Plan a study room layout for desk, books and lighting.
A study room is planned around the desk zone, which is the desk plus the space the chair needs to move: about 5.5 ft of depth for a 2.5 ft desk and 3 ft of chair travel. Multiply that by the number of people working simultaneously, because two students at one long desk still need two chair zones. Bookshelves take 1.2 ft of depth per linear foot of run. The lighting figure is the one usually overlooked: study work wants around 500 lux on the desk surface, which is roughly 50 lumens per square foot of desk — a 4 ft desk therefore needs about 500 lumens of dedicated task light on top of the room's ambient lighting, not instead of it.
Study Room Layout
Desk zone = desk width x 5.5 ft x occupants; shelf footprint = shelf run x 1.2 ft; free area = room area - desk zone - shelves; task lumens = desk area x 50 lm/sq ft
About 500 lux on the surface, which is roughly 500 lumens of task lighting for a 4 ft desk. Ambient ceiling light alone typically delivers 150-300 lux at desk height.
Comfortably at around 90-100 sq ft with desks on opposite or adjacent walls. Facing each other across one desk saves floor space but is the worst arrangement for concentration.