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.
i have 2-21" monitors, a 16" FP, 1-19" monitor (plus some small speaker cubes and misc) on that chromed wire rack shelving (called bakers'racks), this stuff is from a company called Metro Shelving, but IKEA has its own brand...
i use the wide shelves, 24" (and 8 or 10 feet long) for the monitors, and use the narrow (around 8-10"wide) to create a keyboard shelf right in front/below the wider "top"....
you can adjust the height on those legs, with those nylon bushings and i've put a ton of weight on these things (well, about 600-800#'s) and not had much deflection...(though the center of percussion was really high..took about 200# off)
the downsides include having to put "trays" for your pens, smoking materials, etc...as they would otherwise just drop through the wires and if you are one of those folk who rest their wrists on the desktop edge...WELL, a couple of hours of that will teach you about numbness and pain...if you use a contoured KB or wrist rest..nada problemo...
it looks kinda HiTek...and you really can find the stuff just about anywhere, its reasonably priced (IKEA's is the cheapest but they don't have a very big selection of sizes) and if you really HATE the chrome...it's available in a semi-dull/shiny BLACL finish...Blood, Bath and Beyond has a really ***nice*** brand of this stuff, but it's kinda pricey
i equipped an office with about 12-15 of these "desks"...got lots of compliments from customer/visitors and only checked it out for the same reason you mention...all of our employees had at least 3 monitors per desktop and we just couldn't find a nice-looking, cost-effective solution...
i thinks it's medium cool looking, but, as always, should you or any of your..., i mean, YMMV...
Ten quid, she's so easy to blind. And not a word is spoken...
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!
When it comes to office furniture, one's got to mention these:
Slashdot: The Ultimate Chair
Poetic Tech: Working environments for high tech professionals
They don't come with beer fridges but can serve as inspiration, that's for sure...
Oh, and it is almost worth buying something just to see their packaging: 2 inch thick corrugated cardboard!
For the record, I don't work for Anthro and have no relatives or friends who do, I just own one of their desks and like it very much.
IKEA furniture sucks because IKEA uses the lowest-budget (hardboard, cardboard, and particle board if you're lucky) materials for the most important structural elements. I'll admit I like the designs and the styling, but my experience with IKEA furniture was bad because the materials were so poor.
A cheaper, better alternative (if "looks" aren't important) is either plywood sheets or door blanks set on filing cabinets. Buy veneered plywood (oak or cherry) and it'll look as good as anything IKEA ever sold.
For a sleek modern look, buy some old steel filing cabinets from a used office supply place and strip the paint off of them until they're a nice brushed steel.
I had exactly the same problem--I solved it with creativity, a 4x8 sheet of plywood, and a scroll saw.
:). I finished it with Verithane, because the stuff doesn't stink and cleans up with water.
;) on the floor. Place your computer equipment, books, etc. in place. Does it feel right? Try again in a couple of days. Does it still feel right?
My construction was simple. I cut a single 4'x8', 0.75" sheet of oak plywood to the correct shape. To support the weight of my monitors, I ran bracing the length and width of the table directly under the monitors. The bracing strips are 2" wide, made from the same sheet of plywood, and mounted perpendicular to the bottom of the table. For added stability, I fastened two edges the table to the wall using 2"x2"s, but if your installation is temporary this may not work for you. Because of the bracing and wall fastening, the table requires just one leg, which leaves plenty of space for my legs and four computers under the table.
I cut the table to shape using a scroll saw, which I already owned. I rounded the edges using a router, which I now had an excuse to buy
Total cost, $90. Satisfaction, at least 10 times anything I found in stores at a reasonable price.
Notes:
1. Explicitly define your requirements. Mine were lots of table space, enough depth for 21" monitor, keyboard tray that also has room for the mouse, and plenty of room under the table for multiple computers. Also, where are you going to put it? In particular, consider the location's lighting.
2. Create a prototype. Use string or masking tape to create a virtual table
3. Double check that the design is stable and robust. In particular, is it strong enough to hold that pair of 21" monitors. Consider bracing to MHz or RAM, more is better.
5. Buy the wood, tools, screws and wood glue. Try and find "void free" plywood. Most plywood has hidden holes in the interior layers.
6. Even thought I took my time, used guides to ensure my straight edges were straight and curves consistent, rounded the edges, and put on three finishing coats, the entire project only took four hours. It is well worth it!
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.
One option I'm surprised I haven't seen voiced -- get a bunch of desks at thrift stores, arrange them in a semi-circle. Not necessarily the slickest option, but definitely the cheapest. At least if yr willing to place the machines & fridge on the floor. I use two desks & the top of a filing cabinet; add desks according to need.
man, if you've got SEVEN computers, you really ought to rack them and use some KVM switching. You can also cool them more efficiently that way as well as providing better security and power supply. Keep your desk nice with your screens, kbd, mse and whatever cradle-like peripherals you need. Two's a couple, three's a crowd but SEVEN's a FARM.
That was classic intercourse!
Helping with organizational effectiveness is our job.
I'm hoping I can find some of that 'Boomerang' pattern formica. Very Retro.
If it has a sink cutout, that's where I'm going to put the monitor. (Maybe I can get a 'swirling water' screen saver. That would be cool.)
A couple of spigots that attach down to the beer and coffee dispensers would be key.
If I replace the old aeron with a working john, I'd never have to get up, too!
(Sorry - I've been coding all day - I'm a little punchy...)
Actually, formica makes a great work surface and as g33kb0y mentioned, that backsplash is really handy.
Cheers,
Jim
-- My Weblog.
Sligh furniture carries a line of home office furniture that looks like conventional furniture (hutches, desks, cabinets, etc). It's modular, of very high furniture quality, and really functional. Best of all, it looks like it belongs in a home and not an office or spacecraft or sterile.
But, it is pricey. We're in the process of finishing our basement which now includes a home office with 16 network jacks, 25 dedicated ground outlets and, I think, 8 phone jacks. We've got a built-in storage cabinet that will house my networking gear and UPS to help keep the office uncluttered. Additionally, we're looking at a printer cabinet that will house my laser printer, and a dedicated print server and probably our fax machine.
The kids play area also has a builtin dedicated computer desk (networked, of course) and place for an ink-jet printer and phone. Having one's own home with an unfinished area is a bonus as I have the luxury to do it right and not have to retrofit.
Yeah..I had to take a loan out for this...but when people say there are no decent computer furniture, that applies to people who are:
1) either not willing to really look or
2) don't have a budget for the more expensive stuff or
3) need a temporary arrangement (like a student moving into a dorm). In this case, rule #2 (or #1) usually applies.
I do however, applaud all the people who have responded with solutions that are truly functional for them and on a relatively low budget. It shows ingenuity and that necessity truly is the mother of invention.
And, I have to admit that sometimes I wish my wife would let me splurge and get some really off the wall stuff. Personally, I prefer the high tech look. But, for a home that I may have to resell someday, that isn't the most practical solution.
Cheers,
RD
I couldn't find a suitable desk either, but I had slightly different goals. I wanted something to fit in a very specific place and that looked good. Functionality was a secondary design goal.
Anyway, my desk is in an alcove about 1.5m wide by 1m deep. It's constructed of a single sheet of tempered glass 6mm thick supported on three sides by 1" square blocks of wood bolted to the walls.
There are gaps in the support blocks at the back for the wires to go through and the glass is pulled slightly forward for them to fit. There's a piece of conduit bolted to the back wall that hides all the cables away.
It holds a 19" monitor, printer and a scanner (plus the inevitable pile of CDs, manuals etc that end up on it).
The effect is amazing, it looks like everything is just hanging there, the supports are painted the same coulour as the walls so they're not very obvious when you first see it. I intend to get a wireless mouse and keyboard to complete the effect at some point.
If you're thinking of doing this, get some professional advice on the glass and supports. I had the glass cut and polished by a specialist company (cost about £60) who worked out how thick it would need to be to support the weight.
I had the same trouble after my fancy computer desk got destroyed in a move. After looking around and seeing the cost for substandard desks, I just went to the office supply store. I bought an 8' folding table, like the kind you use in school or government functions. TONS of room underneath it also. When I move again, I won't have to disassemble anything, just fold up the legs and I'm good to go.
Sturdy.
60$.
I bought a second one for a workbench. The office stores deliver for free also.
Democrats or Republicans. They are both taking us to the same place and they are not afraid of us anymore.
She also has a yen for antique furniture, and insisted on using a 120 year old partner's desk with its matching chair. The desk was a about eight inches too high to comfortably type, and was almost a foot think (so you couldn't solve the problem by jacking up the chair). It was aslo shaped as a square, with the origional idea being that two peopl would work from either side. My mother's solution was to place the desk in the center of the room, and walk around the thing whenever she needed to get to one of the systems on the other side. Needless to say, after every project, she had horrible back pain and aching wrists (bad enough that she couldn't hold a cup of coffee). And yet, she utterly refused to buy a real desk - "I just can't stand modern furniture!" was her reasoning.
In any event, I decided that the only way I was going to get her to use a real desk was if I built the thing myself, thus guilting her into an ergonimic solution. So, I took measurements of her height, the length of her legs to the knees and to the hip, and the length of her arms, and built a desk to her exact measurements. Fortunatly, my high school offered and woodworking evening activity. I spent about seven months building the thing (it had to hold up nearly a 1000 Kg of equipment, not to mention live up to her tasts for good furniture). In the end, it was four feet deep, fourteen feet long, with two sets of drawers and two vented computer cabinets. If anyone's ever built furniture before, you know what a pain in the ass it is to build drawers, especially big ones! Wood expands and contracts by as much as 5% with humidity and temperature, so big drawers are next to impossible to get right without doing all sorts of strange things to compensate for the changes in geometry. I also had the pleasure (?!!) to have had access to a seasoned trunk of red oak, so I milled the desk surface, leggs and other main parts myself. Since the desk had to be so large and hold up so much weight, I actually found all the available plans and project guides to be utterly useless. The main span of the desk is nine feet, and had to be able to support up to two tons (in case, for instance, someone dropped one of those 20" monitors on it from a few feet in the air, the desk wouldn't collapse and destroy the rest of her equipment).
I ended up turning to bridge design for a workable solution. It had to take into account the high loads, vibration and shock, and expansion and contraction of the material. Basically, I went with a box-girder construction, but with suspension cables inside the box. The suspension cables were nessesary becasuse the joints of the box girder could not simply be fixed to one another, or the surface of the desk would split. Each of the joints is made using lateral rails with ballbearings, like the sliders for a drawer, only much larger. Unfortunatly, this leads to a rather unpleasant amount of gear lash since the bearings require a small amount of play. The suspension cables keep the desk arched slightly upward, instead of bowed downward. This insures that the bearings are aways biased in the same direction so there is no gear lash. Also, the suspension cables are mounted to shock absorbers. Any vibration on the surface is transmitted into the shock absorbers. The result is that the desk surface is only four inches thick at the center, but is strong enough to hold up a small car (or withstand the shock of a 150 Kg object droped from two meters), sturdy enough that you can pound a nail into a block of wood and not skip a CD player a foot away, and flexible enough that it expands an contracts lengthwise by about an inch and a half.
In the end, it cost me about $300 to build the desk, if you assume my time was worthless (I was a high school student, so that was pretty much the case) and you don't count the electricity and heating oil I used up. After graduation, my mother shiped it from Vermont to California - all 400 kilograms of it. I'll leave it as an exersize to the reader to figure out how much more it cost to ship than to build.
She is now happily using a desk built to her exact ergonimic requirements, and has not suffered from back or wrist pain in the four years since she's been using it. It's not quite as pretty as the aincent antiques she's got - but hey, it was my first (and thusfar only) attempt at woodworking.
In spite of the suggestions and all the tests that I have made, I have not cavato a spider from the hole.