friend Alysia had used a portion of the living room as her home office, but I wanted to do something a bit different and use the closet as a work space. The option to close the door (and reminders about work) was partially the reason for this decision, but also because I prefer having distinct spaces for specific tasks, even if it meant downsizing into a much tighter fit (thankfully, there’s small window, a detail common to these 1900-1930′s units).

The biggest decision made was a stylistic one: going from bright and cheery decorated space to a darker, more sophisticated finish. I wanted just as much utility (though obviously not as much storage would be available) as the previous home office, so this required some planning and help from a contact at The Container Store, alongside hours of researching online about other closet home offices. I had several cinematic inspirations to work with, and when I saw a tech-stylized black wallpaper and purchased a wolf-shaped wall lamp, I knew I had the foundation pieces of my new work space.

The inspiration for my home office/home theater: Three of my favorite movies heavily influenced what I had envisioned for this tiny space: the Symphony No. 9 In D Minor/Ode To Joy scene in Immortal Beloved (staring up into the infinite stars, floating on top of water), the organized perfection of the residence in Tom Ford’s A Single Man, and a little of the mod-ultraviolence aesthetic of A Clockwork Orange. If anyone out there has a Kozik UltraViolence Ludwig Van Beethoven Bust they want to sell me, please contact me!

Where? Los Angeles, CA.

How do you take your coffee? What brand is it? Black…Pantone 4C Black. I grind and brew Intelligenstia Black Cat Espresso almost exclusively, though I’ll occasionally switch over to Stumptown’s roasts to mix things up. I’ve also started to add one part roasted cacao beans for every 6 parts coffee beans before grinding, which I highly recommend for chocolate lovers.

Tell me about your coffee cup. My friends Angie and Ted of Poketo gave me this coffee cup as a gift, a mug I truly love and that reflects my affinity for that most simple of life’s pleasures, the donut.

What happens if you skip your morning coffee? I’m pretty immune to the effects of caffeine (I enjoy a cup after dinner), so the 1-2 cups I drink most days of the week are mostly for the pleasure of taste. I don’t suffer from any of the classic symptoms of coffee withdrawal, but I do get flummoxed if forced to drink tea in the morning instead of coffee when we run out (no offense to tea, but I prefer it in the afternoon). Bean > leaf!

In conjunction with the unveiled keyboard hidden within, the concept specs include a 6.5″ 16:9 capacitive touchscreen display for pinch and zoom use, LED backlighting and a front panel camera. Is this the form factor netbooks need to help cross from niche to fully mainstream? We’re not sure, as this design adds a bit of engineering and structural complexity, and as is often the case, simple is better (more affordable and less likely to break).
[via Yanko Design]
By Gregory Han.”

Airia was designed by Ayako Takase, Cutter Hutton and Chris Specce of Kaiju Studios, a design consultancy based Providence, RI. “There are lots of beautiful desks out there, but they don’t support work and home functionality,” says Takase. At the same time, says Hutton, “We designed it to be shown off and on display in your home. The millwork detail on the walnut frame, sleek legs, and elegant form let Airia fit well with both classic and contemporary furniture. It’s timeless. We intend it to be a desk you’ll keep for the rest of your life–and give to your kids.”

“A couple years back we mentioned some helpful tips of how to safely deduct some of your home electronics purchases. So with the beginning of a new year and the always nearing tax deadline, we thought we’d refresh this course in home electronics deductions. In a time when iPhones, Blackberries, laptops, and other devices play double duty between work and play, following the guidelines below will insure you stay on the right side of the IRS deduction rules and save on taxes.

What You Need:
A filing system for receipts
A log/notebook
A legit business or job directly related to the equipment purchased

Instructions:
A couple years back the folks at Sound and Vision gave a very useful list breaking down in detail how anyone can legitimately deduct home theater equipment with some moderately involved business-filing footwork coupled with detailed records. It’s not too late to save a little money on your…ahem PS3 investments…but even if you’ve already filed, you can start collecting those receipts and filing for a business for ’10 tax time following these steps:

1. Become involved with a business related to the tech purchased: for home electronics deductions to qualify from the perspective of the IRS, you’ll need to prove the equipment you purchased is necessary to get your work done, predominately used for business use, and directly related to a legit business with adequate income. Starting up an ad-free blog which you update once every month praising the Apple iPhone won’t legitimize righting off the device from the perspective of the IRS. But if you write apps for it, you’d likely be in clear waters.

2. 51% for Business: So you’re working on a paid project where you had to invest in some external hard drives to store video and sound files…but you also happen to use it to store your personal collection of Lady Gaga tunes. Make sure that 51% of that drive is used for work for a legitimate write off. This is called the 50% rule.

3. Deduct by Depreciation: for those items that pass muster in regards to 50% rule above, but that have the high potential to be used for personal enjoyment/activity (your laptop, cell phones, company car, etc), you’re best advised to write-off only a portion of the depreciation value by deducting a smaller, but safer percentage of the cost each year.

4. Keep Them Receipts and Keep a Usage Log! The safest bet for proving your beloved dual use home electronics is legit to the IRS is keeping detailed logs of time used for personal use vs. periods when your device was actually putting in work. Keeping your receipts and creating a business account for electronics (and other) business related purchases further spells out you mean business when using your equipment for business.

5. Connect the Dots: When we say connect the dots, we mean to check how everything related to your work is interconnected. You purchased a laptop and external monitor, but had to also purchase some USB cables later and some cable management products. These would all be deductible if your setup was used for work. And especially relevant in regards to paying for software, software updates and other ongoing costs of keeping your machine running.

6. Set Aside a Work Zone: We work specifically in a small space at home that is designated for work, keeping all our work computing/office equipment neatly organized within the space. Designated a space for work makes it easier to separate work tasks from personal time, alongside making it easier to include office gear like task chairs and desks alongside your tech gear for deduction. You may also be able to write off some or all of your home office from your rent/mortgage, depending upon your employment situation.”

By Gregory Han

This story over at Apartment Therapy’s Unplgged really hit a chord this morning. We’re so obsessed with space in home offices, but what if you simply don’t have the room? I’ve been known to retire to my bedroom with the laptop – more for peace of mind than anything else! When I shared an apartment with a friend in New York (many years ago now) I spent hours writing from my bed just like Emily in the photograph above (she is Unplgged managing editor Gregory Han’s ‘better half”). So what do you do? Gregory offers a great practical round-up of small desks (check out the cool bentwood tables from Offi and the amazing little laptop trays from Logitech.) Let me know if you’ve got a small desk to add to this list.