Remember when working from home was a fun thing you did to get away from the office, get some peace and quiet, or maybe just to get your work organized?

Who could have imagined that working from home would be the new way of life for so many of us? I’m sure, just like you, no one!

You may be wondering how can you quickly throw together a productive and inspiring French Country Farmhouse home office setup?

If you don’t already have a home office setup, and you’re looking for French Country Farmhouse home office desk ideas, and ready to go shopping, put on the brakes!

Before you jump in, today I want to share with you several home office desk ideas, and three different French Country, classic and Farmhouse style home office setup designs ranging from built-in desks to one-and-done unique home office desk ideas, and the perfect solution for when you just want to spread out and create!

One of my best tips that I can share with you when planning out your home office is before you go shopping or online to-go order something, really think about the style of your home before you commit to your home office design.

This is so your new, probably much-needed home office:

• blends in effortlessly with the style of your home
• is authentically you
• and is an inspiring place to work in

I’m going to show you three different ideas; ranging from the most complicated to the easiest solution.

In my own home office setup, it was important for me to take into account the style of my home, as well as the function. I wanted to tie my home office setup, and home office decor into the French Country, Farmhouse and antique design elements already in my home, as well as the French Country or casual Farmhouse feeling, which includes soft, beautiful color palettes, worn finishes, beautiful patinas, worn woods, mixed with luxe finishes, and pieces of furniture that inspire me and allow me to do some of my best work at home.

French Country Farmhouse Home Office Setup #1: 

The Built-InFor the weekend warrior in you, we’re going to start with the most complicated project first. Here you can see behind me, this is my built-in home office. It’s made up of a really great long, woodworking surface area that holds my computer. If you are looking for more permanent home office desk ideas, you will love this home office setup because it goes all out.

I’ve got home office organization drawers below, home office style cubbies above, cabinets above that, bookshelves on either side and cabinets below to store all of my equipment like printers and scanners, as well as my organizing containers.

This home office was really tailored to be for me, and that’s why it’s built into the cabinetry in our home. I love to work from home and did this often before it was the thing to do.

In my home office setup, I really took it up a notch and personalized it to feel authentic to me and my family. Here’s how I made this French country farmhouse built-in office unique to me.

• Rather than paint everything white, as you can see, my cabinets are chalk painted this really beautiful shade of French Gray. Get the look with Amitha Verma Chalk Finish Paint, in French Gray
• It also has my favorite soft satin brass gold hardware (I am obsessed) and
• I included layers of classic molding because that’s what truly inspires me when I’m working in my office

When I was designing this built-in home office, one of the most important things for me was that I don’t really want to see a lot of the mechanics of the office. Once I am done with my work, I want it to go away. It’s the only way I get the “b” word. Balance, that is. Home, work-life balance, which I can tell you now is harder than ever! I’m sure you can agree

Throughout my cabinetry, we drilled holes, for all our wires, to feed the wires through (this was before everything with wireless), and tucked away chords and created a system of built-in home office cabinetry. This was so all of the “office mess” like the paperwork, invoices, billing, printers, and filing systems are all behind the scenes.

Love this look, and want to jump in?

First, start by determining how deep you want your cabinets to be. I did this by just measuring the different pieces of home office equipment that I had such as my computer, my printer, and my shredder.

Generally, I would recommend anywhere from about 18” to 24” inches for cabinets and your desktop. Next up is, I would determine how big you want your desktop. Mine is 5’ feet long because when I designed it, I envisioned two people sitting at this built-in desk at the same time.

Like for instance, me helping my boys doing their homework, or looking over bills with hubby.

Before this gorgeous French Country Farmhouse built-in home office even existed, all I had was a blank wall behind me. I just pulled out my measuring tape and decided how much space and how much of depth I needed to house all of the computer equipment and then built the whole built-in home office out. Afterwards, I went on to create all of these beautiful paint finishes that you see behind me.

You can get a very similar French Country Farmhouse look with:

• Amitha Verma Chalk Finish Paint in French Gray
• Apply Amitha Verma Protect Sealer
• Apply lots of Amitha Verma Enhance Gray, Antiquing Glaze like I did in my own home office

If you’re not ready to jump into a little mini home office construction project, let me show you another great idea!

French Country Farmhouse Home Office Setup #2: The Vintage Secretary

If you don’t want to do a built-in, my best tip of advice for you is to look for a desk that blends into the existing style of your home, such as a Farmhouse desk, or a vintage writing desk, or an antique or vintage secretary.

When I was looking for a piece of furniture to work from home, I immediately selected an antique or antique-style secretary, and I encourage you to do the same.

You can easily make any room, or maybe a room with a door, and a secretary a perfect home office.

This antique writing table has to be one of my favorite pieces of furniture of ALL time. It is timeless, I mean never going out of style, vintage home desk idea. Let me show you why.

Here you can see just exactly why I love this piece of furniture.

There are certain characteristics you will only find in an antique writing table, vintage secretary, or Farmhouse style desk such as:

• Gorgeous and delightful hardware that on its own is a work of art
• Beautiful colors that will inspire you, that you will enjoy looking at a day in and day out rather than just brown or white
• Small compartments that you can use to easily manage your home office organization
• A clever top or lid that easily “hides” your mess – priceless 😉

When I’m ready to go to work, all I have to do is put the top down on my antique writing table and then start to work!

Words cannot express how much I love this antique secretary or writing table, it’s like a piece of furniture and home office decor all at once, or just simply a piece of French Country Farmhouse decor in the middle of my room.

It’s so old, and this antique secretary still has the beautiful original leather work surface and all of these amazing cubbies that I still use to maintain my home office organization for my office supplies.

I just get my laptop out whenever I’m ready to do my work and get to work. When it’s quitting time, which I will say is a little bit harder when you’re working from home, I can easily tuck my laptop right back into the shelf.

We’ve had several of these at Village Antiques over the years, and I’m sure you can see now, that we’re all setting up our home office, what a treasure that they are.

If all else fails, and you can’t find a vintage style secretary or desk, go for a Farmhouse desk like one of these:

French Country Farmhouse Home Office Setup #3: The Multi-use Farmhouse Desk Table

My third idea is a multi-use Farmhouse home office space that’s actually in another spot of my home so follow me while we go check it out.

Here you can see I had an extra room in my house, just like you might have. This could be an extra guest room, bedroom, or maybe a dining room, or maybe even a laundry room. I know that sounds crazy, but we’re from Texas, y’all!

I converted this extra room in our house into a project room and this is exactly where my boys love to spread out to do their homework, zoom school, and do crafts and projects all day long. They love spreading out on this beautiful vintage old Farmhouse table turned into a desk and really making a mess and going to town without having to worry about messing anything up.

The table was actually a really solid dark-colored wood, but to make it match my home and my decor, I simply refinished it and put in a little bit of a gray paint wash all over it to lighten up the color and have it blend beautifully.

Farmhouse Table Before

Farmhouse Table After

You can get a similar look with Amitha Verma Chalk Finish Paint in Belgian Blue

Amitha Verma Belgian Blue Chalk Finish Paint

Obviously this is not a built-in or even a proper desk, so you may be wondering “where do we put the stuff?” To make sure you don’t create a mess, here are are a few home office organization tips:

• look for different types of trays
• portable drawers
• baskets
• sorting trays
• boxes with lids
• cubbies for pens, pencils, crayons, markers, and more
• organizers to keep all of the things that you might need in a cabinet (like I did in mine)
• or you could even put your stuff on shelves above your great big Farmhouse desk table

And there you have it!

You got to see three great ideas and ways to create your own French Country Farmhouse home office.

I am excited to see in the comments, which one of these is your favorite, and which one you are going to do in your own home. Let me know!

My biggest tip:

Make sure your home still feels like a home! If you noticed, throughout the different areas of my three home office setups, you didn’t really see a big mix and match of actual “office furniture”. Down to the French country or Farmhouse style chairs, I selected things that were practical and comfortable but still fit into the Farmhouse style of our family’s home.

I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment and let us know how you’re setting up your home office. Be sure to send us a picture. We’d love to see and share all over our social media.

‘Til the next time we meet, keep making your home amazing with your design gifts!