Before you buy anything, measure your doorways, not just the room. I learned this the hard way with a filing cabinet that fit the office perfectly and then would not fit through the hallway, and it lived in the garage for three weeks while I figured out how to get it in sideways. Office cabinets tend to be deeper and boxier than people expect, so bring a tape measure before you bring your credit card.
On finish, plain wood tones and soft matte whites hold up best over time, because they do not show the scuffs the way high gloss does. A glossy black cabinet looks sharp for about a week, then every coffee mug ring and dropped stapler shows up like evidence at a trial. Warm oak, a muted sage, or just a simple white with real paint rather than a thin laminate will take years of papers sliding in and out, coffee cups resting on top, and the occasional cat walking across it, without looking tired. Darker woods hide more, but they also show dust in a way that will make you question your life choices on a Sunday afternoon.
Where these fall short is anywhere you need real flexibility. If you are still figuring out what your home office even needs to hold, a cabinet with fixed shelves or one drawer size commits you before you know what you are committing to. They are also not the answer if you need to move things around often, since most are heavier than they look and not built for being shuffled room to room every season. A rolling cart or open shelving earns its place better in that situation.
In an ordinary room, an office cabinet sits best next to or under a desk, not floating alone against a wall looking like it got lost on its way to a different house. Pair it with a simple desk lamp and a chair that does not scream "conference room," and it stops looking like office furniture and starts looking like it belongs in your home. It also does real work as a sideboard substitute in a small house where the office doubles as a guest room, holding linens on the bottom shelf and files up top, which is exactly what we did when the guest room was still just a mattress and a box fan.
The one mistake to avoid is buying based on how it looks closed. Open every drawer in the listing photos, check the inside measurements, and make sure it can actually hold a hanging file folder, because a beautiful cabinet that can't hold your actual paperwork is just a very expensive place to stack mail.