RVing. . .an office in a small space?

You don’t have to be running a business in your RV to need/want office space. GET and I don’t have a business but do have our own laptops and ”need” our individual space.  (Another example of full time RVing together successfully. ALSO, he is an only child and you know how they are at sharing!)  In each of our full timing RVs, there have been six, we have carved out personal office space. Here are a few of our arrangements.

In our Travel Supreme we removed the dining table and chairs, found a computer desk that fit the space perfectly and added a wicker stand for the printer.

The HitchhikerII LS had a built-in desk. Pretty small but it did the job. (An aside, don’t buy a rear kitchen 5th wheel no matter what the salesperson says, YES, IT DOES BOUNCE!  AND YES, DISHES WILL GET BROKEN---AND THEY DID!)

I loved the office space we made in our Escalade.  Before we made the office space I used the dining table pushed forward against the sofa.  The printer sat on the stand behind my chair where it worked out ok.  Then I came up with a better idea!

As in the Travel Supreme we removed the dining table. (We eat on our pop-up coffee table.)  We bought upper kitchen cabinets at Home Depot and fastened them against the slider wall for stability. Upper cabinets are more narrow than bottom, thus making them more suitable as RV cabinets.  Fortunately we were able to match the natural maple of our 5th wheel.  The cabinets provided a generous amount of storage.

Next step was the top and workspace area for my laptop. I used a piece of cardboard to design a pattern for a cantilever shelf.   I didn’t want to be bumping into a leg.  After several adjustments it was ready to go to the cabinetmaker.

Took my cardboard pattern along with the cabinet top dimensions to a cabinet shop where I chose a beautiful piece of light maple.  They cut the top from one piece of 4’X8’ and edged it to match. Bought the finished top home and it fit perfectly!

The cantilevered work top needed support and the entire top had to be installed permanently so GET got busy doing the finish work.

An there we have it—workspace and computer desk!  Absolutely loved it!

And then, what did we do?  We bought a new 5th wheel!  And left this wonderful desk! 

This is my desk in our Landmark 5th wheel on an ordinary day.  It is a built-in dining table so customizing it will be a bigger challenge.

The outdoor TV casing protrudes into the inside cabinet.  (We have never used this TV!)

I do have nice storage space although some of it is taken by the steel casing of the outdoor TV.

We replaced two huge dark brown leather recliners that came with the 5th wheel with a smaller leather Lazy Boy making space for the credenza which serves as office space.  I chose the printer almost totally based on space available in the credenza.

I’m still contemplating ideas on how to make this a more efficient workspace. Until that brilliant idea hits me I’ll be content with my present arrangement.

P.S.  We are excited. . . back on the road this month!