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Home Computer Furniture Solutions
Yet Another Anonymous Coward (that will be an acronym, someday) asks: "I'm tired of trying to cram my 17" monitor, keyboard and case on my desks. And I'm tired of compromising having a nice-looking writing desk for a genero OfficeMax pressboard-desk for my computer. Does anyone know of, or have any personal experience with more creative and ergonomic solutions for their computer? I have investigated quite a few monitor/keyboard arms, but they all require that you mount them on a desk or wall or something. Does anyone know of a free-standing monitor/keyboard swivel-arm mount that actually LOOKS GOOD? "
standard wood door from hardware store........$15
two broad sturdy shelf units from Goodwill....$20
1 CPU, 2 CRTs, keyboard, mouse, turntable,
stereo, and room to write...........priceless
But seriously folks, hands down cheapest best solution is this. sure IKEA is nice but I am willing ot forego hep-factor 5 for a nice plane.
Chairs are another beast though. Even these wheel bottomed chairs grind into the carpet. Anybody using mag-lev?
Although they are not the prettiest, I find 6' folding banquet tables hard to beat. Tons of real estate on top, plenty of leg room, sturdy... I still remember the day that I bought my first one at Sam's Club for $30. Ah, the memories :) tactic
Although they are not the prettiest, I find 6' folding banquet tables hard to beat. Tons of real estate on top, plenty of leg room, sturdy... I still remember the day that I bought my first one at Sam's Club for $30. Ah, the memories :)
tactic
thrift stores
Personally, I *love* my desk. I basically took the idea from a desk that I saw at Staples (hey, I was only looking for ideas...). The desk was designed to fit in a corner and take very little space. It had shelves underneath, and an open back to allow cords and such.
What I did was this: I took two of my (approx) 3" bookshelves (that I already was using for books) and placed them in the corner, facing out. I grabbed a thick, sturdy piece of (really *ugly*, but cheap) wood, then cut it to fit into the corner and across the bookshelves. Then I used corner joints to attach the desktop to the bookshelves.
Finally, I grabbed a bunch of adhesive... and some formica. The result is an extremely nice desk, with shelves on the bottom for all my O'Reilly books and such (plus some CD's). It only cost me about $150-- then again, my local hardware store was also having a "going out of business" sale...
Anyway, it supports my 17" monitor, and I just put my tower next to it. I have a cramped living space, so it fits perfectly.
Of course, you can always *buy* the damn desk at Staples-- it was actually $30 cheaper; I think mine is a bit sturdier, though. And much better looking...
I enjoy my desk. It has an extremely light aluminium frame, and it uses a glass surface. Very cool looking. The glass is really sturdy. I packed 3 monitors, and 4 computers onto it in one configuration. It's actually two desks. OfficeMax might still sell them. It'll probably run you quite a bit though. And it's a pain in the ass to clean.
>It doesn't come cheap, but what worth having does?
:^)
You mean, _besides_ Linux, FreeBSD, GNU, etc?
Good suggestion. If you want a nice looking desk/computer table cheap, then you might want to try laying a door down on a couple of 2 drawer file cabinets. It sounds silly, but I bought a $250 9' x 4' finished solid oak door. Note I said oak; it's real wood not the particle board junk. It is solid, and it looks expensive. Outside doors are more expensive than inside doors, but (fortunately) you need an inside door so that it will be flat. It is much easier and cheaper to use ~7' tall doors, so use that if you don't have enough room for one larger or you need to save money. It had a cut-out for the door knob, but I used that to my advantage. I routed cables through it. You can find several different heights of 2 drawer file cabinets, so keep looking if you don't find the height you want at first. My 9' wide desk is plenty wide for me to have plenty of room for both my 21" monitor, an X-terminal w/ 17" monitor, and space left over to use to write on.
The original post mentioned monitor arms. I found that doors are much better to clamp things onto (from my clamping o-scope shelf, magnifying glass, desk lamp, etc.) than a desk. With a door, you have a 1" - 3" wide flat surface around the entire desk to clamp-to. I don't have a single place on my desk at work to clamp my magnifying glass to other than the small place where I sit. A door might do you well.
http://www.astro.rug.nl/~tim/desk.jpg
unfortunately, the US website doesn't appear to list it so i'm not sure if one can get it there ( i got mine in NL). if you can find it, it's worth it. it's one of the coolest (IMHO) computer tables i've seen anywhere.
tim
hiding in shadows / i hear you coming closer / you will explode soon -- a quake haiku
I can recommend using a rooms corner.
Put a simple, cubic stand/drawer box into the corner as monitor stand and place a table in front of it (blocking access to the stand/drawer box) for your keyboard etc. Then you have plenty of space on your table, hidden all the cabling (behind the desk) and a good distance to your monitor.
There are commercial solutions as "corner desks". Maybe you might want to try one of these...
If you have too much money, you might want to have a look at this quite representative PC workstation(http://www.poetictech.com/)...
What you need is a keyboard monitor that can be hung from a ceiling joist. Make a bracket that could hang off of a 2x4 (not just bolt into it), put some decorative facade to hide the hole in the wall, and hold the damned thing from on high! You eliminate most of the torque problem, since the monitor can be directly below the arm.
Anybody ever see anything like this, or know where to get an industrial-strength Erector set for same?
--The basis of all love is respect
I second this! This is what I did:
I took two 8 foot long 1 x 12 pine boards, and attached them to the top of a frame I made out of six 4x4 posts (for legs) and a three 8 foot 2x4 studs (front, rear and sides of frame - to hold the legs together). All of it is held together with 3.5 inch deck screws.
The top of the desk is about 36 inches tall.
On top of the desk, on each side, are two 3 foot wide shelves I made from 1x12 pine - each one about 4 feet tall with 3 shelves. They are bracketed to the desk and wall.
A front shelf for the keyboard and mouse completes the desk.
It can only be moved by unassembling it - due to its weight and overall size.
I have no clue how much it can support - but I am a big guy, and even with me sitting on it with all the books and computer equipment currently on it - it don't budge - not one iota.
Because it is made from cheap wood - I don't worry when I need to do some soldering for hardware mods, etc - if the solder lands on the desk and burns - hey, just another character mark!
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
Well, the nice thing about building something yourself is that it'll be just the size you want it. (I should know, I've done it myself).
However, I'd like to mention one of my bad experiences with formica:
In the past, you were able to get 4'x8'x3/4" formica sheets from Hechinger's (or atleast, the one I went to). With a little finessing, we cut the board down to form a table to mount some computers into a van I was converting for the 1995 GM SunRayce. (ah...nothing like 8 spare deep cycle batteries, and 2000W of power inverters, a few misc radios, a laser printer, and 3 machines with 21" monitors)
The problem that we had, however, was with the edge of the table...Formica is very hard, and when cut, leaves nice sharp corners, which dig into your wrists making lots of use annoying if you're like me, and have a tendency to rest your wrists on the table edge.
My solution was to take 2" wide teflon tape, and cover the edge with it, however, I'm guessing that's most likely not a product that people have sitting about. These days, I use a wrist wrest, and if you do, too, you most likely won't have any problems, but it's something to be aware of.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
Does anyone know of a free-standing monitor/keyboard swivel-arm mount that actually LOOKS GOOD?
Well, I've used some really nice desk-mount keyboard arms from SteelCase at former jobs.
Monitor arms is where you're just asking for problems--
First, you need to accept that a 17" monitor isn't light by any means. We'll just assume they're 50lb, as mine specs out at 49lb. You're then looking at most arms can be extended by 2' or so...so we're talking about 100ft-lb of torque on the arm. Most arms attach into a little tiny bracket, maybe 6" across or so, and 4" deep.
As we're looking at the weight of the monitor to support, plus the torque it creates, we increase the shear on one side, and decrease it on the other. So, well, assuming that we're only dealing with a line, we've got (50/6) lb/in for the weight, and if memory serves (it's been a few years since I've had to do this), ~200 lb/in at the extremes. So, somewhere about 210lb/in, along a 4" edge, on somewhere near 50psi.
And you want that free standing?
And so you think 'but what if I don't extend it all the way?' Well, unfortunately, I've actually tried putting a 17" monitor on a stand. (well, it was for a friend at work). We cut a hole into the sheet metal, so the bracket could attach, had his desk put back together...only to find that the arm's hydraulics/springs/whatever it had (and it was a SteelCase, also), couldn't keep the monitor lifted...it kept falling back down from the weight.
So, now that I've been completely long winded, here are my recomendations -- if you're going to be shelling out for a swing arm, shell out for an LCD panel first...it'll make it actually functional.
(After that article of the recliner with built in fridge, massage, etc, I was thinking someone needs to upgrade it for a swing arm w/ LCD & keybd, so you could keep a watch on your systems while watching TV.)
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
Hope this helps...I don't know if they still make em, but a (former) standard catalog item from IKEA is their "Kavalier" (sp?) computer hutch. Not all that cheap, but VERY nicely made with lots of little touches. I have a 17" monitor, keyboard, mouse, tower, external modem, several joysticks, PalmStuff, a laser printer, speakers, a copy of Linux Undercover, two reams of paper, lots of software boxen, and many squeezie toys crammed into mine. I also have a little stool--"Vitamin" from Ikea--that has a hydraulic seat thingie that makes it compress neatly under the keyboard drawer when not in use--the entire unit has two doors that close over the whole mess when not in use. I love mine. Try calling the 800# on www.ikea.com for a catalog; they are apparently backlogged on the requests from their site.
Get a piece of paper, get the dimmentions of the room and the area that you could put your pc desk into... Next... Get a program like autocad/something simpler and figure out what you need in the way of space, not just on top of the desk, but draws etc... then build it
Nothing will ever meet your needs as well as something build and customize yourself.
The Reality in which we choose to live in really sucks
Modular is good right? In all things, right?
Well Ikea has modular furniture. You get two uprights, couple of platforms, and there you go. If you need more (and we all do), there are 45 degree corner pieces, there is a keyboard mount that slides in and out, etc.
On my main level I have about ten linear feet wrapped around me at desk hieght, with either two or three shelves in each section. My monitor, keyboard and books go on a 6" (1.80m) high tower of shelves. There are more shelves to my right, with printer, scanner, more speakers, CDs, more books, board games, work, an antique 3 1/2" floppy collection...and more!
The whole contraption cost less than $300 American. It isn't the prettiest thing, but what do want?
Computers can only simulate determinism. ~Hermetic.
They make some of the most ergonomic and coolest looking office furniture ever. It doesn't come cheap, but what worth having does?
I was in a similar situation not long ago, though my monitor is 21" and my computer a full tower.
More folks should consider ergonomics -- especially furniture manufacturers. Most of the truly ergonomic furniture is extremely expensive, but if you're mindful of the seat-desk-keyboard-monitor relationship, then even lowly stuff can be made to work.
Here's what I bought:
OfficeMax#:01215553
Product Name:Cherry Corner Desk
Dimensions:29-5/8"h x 47-3/16"d x 47-3/16"w
I also purchased a 36" Desk from this collection -- the Bush OfficePro Cherry Collection -- to complement the right side of the corner desk; that way I can place my printer and some other devices nearby but away from the general work area on the corner desk.
OfficeMax#:01215688
Product Name:Cherry 36" Desk
Dimensions:29-5/8"h x 26-13/16"d x 35-3/8"w
The corner desk costs US $179; the 36" desk costs $139. I also purchased on clearance a retractable keyboard arm that normally sells for about $225 for about$100 but still haven't installed it; the combination of a good chair and the corner desk orientation gives me loads of depth so that I can rest my arms on the desktop. (The high-quality office chair w ason sale for $99 from $170).
Though we're fortunate to have an IKEA nearby, they didn't have a desk with the depth that I required. Also, the Bush furniture has been of decent quality -- and it's far cheaper.
Good luck.
Go to OfficeMax and follow the links to "Desks - Modular Office Systems" for more info.