Home Office Layout Planner

My first home office was a desk against a wall in the corner of a spare room, which is where almost everyone puts a desk when they are not thinking about it. It took me eight months to work out why I hated sitting there. I was facing a blank wall three feet from my nose, with my back to the door and a window directly behind my monitor, so every afternoon the screen went dark against the glare and every time someone walked in I jumped.

None of that was a taste problem. Every one of those was a layout problem with a known fix, and moving the desk ninety degrees solved all three at once.

That is what the planner above is for. Set your room size, put in the door and the windows, drag the desk around, and it checks the arrangement against the things that actually matter: what you can see, what is behind you, where the light comes from, and whether you can physically get past your own chair.

Start with the desk, not the room

Every good home office layout design is built outward from one decision: which way the desk faces. Get that wrong and no amount of office layout design fixes it afterwards. Everything else, the storage, the shelving, the second chair, arranges itself around that.

There are three positions a desk can take, and they are not equal.

Facing a wall. The most common and the worst. Your sightline stops three feet away, your back is to the room, and you cannot see the door. It is popular because it is the most space-efficient, and it is the one to move away from if you can.

Facing into the room, back to a wall. The strongest position. You can see the door and the window, nothing is behind you, and the wall gives you somewhere to mount shelving above the desk.

Side-on to a window. Usually the best compromise in a small room, and the one that solves the lighting problem, which I will come to.

If you take one thing from this page: the desk should have a wall behind it and a view of the door in front of it. That single rule fixes the majority of bad home office layouts, and it is the same rule feng shui arrives at from a completely different direction.

Where to put the desk relative to the window

This is the question people search for most, and it has a genuinely practical answer that has nothing to do with tradition.

Do not put the desk with the window directly behind your monitor. You will spend the day looking into backlight, the screen will look washed out, and your eyes will tire fast.

Do not put the desk with the window directly behind you either. It throws glare straight onto the screen, and on video calls it turns you into a silhouette.

Put the desk perpendicular to the window, so the light comes across the desk from the side. Searches for feng shui desk window perpendicular are asking about exactly this, and it is the arrangement that works. A feng shui desk next to window, turned side-on, is the standard recommendation in both ergonomics and feng shui, which is why any feng shui office layout with window advice lands in the same place. You get daylight on your face and keyboard without it hitting the screen or your eyes directly.

If the room only allows a desk facing the window, that is workable. You get the view, you lose some screen contrast on bright days, and a sheer blind fixes most of it.

For video calls specifically, the window should be in front of you or to the side, never behind. This is worth checking before you commit to a layout, because it is the single most visible thing about a home office to everyone you work with.

Home office layout by room size

Most home office layout ideas are photographed in rooms far larger than the ones people actually have. Here is what fits in the sizes people actually work in.

Under 60 square feet, roughly 8 by 8 or smaller. One desk, one chair, wall-mounted shelving above the desk instead of a bookcase, and no second seat. Use a desk 42 to 48 inches wide and 24 deep. Anything deeper eats the walkway.

Around 100 square feet, a 10×10 office layout. A full-size desk of 60 by 30, a proper chair, one filing cabinet or small bookcase, and enough room to turn around. This is the size where the desk can finally come off the wall and face into the room.

Around 120 to 140 square feet, 10 by 12 or 12 by 12. Desk facing into the room, storage along one wall, and space for a single visitor chair or a small reading corner.

Above 150 square feet you have genuine choices, including an L-shaped arrangement or two work zones.

Small home office layout

In a small office layout the constraints fight each other, so here is the order I would keep.

Fit the desk and the chair pull-back first. You need 36 to 42 inches behind the desk for the chair, and an absolute minimum of 30 inches to stand up without hitting the wall. People plan the desk and forget the chair, and then live with a room they cannot walk through.

Keep one clear walkway of at least 30 inches. If the only path to the desk runs behind your own chair, the room does not work.

Go vertical for storage. Shelves above the desk, not a bookcase on the floor. A floor-standing bookcase costs you about four square feet you cannot spare.

Give up the visitor chair before you give up the walkway.

If the room is genuinely tiny, a 42-inch desk against the wall with the door in your peripheral vision beats a 60-inch desk that blocks the doorway. The rules bend in a fixed order.

Two desks in one room

A shared office or a two-desk office layout has three workable arrangements.

Side by side against the same wall is the most space-efficient and the least pleasant, because neither person can see the other or the door.

Facing each other across the room gives both people a wall behind them and a view of the door, but you will look straight at each other all day, which suits some pairs and not others.

Back to back in the middle of the room is usually the best of the three. Both people face outward into the room, both have a person behind them rather than a blank wall, and the shared spine holds cables and a power strip.

An L-shape in one corner works if only one person is in the room most of the time.

Whichever you choose, each desk needs its own 36 inches of chair clearance. Two desks with overlapping chair zones is the most common mistake in a shared home office, and the planner will flag the overlap.

Feng shui home office layout

A feng shui office layout arrives at almost the same desk position as ergonomics does, by a completely different route, which is one reason office feng shui is worth taking seriously even if the reasoning does not appeal to you.

The core rule is the commanding position, and for a feng shui home office it means the desk should satisfy three conditions at once.

You can see the door from where you sit, without turning around. You are not in the direct line of the door. And there is a solid wall behind your chair.

The tradition explains this in terms of being in command of your space and having a mountain at your back. The practical version is that nobody concentrates well with their back to an entrance, and everyone in an open-plan office already knows this.

Desk position feng shui adds a few things beyond the commanding position itself, and they apply to any feng shui office desk regardless of the room it sits in.

A solid wall behind the chair, not a window. Glass is treated as an opening rather than support. A high-backed chair helps if the window cannot be avoided.

Do not sit directly under a beam or a sloped ceiling. Anything heavy overhead is said to press down on the person beneath.

Keep the space in front of the desk open. The tradition calls this the bright hall, and the idea is that you need somewhere for opportunity to arrive. A desk pushed hard against a wall has no bright hall, which is the same objection as facing a blank wall three feet away.

No sharp corner from a cabinet or shelf pointing at where you sit.

Clear the desk surface. This is the one every school agrees on and the only one that costs nothing.

On the compass side, Eight Mansions feng shui gives each person four favourable directions based on birth date, and suggests facing one of them while working. Position outranks direction every time: a desk in the commanding position facing an unfavourable direction beats the reverse. Enter your birth date in the planner and it will work out your Kua number and tell you which way you are facing as you drag the desk.

I should be straight about the limits here. Feng shui is a tradition, not a tested method, and I am not going to claim that moving a desk changes your career or your income. What I will say is that its main rules describe things people independently find easier to work in, and where the tradition and the ergonomics agree, the advice is worth following on either basis.

An office in the bedroom

Working from a bedroom is the most common home office arrangement and the one both traditions like least, for the same reason: rest and work are opposite modes and the room can only really be set up for one of them. A feng shui desk in bedroom is always a compromise, and the question is only how well you manage it.

If there is no other option, the practical hierarchy is this.

Put as much distance as the room allows between the desk and the bed, and keep the desk out of the sightline from the pillow.

Give the desk its own commanding position, with a wall behind the chair and the door in view. It is the same rule the bed follows, and in a shared room they will compete for the same wall.

Screen it at night. A folding screen, a curtain, or simply closing the laptop and putting it in a drawer. What matters is that the unfinished work is not the last thing you see.

Do not use the bed as a chair. The one thing that reliably breaks a bedroom is working in it.

Our feng shui bedroom layout guide covers the bed side of that negotiation, including what happens when the only good wall is the one the desk wants.

Clearances worth measuring before you buy

Most home office layout problems are bought rather than arranged. These are the numbers to check against the room first.

Desk width. 42 to 48 inches is enough for a laptop and a monitor. 60 inches is comfortable. Anything over 72 belongs in a room above 120 square feet.

Desk depth. 24 inches is the working minimum with a monitor on an arm. 30 inches is comfortable and lets you push the screen back to a proper viewing distance of 20 to 30 inches from your eyes.

Chair clearance behind the desk. 36 to 42 inches. 30 is the absolute floor.

Main walkway. 30 to 36 inches.

Filing cabinet drawer. Allow 36 inches of clear floor in front, since the drawer alone is about 24.

Bookcase depth. 12 inches for books, 16 if you plan to put boxes on it.

Door swing. An interior door needs about a 32-inch clear arc. Nothing should live in it.

Enter these into the planner and it will tell you when two pieces are competing for the same floor, which is usually a problem you would otherwise find out about on delivery day.

Light, power and the things nobody plans

Three things determine whether a home office layout survives contact with actual work.

Where the power is. Plan the desk near an outlet or plan on a cable run you will resent. A desk in the middle of a room with a cable crossing the walkway is a layout that will not last a month.

Where the light is. A desk lamp on the opposite side to your writing hand, so you are not working in your own shadow. Overhead light behind the monitor rather than above it, to avoid reflections.

Where the noise comes from. If the office shares a wall with a living room or a kitchen, put the desk on the opposite wall. This is the one measurement no floor plan captures and it matters more than most of the others.

How to use the home office layout planner

The tool at the top of this page is free, needs no account, and lets you build as many layouts as you want.

Set the room size first, from the presets or exact measurements. Place the door and the windows before any furniture, because the desk rules are all measured against them. Then add the desk and drag it around. The score updates on every move and the panel explains what is wrong and why, rather than just flagging it.

If you want the feng shui reading as well, add your birth date and it will calculate your Kua number and your four favourable directions, then tell you live which way you are facing.

If you get stuck, the find-the-best-spot button tries every position and rotation in the room and moves the desk to the strongest one available.

Save it as an image or download the PDF, which prints in plain black and white so it stays readable and cheap. Take it to the room and measure against the real walls before you buy anything.

The same planner handles bedrooms and living rooms. If you are setting up a whole home rather than one room, our first apartment checklist covers what actually needs buying, and if you are moving a real office rather than a home one, our office move checklist handles the logistics side.

FAQ

Where should a desk go in a home office?

Facing into the room with a solid wall behind the chair and the door in view. Facing a blank wall is the most common arrangement and the weakest one, because your sightline stops three feet away and your back is to the entrance. Side-on to a window is usually the best compromise in a small room.

Should a desk face a window or be against a wall?

Perpendicular to the window is the answer that works. A window directly behind the monitor gives you backlight all day, a window directly behind you throws glare on the screen and turns you into a silhouette on calls, and a blank wall in front gives you nothing. Side-on gets you daylight on the desk without either problem.

What is the ideal size for a home office?

Around 100 square feet is the point where the desk can come off the wall and face into the room, which is what changes how it feels to sit there. Under 60 square feet you can still work comfortably with a 42 to 48 inch desk and wall-mounted shelving, but you give up the visitor chair and the floor-standing bookcase.

How much space do you need behind a desk for a chair?

36 to 42 inches, with 30 as the absolute minimum to stand up without hitting the wall. This is the measurement people most often forget, and it is the reason a lot of home offices end up with a room you cannot walk through.

How do you fit two desks in one room?

Back to back in the middle of the room is usually best: both people face outward, both have a person behind them rather than a blank wall, and the shared spine holds the cables. Facing each other works if you do not mind eye contact all day. Side by side against one wall is the most space-efficient and the least pleasant. Each desk still needs its own 36 inches of chair clearance.

What is the commanding position for a desk?

Seated so you can see the door without turning around, not in the door’s direct path, with a solid wall behind your chair. It comes from feng shui, but it describes the same arrangement ergonomics and open-plan office research arrive at independently, which is why it is worth following whichever reasoning you prefer.

Which direction should a desk face in feng shui?

Eight Mansions feng shui gives each person four favourable compass directions calculated from their birth date and sex, and suggests facing one of them while working. Position outranks direction every time: a desk in the commanding position facing the wrong way beats a badly placed desk facing the right way. The planner calculates your Kua number and shows which way you are facing live.

Can a home office be in a bedroom?

It can, and it is the most common setup, but both ergonomics and feng shui treat it as a compromise because rest and work are opposite modes. Put maximum distance between desk and bed, keep the desk out of the sightline from the pillow, give the desk its own wall and door view, and screen or close it at night.

Where should a desk not be placed?

With your back to the door, directly under a beam or a sloped ceiling, hard against a wall with no open space in front of it, or with a sharp cabinet corner pointing at where you sit. If you can only fix one of those, fix the back-to-the-door one.