Home office solutions

Forget great rooms, walk-in closets and spa-like bathrooms. The home office has become the new staple of the American home. Among the examples of how Southern Californians are incorporating work spaces into their homes: the Manhattan Beach residence of architect Grant Kirkpatrick. Here, wife Shaya works in her home office, where wide doors open to the front patio. (Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times)

Sept. 16, 2014 11:57 AM PT

Forget great rooms, walk-in closets and spa-like bathrooms. The home office has become the new staple of the American home.

More home offices are being designed to preserve some separation between personal and professional lives. Santa Monica architect Jesse Bornstein put his office in front of his house, closest to the street. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Wide windows let in fresh ocean breezes and connect the work space to the garden outside. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

The office has its own entrance, so visitors can come and go without ever stepping foot into the rest of the house. When Bornstein is done with work for the day, he simply leaves the office and walks to house’s main entry, in the distance -- a commute of a few dozen steps. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

The anti-cubicle: fashion designer Johnson Hartig’s glass and Lucite table, backed by Damien Hirst’s spin art. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Nancy Cartwright, voice of Bart Simpson and devotee of pink, sits at her desk in her bedroom in the Valley. Old-school cabinets like this one are making a comeback as consumers look for ways to organize and hide their office clutter. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

Furniture designer Reza Feiz converted a bedroom in his Studio City house into an office. He removed the closet doors to create an alcove for the desk. The simple Artemide light fixture provides some low-cost personality, he says. The coffee table in the foreground was designed by Feiz; the cutout is filled with cork-covered seating cube. (Bryan Chan / Los Angeles Times)

Squirrel lamp notwithstanding, the centerpiece of film and TV producer Fenton Bailey’s study is a leather-covered desk purchased from the estate of movie producer Irving Thalberg. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Redondo Beach residents Jack and Meredith Chapman converted their attic into office space. (Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times)

John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects incorporated an office in the design of a new modern home for Santa Monica residents Matt and Erin King. That’s Erin in the office, as seen through custom shelving in the living room. (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

Erin King works in her office as son James looks on. Floor-to-ceiling glass not only provides light and views but also creates the illusion that the room is taller than it really is. The office sits near the front door, so Erin’s business visitors can come and go without intruding on the rest of the house. (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)