Table of Contents: Working It

Where are you most productive? Here at Remodelista, we’re a roving crew with laptops: we work at our kitchen tables, on our sofas, in home offices, in our official offices (in SF, NYC, and London), and a lot of points in between (this is being composed on flight 415, seat 22C, en route from LA to NY). But some setups are admittedly much more conducive to hunkering down than others. This week, join us as we investigate smart work spaces (and accessories) of all sorts.

• The ideal starting point for many: the blank-canvas desktop. Do you agree that an uncluttered desk equals an uncluttered mind? Or do you like to work surrounded by tangible reminders of all that you need to do?
• In today’s House Call, we take a look at Joan McNamara’s live/work LA loft (yes, that Joan, the owner of Joan’s on Third), where she tests recipes, refines her menus, and entertains her dearly beloveds. (To join the cult, see Joan’s On Third: An LA Institution.)
• Our Object Lessons columnist Megan Wilson parses the appeal of the IBM clock, which, she writes in the Remodelista 100, “has been quietly marking time in American schoolrooms, offices, and factories for almost 100 years.”
• Even in today’s laptop culture, creativity begins with the right writing desk–the subject of this week’s 10 Easy Pieces. (For our chair suggestions, have a look at 10 Easy Pieces: Desk Chairs.)
• Our resident organization fanatic, Janet, rounds up 5 Favorites: the best desktop organizers. (You might also like her companion posts, 12 Ways to Warm Up Your Electronics and 13 Favorites: Best of Household Tools.)
• At home in London, Remodelista’s UK editor (and resident architect), Christine, carved out a home office that her family of four all share–and it’s filled with stealth storage. For Friday’s Rehab Diaries, she unveils the space which she remodeled with her architect husband. See more of Christine’s small townhouse in her post, Finding Storage in Unexpected Places.
• A Cobble Hill townhouse by Khanna Schultz, a member of the Remodelista Architect/Designer Directory, is this week’s Architect Is In. The two principals, Robert Schultz and Vrinda Khanna, will be on standby this weekend to answer questions about the remodel.