Quinn’s Room

Office and Guest Bedroom in the Foothills of Albuquerque, NM

THe Project

Sometimes you need a room to be everything. These clients came to us with a need to fit a two person desk, extensive bookshelves, and a queen bedframe into a room which is not very big. After some deep thought and a few design revisions we settled on floating open shelving to keep things as light as possible, a Murphy bed, and a giant desk that flows the shelves all across the room. When we went into the project we were afraid it might all be too much, when we had finished, all I wanted was to install the same thing in my own house.

Some of the design drawings we provided to the client for this job

The Floating Shelves

Our main goal for the shelves was to get as much storage for books without cluttering the room. We built them with as little visible structure as possible to keep things open, and curved them into a flow that eases you into and around the room without creating any harsh obstructions.

The lighting under the shelves was added to keep that corner from getting dark and give some gentle atmosphere when people are using the bed.

The corner Desk

The brief was for a partner desk under the window. Originally we had it designed as a peninsula, coming out into the center of the room with its users sitting face to face, but there wasn’t enough room to fit the Murphy bed in that orientation. Instead we realized that if we have it traveling along the wall as a corner desk, mirroring the movement of the shelves, the room becomes much more usable and cohesive.

The desk has holes to pass through power and data cords as needed. The project is made out of hickory hardwood that has a strong contrast in color inside the wood. We composed the wood to be darker on bottom and lighter on top, darker towards the wall and lighter further out.

The Murphy Bed

We wanted the bed to fade into the room when it was not in use, and so we decided not to put any of the hardware on it which would normally be put on a Murphy bed to help lower it. Instead we put a finger grove on the sides and top of the paneling that are  easy to use but disappear. We did the same thing with the locking pin on the side, making a little pocket for it to hide inside.

We decided to do tongue and groove paneling on the face for a similar reason - keeping the design simple and contemporary. I really love the way the choice of the wood grain turned out with the dark heart wood on the edges and the light sapwood  in the center. Hickory wood can be a wonder.