Slashdot Mirror
Building a DIY Home Office?
Rednerd asks: "I just moved into a new apartment and I'm almost done painting and running the cat 5. I have been looking at office furniture for a new desk to become the new home for all of my misc. computer gadgetry, but I haven't been able to find anything that really fits. (No one seems to sell a desk with room for two 19" monitors, seven computers, a beer fridge, coffee maker, and a small compartment to serve as a shrine for my little plush penguin - Potelé) I'm leaning toward building a custom desk for my computers. With all the talk on Slashdot about creating an ultra-efficient cubicle, I was wondering what other slashdotters have created in the way of DIY home offices?"
Everybody knows someone who's handy.
A friend and I designed and built a new desk when I moved to fit the room and my gear perfectly. (Well, my friend did most of the work) It's doable. And it turned out to be a LOT cheaper than the suitable desks I found out there.
If you DO want to buy a ready-made desk, don't look in furniture stores, they just sell kiddy stuff, and desks for people that need a place for their electric typewriter. Go look at companies that sell to other companies. They're usually more difficult to find, even though they often have a showroom (though just not visible from the outside) and sell to regular people. They're insanely expensive though. But, if you really want ready-made, they'll usually have something that fits.
The cool thing about making your own desk is not only that your desk gets to be BIG, but you also get to choose the materials and colors.
The downside about making your own desk is that it's too difficult to make a desk that has adjustable height, so you have to be REALLY sure how high your surface needs to be (mine is 2 cm too high).
If you are going to make your own desk, make it deep enough. Commercial desks usually are too shallow to place a keyboard in front of your monitor and still be able to rest your elbows in a comfortable manner.
Go to your local home improvement store. You can usually find a pre-cut formica counter top in the clearance bin. Add two filing cabinets or vanitys - one on each end of the countertop. Voila! My workspace is 10' long with a backsplash (to keep all of my pens from finding their normal resting place behind the desk).
Unsightly? maybe... but functionality is great!
I've been working in my home office full-time (with 7 computers) for almost a year. I wouldn't want to be working at the same desk where the computers are because of all the heat they produce. So I have four of my computers stacked together on an anti-static mat. It's a lot cheaper than buying furniture for them, it works well, and they're directing their heat out of my office.
I use a desk from Office Depot (about $60) for my workstation - it's wider than normal computer desks, so you can fit your mouse, keyboard and a frosty beverage on the main desk surface. A shelf in the back comfortably holds 2 monitors, and the space under the shelf gives me plenty of room to hold all those little odds and ends. I have two of the desks together at about a 90 degree angle, and they make a great work area.
The other trick was to get a decent chair with height-adjustable arms (about $100) and set them so that the top of the arms is roughly even with the desk. I've had tendinitis and carpal tunnel in the past, but I haven't had any trouble at all working in my home office.
Home Despot, er, Home Depot also carries this. Be careful though, there are two grades of shelving. The Cheaper one will never support 600-800 lbs. of weight. To tell the difference look at the cross support wires. if there are a few (like 3) then it is the cheaper stuff. you want the ones with 5 or 8 cross support wires.
-dan
Sounds as though you were creating a non-rectangular table top. In a case like that, it's a good idea to do a mock-up with pink or blue foam insulation board. It's a 4 foot by 8 foot sheet (just like plywood but a lot cheaper), cuts a lot easier, is thick enough (half to three-quarters of an inch) that it won't "flop". You can put it where the table top is going to go, sit down at it and try it on for size (but don't expect it to hold your monitor up!!!), modify its shape with a utility knife (use duct tape to "cut it bigger"), and then when you have it the way you want it, use it as a template by which to cut the plywood.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.