A basic principle of ancient Chinese Feng Shui is that you should not sit with your back to a space. In other words, you need to have your back against a wall, not your face facing a wall. I believe there is a reason for this. When there is a space behind you, human instinct forces you to pay a subconscious attention on that space (we are very alert to danger from behind), making it harder to concentrate on what is in front of you.
This principle emphasizes that there should be no space behind you. It has nothing to do with the wall or window in front of you. Those are just examples I used to explain according to the original post.
If you're concerned about the window's position, ancient Feng Shui advised the window should be located to your side, specifically on the side of the hand you don't use for writing. I think their reasoning was: this way, your head and the hand you use for writing won't cast shadows on the area where you're writing.
Workplace safety rules for screen workers say that to avoid eye strain, windows should be to the side, not in the direction you're facing. On a bright day the light coming from the window can have an intensity multiple orders of magnitude higher than the screen. I find it very uncomfortable.
Between IVAR and now this 606, I actually don’t know any other non-garage-oriented “universal” shelving systems where you can like mix and match drawers, shelves, tables, etc.
How is this shelving any better than what you can buy from say IKEA?
I've got wooden IKEA shelves in my shed and they take serious abuse of big heavy tools, lawn mowers, car batteries, paint cans etc being non-carefully put/clattered away and they're holding up 100% after years. I can't imagine any normal shelves needing to be "well made" to support a few magazines and a toy model Porsche?
Or is this just a "because I am rich and want you to know how rich I am" type thing?
I have a study furnished solely with IKEA furniture. Billy bookshelves, Galant tables, a wall shelf, etc.
Tables are really well made. So are the bookshelves. They are sturdy, high quality and withstand to abuse.
There are high quality items, and there are fine and high quality items. What he uses the latter.
Take an example. He uses fountain pens (so do I). Montblanc inks, a Lamy 2000. They are not expensive for what they are, yet they are fine instruments. They are made with care. I have tons of inks, yet Montblanc and a couple of brands really stand out in reliability, writing comfort and color quality. Same for L2000. It’s a very understated but a completely handmade thing, with great attention to detail. It’s even too much pen for that money.
The furniture he uses are the same. Understated, yet fine. It’s not there to make a statement, but to be enjoyed by their owner. I share the same sentiment. I do not buy anything to impress anyone, but to enjoy.
Nobody, sans my wife sees my most prized possessions. I got them to use and enjoy, that’s all.
This is a philosophical question that goes back millennia. It just comes down to what sparks joy for you, and how much do you value that.
I have an Eames lounger. It was absurdly expensive and doesn’t even have a recline lever. But, it sparks joy. I like how it looks, I find it comfortable.
When I was a student I went to a furniture store with a friend and I sat in this chair, not knowing who Eames was or the price tag, and I loved immediately. It felt like sitting in a cloud. When I saw the price tag I said if I ever make it I’m buying this chair.
I worked a long time to buy it and it represents a non tangible journey to me.
But I also feel like an ass, because it was absurdly expensive and a total luxury and people are going hungry every day. My mom would slap my head if she knew what I paid.
I mean, you can say that about any luxury good right? It just looks nice and makes you feel good.
IKEA doesn't actually make any modular wall shelves like that anymore, after discontinuing the SVALNÄS. For a wall mounted shelf on a budget you could go for the Elfa system or the Fasttrack one.
Well precisely - shelves feels especially like a solved problem where basically the cheapest tat you can buy (IKEA) is totally fine and solid and long lasting. Need something more hardcore? Then you're probably not in the "shelves on my living room" context, but probably need something more suited for an industrial setting.
It was a genuine question about what makes these any better (...or not). Like do they have some amazing non-obvious feature? Something that no other shelf has? Something that IKEA shelves fail to do?
Of course it could be a performative thing (as I was suggesting) in the same way that someone pays $150 for a t-shirt because it has a logo on it and they want people to know. There is a sucker born every minute as they say.
Now when I checked his website in little bit more detail I get that feeling more and more. Looks like someone who brags about a lot of things he owns and cannot shut up about it.
To anyone hesitant on the price of the Vitsoe system I just have to say I’ve had mine for two years now and can confidently say that nothing else compares. It’s truly well made. Feels like it will be around much longer than I am, and still look the part.
This is exactly what I was looking for in the original post. For those who think this is expensive but spend most of your waking hours at a desk, think of it as an investment in yourself.
The Vitsoe shelving is the goal for my office, but the initial cost is just so high. I know it will last me the rest of my life, and I should just have bought it when I first wanted it 15 years ago.
The chairs in front of the desk might be a pair of Vitsoe 620 Chair Programme.
Very beautiful setup. I'm jealous of the space to do this. I like the idea of making the desk face out into the room, but my office is quite small, so it would end up floating in the middle of the room. Having it in the corner isn't quite as pleasing to the eye, but it makes it so the rest of the room feels larger.
There are bits in here that are a little bit over-designed in my opinion. Do you really need two fountain pens at the ready? Must they be there on the desk at all times? I find I carry my single fountain pen with me when I need it. I also can't see myself always sitting at the desk to read. I have books scattered about the house wherever I was reading last. Also, it's great to have such a wide desk for both digital and analog, but how many of us have the space for that luxury? Anyway, just food for thought if you look at something like this and feel jealous and think whatever space you work in today is now poorer for seeing someone else's nicer setup.
Ehh, I find it difficult to distinguish between "taste" and "money". The shelving alone is a "contact us for pricing" situation. Premium items coupled with a too-clean-to-be-used work environment and natural light can do a significant lift in the "taste" department.
It reminds me a little of set dressing in movies. Every sophisticated character owns a chemex, but they use a french press to make coffee onscreen. Harks back to the days of Notting Hill when we had to believe that Hugh Grant ran a failing second hand bookstore while living in a well-decorated house in central London. Do we think the author uses his Teenage Engineering pocket operators, or are they window dressing? Do we need Godel, Escher and Bach as the backdrop for a completely unrelated photo?
People can be multi-dimensional. I’m a sysadmin/developer, yet I played in a symphony orchestra, and still play bass, take photos and read world classics, sci-fi and occasional philosophical books.
Why can’t he make music, read music history or biographies, or do other things?
Do all “software engineers” need to interface with a computer 7/24, Matrix style?
Of course you can, I think the author has taste, is clearly interested in design and I enjoyed looking through the images to see what I recognized.
It's also fair game to critique these photos from an artistic perspective. Some are clearly intentionally staged and I argue that the messaging is a little clumsy. Sure, it's hard to avoid if you've filled your space with expensive design objects. Another comparison is cooking blogs where the photographers add visual clutter that looks good on instagram, but is impractical and unrelated to the food being cooked.
I know a person with a very good taste; his apartment is even emptier and cleaner than this. He's actually good at his job. Some people just find it actually comfortable. I'm not one of them, but these are real people, not posers.
Prices are on the linked page, or in a full price list PDF it links to.
(Though the fetishisation of this shelving seems weird. Maybe as I grew up in the UK, but I associate it with every single public and office building. Every library, every office, every school. It's not what I'd choose for home.)
It's great when you actually do want the flexibility. Not that you need anything ridiculously expensive, though. In a garage or workshop it's great because you can just put the brackets where you want and store long stuff like wood or pipes etc. But if you're just putting up shelves that you're never going to move it's less appealing. That said, I have used it in my study because I don't care how it looks and it's very strong.
There’s a chasm between them. I have seen people create great things with no money, and people who slaughtered spaces because they don’t have an eye for anything.
It "looks" amazing. But you know, the real hard work is always done by the rag-looking, worn-out dirty, dented, scratched, faded-out, weak tools and work-benches. Not the shiny or rugged ones. Just like some notebooks that were used a 1000 times, with corners rounded by usage, not by design.
I would love a table that has uneven solid wood surface, with cracks and scratchers, burn marks, broken corners, worn-out edges, ink-marks everywhere, shaped out by the usage, not by design.
> I would love a table that has uneven solid wood surface, with cracks and scratchers, burn marks, broken corners, worn-out edges, ink-marks everywhere, shaped out by the usage, not by design.
It is possible to take care of your tools. My workbench looks used, but why would it have burn marks etc? I take care when I work. My office desk looks pristine because it's not a workbench.
Having just moved house, this is fantastic inspiration.
To be fair, the huge window by the desk in the article makes it a naturally more appealing space than my own. But it’s enough to make me rethink the layout we have here so far. Especially since we want space for non digital projects too.
I also just moved to a new house, and am very happy this showed up.
I'm trying to do a complete furniture refresh for my office, declutter, and reorganize.
I'm lucky enough that there is a large window in the room, and I also only use one monitor. While I think my room is not as large as his, I can still make it work.
The one thing that was stopping me was cable management - but with clever furniture placement, I think the cables can mostly be hidden.
The non digital side makes total sense and I would love to mimic this
I mean I love this kind of stuff but honestly the answer here is "have a huge honking office." I have a digital/reading split and there's actually a technical term for it: a mess.
What I like to do is think of the office less as a discrete space and more like a colonial, expansionist government - if I have sat in a chair for any amount of time, anything in a five-foot radius starts accruing stacks of books, paper pads, that kind of thing. My wife loves this! Sometimes it gets cold in a room and I leave it for a while and when I return months later it's like discovering an office from the past
I do the same thing but with two physical desks, not just partitioning one desk into two logical desks.
Aside from the obvious advantage of more space it really helps put your mind in a different context when you are at a different location. In his example just moving over slightly would do nothing for me with the computer just arms length away and still in full view.
Yep, even more-so with a corner desk (L-shaped). Although there are times my work involves both papers and computer, and the quick swivel of a corner desk is great.
When you have two monitors, is your head always turned to one side? That always hurts my neck, so I wind up with the second monitor relegated to the side, where I never actually look at it.
Why would your head always be turned to one side? Have one monitor in the middle (the main one) and secondary either left or right. Having split screen right in the middle of my field of view is ridiculously unpleasant
I have three monitors. The left and right are turned vertically. They're all 30". So the main screen is in the center and I keep slack/email/web browser with docs/info on the left and usually Twitch DJs or Spotify on the right. So usually I'm looking forward but I look left briefly throughout the day.
It's cheating, somewhat, to replace your desk with once that is as wide as two desks. I'm trying to figure out a way to do something similar with only one desk's worth of space.
My desk is only 48" wide (4 feet / 1.2 meters) and 30" deep (76 cm). This is enough space to have a massive mouse pad with a full sized keyboard and mouse on it with enough space to the right of it to comfortably sit and work with physical items. The desk also has a 32" 4k monitor and a 27" 1440p monitor, a rack sized audio processing unit, a USB audio interface and easy access to a drawing stylus. I don't even have monitor arms either to save space, they rest on stands. It's also deep enough where if I wanted more horizontal space I could move my keyboard and mouse forward and have plenty of room to sprawl out a few physical items.
Long story short, what kind of desk are you working with? I would consider my desk fairly small but it has lots of room for common things.
The one on the shelf is probably a Akari paper lantern. I have an orange one that I quite like. You used to be able to buy them from Design Within Reach or the MoMA Design Store, but I can't find them on their sites now but they're on the Noguchi site. [1] The hanging sphere one might be similar.
For those not aware of them, Design Within Reach has a lot of nice famous designed furniture and shelving, but pricey. They often have 15% off season sales though. Good place to shop if you're into the stuff seen in this blog post.
"Paper lantern" generally. Many inexpensive import shops carried them in the Before Times. Widely available now. They offer a soft ambient glow. Not ideal as a reading lamp (a bit too diffuse), but quite good for general room lighting.
Of course they are not next to the wall, the acoustics are terrible! Also wall is good place to put storage in, having desk face it is generally a bit of a waste and only worth if there is not much space behind it to have it other way
I made a big U with desks for PC/music/electronics, I did actually prefer having the most used side (computer) next to the wall but aforementioned acoustics were absolutely ass so I moved it
This motivated me to clean my desk, and turn it around so I'm facing away from the glare and out towards the room (now with a glimpse of view outside instead of the wall). \o/
It's not mentioned in the article but one thing I constantly struggle with when laying out my office is facing the desk toward the wall (like he originally had it) vs. facing toward the room (the "digital" side of his desk now). I don't like facing the wall but I find when I face the room the monitor totally blocks my view and it kind of looks like ass from the other side. This guy did way better cable management than I have done but still, you're looking at the back side of a monitor like a huge 2001 style monolith, especially if your monitor is black.
I still don't have a good solution for this, and curious what others are doing.
I place mine against the wall. It is most convenient this way because the Ethernet and power outlets are against the wall. In addition it means that the remainder of the space is large enough to be used for other things. My wife and I sit in the same room with a table with the 3D printer, home servers, and our various shared workbench tasks in between us. I sit by the window because I like sunlight and looking over the city, and while my wife does too my mood is more mercurially related to it than is hers.
Overall, power and data management dominate this entire arrangement. I have far too many devices each of which draw very little power but demand their own massive power connections. In the end, I will likely just rack most of them to make room for the second child we plan to have.
It's not an issue if your office is so small that no one is hanging out in front of it. :)
My wife only comes in to get printouts and supplies if I'm working, and if she's working (we share the "battle station" by switching out whose laptop is connected to the dock) I basically only go in there to quickly chat and walk around to the other side.
Walking into my office, you definitely see the backside of my dual monitor + audio interfaces + studio monitor speakers (I dabble in music production as well as tech) from the doorway.
I just live with it. I'm on the good side. The few times a day my wife needs to talk to me she just comes around to my side of the desk anyways.
A few scattered thoughts but a board with decoration or art of a similar size could be a nice cover, the other (more building required) would be to look if there’s a way you can fold down/away the monitor when not in use.
If you do good cable management it looks good imo. I have a desk arm with monitors attached on their VESA mounts. All the monitor cabling is attached to the mounts and goes into the cable management tray under the desk with everything else.
I'm not really convinced that this is a good solution. I have my own home office and I keep two separate desks. I have a modern motorized desk that can sit or stand. I also have a mid-century classic desk for "analog." And that's where I do all my real business planning. I use digital to-do app only for errands such as reminders to get milk and so on, so sometimes my actual projects get written into the digital world this way, which I do on my phone at the writter's desk. In this way, I'm not only much more distant from potential distractions, but also it's much more secure. Yes, people working at these companies can spy on you. Don't assume your digital notes are secure.
I put my desk facing the middle of the room in a previous place a few years ago. I really liked it. Unfortunately it does require more space, though, which I don't currently have. If I ever have more space again I'll definitely be doing it again. It feels so much cosier. I don't like having my back to the door.
Adding another desk isn't "rethinking the desk". It's adding another desk with a slightly different purpose to the first desk. It's maximalism under the guise of insight.
Those where everywhere in the late 80s, complete with 80W incandescent light bulbs. I'm not suggestion that it can't catch fire, but even if it did wouldn't the paper would burn so fast that not enough heat is generated to ignite anything else?
Betcha there’s an LED in there creating less waste heat than the sunlight hitting it during the day.
Would you like to buy a fire insurance policy against the specific casualty of that lamp igniting from its light source and burning OP’s flat down? I’ll sell you one for a great price.
I don't know when's the last time you handled an Edison base LED bulb but they get really goddamn hot at the base where they cram all the improperly-cooled electronics into an area the size of a thumbnail.
You're literally arguing that rice paper is an acceptable material for electrical safety.
Frayed cord, damaged/defective socket, the list of potential ignition sources goes on but hey let's wrap it all in dry grass and kindling.
And in OP’s pictures, I totally believe that’s the bulb they’re using. Notice they have a desk lamp for up close work, and a freaking enormous window to let in sunlight. No need to flood the space with light with the hanging pendant thing.
A basic principle of ancient Chinese Feng Shui is that you should not sit with your back to a space. In other words, you need to have your back against a wall, not your face facing a wall. I believe there is a reason for this. When there is a space behind you, human instinct forces you to pay a subconscious attention on that space (we are very alert to danger from behind), making it harder to concentrate on what is in front of you.
It's to stop the eunuchs from murdering you.
I like to joke that if you look at every Feng Shui rule through the lens of "to reduce the risk of assassination" it all really makes sense.
Maybe it's not so much of a joke....
What about having a window on the wall you're facing, so you can look out it?
This principle emphasizes that there should be no space behind you. It has nothing to do with the wall or window in front of you. Those are just examples I used to explain according to the original post.
If you're concerned about the window's position, ancient Feng Shui advised the window should be located to your side, specifically on the side of the hand you don't use for writing. I think their reasoning was: this way, your head and the hand you use for writing won't cast shadows on the area where you're writing.
Workplace safety rules for screen workers say that to avoid eye strain, windows should be to the side, not in the direction you're facing. On a bright day the light coming from the window can have an intensity multiple orders of magnitude higher than the screen. I find it very uncomfortable.
I like it to the side more, if it is in front you'd have to look from above monitors to see it.
It can be good natural light for video calls.
Wow this guy has the 606 Vitsoe Universal shelving [1] and USM Haller desk [2]
A dream setup.
[1] https://www.vitsoe.com/us/606
[2] https://us.usm.com/collections/tables-desks
The closest IKEA equivalent is the IVAR.
Between IVAR and now this 606, I actually don’t know any other non-garage-oriented “universal” shelving systems where you can like mix and match drawers, shelves, tables, etc.
I have IVAR in my office and it’s great.
How is this shelving any better than what you can buy from say IKEA?
I've got wooden IKEA shelves in my shed and they take serious abuse of big heavy tools, lawn mowers, car batteries, paint cans etc being non-carefully put/clattered away and they're holding up 100% after years. I can't imagine any normal shelves needing to be "well made" to support a few magazines and a toy model Porsche?
Or is this just a "because I am rich and want you to know how rich I am" type thing?
I have a study furnished solely with IKEA furniture. Billy bookshelves, Galant tables, a wall shelf, etc.
Tables are really well made. So are the bookshelves. They are sturdy, high quality and withstand to abuse.
There are high quality items, and there are fine and high quality items. What he uses the latter.
Take an example. He uses fountain pens (so do I). Montblanc inks, a Lamy 2000. They are not expensive for what they are, yet they are fine instruments. They are made with care. I have tons of inks, yet Montblanc and a couple of brands really stand out in reliability, writing comfort and color quality. Same for L2000. It’s a very understated but a completely handmade thing, with great attention to detail. It’s even too much pen for that money.
The furniture he uses are the same. Understated, yet fine. It’s not there to make a statement, but to be enjoyed by their owner. I share the same sentiment. I do not buy anything to impress anyone, but to enjoy.
Nobody, sans my wife sees my most prized possessions. I got them to use and enjoy, that’s all.
This is a philosophical question that goes back millennia. It just comes down to what sparks joy for you, and how much do you value that.
I have an Eames lounger. It was absurdly expensive and doesn’t even have a recline lever. But, it sparks joy. I like how it looks, I find it comfortable.
When I was a student I went to a furniture store with a friend and I sat in this chair, not knowing who Eames was or the price tag, and I loved immediately. It felt like sitting in a cloud. When I saw the price tag I said if I ever make it I’m buying this chair.
I worked a long time to buy it and it represents a non tangible journey to me.
But I also feel like an ass, because it was absurdly expensive and a total luxury and people are going hungry every day. My mom would slap my head if she knew what I paid.
I mean, you can say that about any luxury good right? It just looks nice and makes you feel good.
IKEA doesn't actually make any modular wall shelves like that anymore, after discontinuing the SVALNÄS. For a wall mounted shelf on a budget you could go for the Elfa system or the Fasttrack one.
Well precisely - shelves feels especially like a solved problem where basically the cheapest tat you can buy (IKEA) is totally fine and solid and long lasting. Need something more hardcore? Then you're probably not in the "shelves on my living room" context, but probably need something more suited for an industrial setting.
It was a genuine question about what makes these any better (...or not). Like do they have some amazing non-obvious feature? Something that no other shelf has? Something that IKEA shelves fail to do?
Of course it could be a performative thing (as I was suggesting) in the same way that someone pays $150 for a t-shirt because it has a logo on it and they want people to know. There is a sucker born every minute as they say.
But those don't even look good. Like, I thought it was some IKEA series that I didn't knew, just raw aluminum profiles + some uninteresting shelving
It's a bit snobby, both shelving and the desk.
Now when I checked his website in little bit more detail I get that feeling more and more. Looks like someone who brags about a lot of things he owns and cannot shut up about it.
To anyone hesitant on the price of the Vitsoe system I just have to say I’ve had mine for two years now and can confidently say that nothing else compares. It’s truly well made. Feels like it will be around much longer than I am, and still look the part.
This is exactly what I was looking for in the original post. For those who think this is expensive but spend most of your waking hours at a desk, think of it as an investment in yourself.
The Vitsoe shelving is the goal for my office, but the initial cost is just so high. I know it will last me the rest of my life, and I should just have bought it when I first wanted it 15 years ago.
The chairs in front of the desk might be a pair of Vitsoe 620 Chair Programme.
I mean if you like look of some raw profiles on the wall with plain white shelving, not sure why you want to pay extra for it
Are there compatible alternatives to this shelving without the price tag?
search Reglraum ON-WALL. Few options, recently purchased the wood one with black frame. It's great quality and a fraction of the price of Vitsœ
Perhaps buying it second hand
The product website says it's more expensive second hand.
Any twin slot shelving might be what you're after.
2,000$ and the desk description has "laminate" in it?
Very beautiful setup. I'm jealous of the space to do this. I like the idea of making the desk face out into the room, but my office is quite small, so it would end up floating in the middle of the room. Having it in the corner isn't quite as pleasing to the eye, but it makes it so the rest of the room feels larger.
There are bits in here that are a little bit over-designed in my opinion. Do you really need two fountain pens at the ready? Must they be there on the desk at all times? I find I carry my single fountain pen with me when I need it. I also can't see myself always sitting at the desk to read. I have books scattered about the house wherever I was reading last. Also, it's great to have such a wide desk for both digital and analog, but how many of us have the space for that luxury? Anyway, just food for thought if you look at something like this and feel jealous and think whatever space you work in today is now poorer for seeing someone else's nicer setup.
Very aesthetic, the author must be a photographer, these photos could fit very well on r/malelivingspace.
He’s a software engineer with taste. I know taste is subjective but I happen to like he’s taste.
He is a software engineer with taste and the financial means.
Being a software engineer usually gives you enough money to afford a nice desk if you care about it.
But not enough to afford an office room with enough space that one can put their desk facing space.
Ehh, I find it difficult to distinguish between "taste" and "money". The shelving alone is a "contact us for pricing" situation. Premium items coupled with a too-clean-to-be-used work environment and natural light can do a significant lift in the "taste" department.
It reminds me a little of set dressing in movies. Every sophisticated character owns a chemex, but they use a french press to make coffee onscreen. Harks back to the days of Notting Hill when we had to believe that Hugh Grant ran a failing second hand bookstore while living in a well-decorated house in central London. Do we think the author uses his Teenage Engineering pocket operators, or are they window dressing? Do we need Godel, Escher and Bach as the backdrop for a completely unrelated photo?
People can be multi-dimensional. I’m a sysadmin/developer, yet I played in a symphony orchestra, and still play bass, take photos and read world classics, sci-fi and occasional philosophical books.
Why can’t he make music, read music history or biographies, or do other things?
Do all “software engineers” need to interface with a computer 7/24, Matrix style?
Of course you can, I think the author has taste, is clearly interested in design and I enjoyed looking through the images to see what I recognized.
It's also fair game to critique these photos from an artistic perspective. Some are clearly intentionally staged and I argue that the messaging is a little clumsy. Sure, it's hard to avoid if you've filled your space with expensive design objects. Another comparison is cooking blogs where the photographers add visual clutter that looks good on instagram, but is impractical and unrelated to the food being cooked.
I know a person with a very good taste; his apartment is even emptier and cleaner than this. He's actually good at his job. Some people just find it actually comfortable. I'm not one of them, but these are real people, not posers.
Prices are on the linked page, or in a full price list PDF it links to.
(Though the fetishisation of this shelving seems weird. Maybe as I grew up in the UK, but I associate it with every single public and office building. Every library, every office, every school. It's not what I'd choose for home.)
https://www.vitsoe.com/us/606/components
It's great when you actually do want the flexibility. Not that you need anything ridiculously expensive, though. In a garage or workshop it's great because you can just put the brackets where you want and store long stuff like wood or pipes etc. But if you're just putting up shelves that you're never going to move it's less appealing. That said, I have used it in my study because I don't care how it looks and it's very strong.
There’s a chasm between them. I have seen people create great things with no money, and people who slaughtered spaces because they don’t have an eye for anything.
On the contrary, there's lots of expensive stuff that's horrifyingly terrible taste. There might be some connection, but they're separate
It "looks" amazing. But you know, the real hard work is always done by the rag-looking, worn-out dirty, dented, scratched, faded-out, weak tools and work-benches. Not the shiny or rugged ones. Just like some notebooks that were used a 1000 times, with corners rounded by usage, not by design.
I would love a table that has uneven solid wood surface, with cracks and scratchers, burn marks, broken corners, worn-out edges, ink-marks everywhere, shaped out by the usage, not by design.
> I would love a table that has uneven solid wood surface, with cracks and scratchers, burn marks, broken corners, worn-out edges, ink-marks everywhere, shaped out by the usage, not by design.
So buy a table and start using it.
It is possible to take care of your tools. My workbench looks used, but why would it have burn marks etc? I take care when I work. My office desk looks pristine because it's not a workbench.
Having just moved house, this is fantastic inspiration.
To be fair, the huge window by the desk in the article makes it a naturally more appealing space than my own. But it’s enough to make me rethink the layout we have here so far. Especially since we want space for non digital projects too.
I also just moved to a new house, and am very happy this showed up. I'm trying to do a complete furniture refresh for my office, declutter, and reorganize.
I'm lucky enough that there is a large window in the room, and I also only use one monitor. While I think my room is not as large as his, I can still make it work.
The one thing that was stopping me was cable management - but with clever furniture placement, I think the cables can mostly be hidden.
The non digital side makes total sense and I would love to mimic this
I mean I love this kind of stuff but honestly the answer here is "have a huge honking office." I have a digital/reading split and there's actually a technical term for it: a mess.
What I like to do is think of the office less as a discrete space and more like a colonial, expansionist government - if I have sat in a chair for any amount of time, anything in a five-foot radius starts accruing stacks of books, paper pads, that kind of thing. My wife loves this! Sometimes it gets cold in a room and I leave it for a while and when I return months later it's like discovering an office from the past
I do the same thing but with two physical desks, not just partitioning one desk into two logical desks.
Aside from the obvious advantage of more space it really helps put your mind in a different context when you are at a different location. In his example just moving over slightly would do nothing for me with the computer just arms length away and still in full view.
Yep, even more-so with a corner desk (L-shaped). Although there are times my work involves both papers and computer, and the quick swivel of a corner desk is great.
You have one monitor yes, but what about second monitor?
When you have two monitors, is your head always turned to one side? That always hurts my neck, so I wind up with the second monitor relegated to the side, where I never actually look at it.
Why would your head always be turned to one side? Have one monitor in the middle (the main one) and secondary either left or right. Having split screen right in the middle of my field of view is ridiculously unpleasant
This is why ultrawides are very comfortable, you can focus on the center region where 2x monitors likely have their edges meeting.
I repurposed a 43” 4K TV as a monitor. The thing I’m working on goes roughly in the middle, everything else is sprawled out wherever.
I have three monitors. The left and right are turned vertically. They're all 30". So the main screen is in the center and I keep slack/email/web browser with docs/info on the left and usually Twitch DJs or Spotify on the right. So usually I'm looking forward but I look left briefly throughout the day.
I do this too, and just put less-important stuff on the second monitor. Work chat, music, logs, whatever.
I have a rotating chair (normal desk chair) and I rotate the whole chair to look at the other screen If I need to look at it for more than one second.
I saved my desk from curb side collection. My chair idem. My laptop battery died two years ago so my desk cannot be too far away from a wall socket.
Maybe one day I could face my desk away from a wall.
Extension cords exist.
They'll only get you so far
Initially thought one desk was facing the room, the other desk would be behind facing the wall (where there is bookshelf space instead I guess)
I have considered that as a dual setup (a desk towards room and a desk behind you up against wall)
I have a similar setup, but separate desks:
- A sitting desk for coding
- A standing desk for thinking and working on paper
There is something magical about standing while working on paper.
I’ve also found that this separation became more important to follow since the arrival of LLMs.
It's cheating, somewhat, to replace your desk with once that is as wide as two desks. I'm trying to figure out a way to do something similar with only one desk's worth of space.
My desk is only 48" wide (4 feet / 1.2 meters) and 30" deep (76 cm). This is enough space to have a massive mouse pad with a full sized keyboard and mouse on it with enough space to the right of it to comfortably sit and work with physical items. The desk also has a 32" 4k monitor and a 27" 1440p monitor, a rack sized audio processing unit, a USB audio interface and easy access to a drawing stylus. I don't even have monitor arms either to save space, they rest on stands. It's also deep enough where if I wanted more horizontal space I could move my keyboard and mouse forward and have plenty of room to sprawl out a few physical items.
Long story short, what kind of desk are you working with? I would consider my desk fairly small but it has lots of room for common things.
What is the lamp, the one that‘s like a paper globe?
That was everywhere in my childhood.
The one on the shelf is probably a Akari paper lantern. I have an orange one that I quite like. You used to be able to buy them from Design Within Reach or the MoMA Design Store, but I can't find them on their sites now but they're on the Noguchi site. [1] The hanging sphere one might be similar.
For those not aware of them, Design Within Reach has a lot of nice famous designed furniture and shelving, but pricey. They often have 15% off season sales though. Good place to shop if you're into the stuff seen in this blog post.
[1] https://shop.noguchi.org/collections/akari-light-sculptures
"Paper lantern" generally. Many inexpensive import shops carried them in the Before Times. Widely available now. They offer a soft ambient glow. Not ideal as a reading lamp (a bit too diffuse), but quite good for general room lighting.
<https://duckduckgo.com/?q=round+paper+lamp&iar=images&t=ftsa>
Not necessarily that specific lamp, but GULLSUDARE from IKEA is the same kind.
Japanese lantern
Tolomeo detected.
Michele De Lucchi & Giancarlo Fassina (1987)
Of course they are not next to the wall, the acoustics are terrible! Also wall is good place to put storage in, having desk face it is generally a bit of a waste and only worth if there is not much space behind it to have it other way
I made a big U with desks for PC/music/electronics, I did actually prefer having the most used side (computer) next to the wall but aforementioned acoustics were absolutely ass so I moved it
This motivated me to clean my desk, and turn it around so I'm facing away from the glare and out towards the room (now with a glimpse of view outside instead of the wall). \o/
I think his before desk was better, just a clean surface with monitor and speakers, ready to start a new task fresh.
It's not mentioned in the article but one thing I constantly struggle with when laying out my office is facing the desk toward the wall (like he originally had it) vs. facing toward the room (the "digital" side of his desk now). I don't like facing the wall but I find when I face the room the monitor totally blocks my view and it kind of looks like ass from the other side. This guy did way better cable management than I have done but still, you're looking at the back side of a monitor like a huge 2001 style monolith, especially if your monitor is black.
I still don't have a good solution for this, and curious what others are doing.
I place mine against the wall. It is most convenient this way because the Ethernet and power outlets are against the wall. In addition it means that the remainder of the space is large enough to be used for other things. My wife and I sit in the same room with a table with the 3D printer, home servers, and our various shared workbench tasks in between us. I sit by the window because I like sunlight and looking over the city, and while my wife does too my mood is more mercurially related to it than is hers.
Overall, power and data management dominate this entire arrangement. I have far too many devices each of which draw very little power but demand their own massive power connections. In the end, I will likely just rack most of them to make room for the second child we plan to have.
It's not an issue if your office is so small that no one is hanging out in front of it. :)
My wife only comes in to get printouts and supplies if I'm working, and if she's working (we share the "battle station" by switching out whose laptop is connected to the dock) I basically only go in there to quickly chat and walk around to the other side.
Walking into my office, you definitely see the backside of my dual monitor + audio interfaces + studio monitor speakers (I dabble in music production as well as tech) from the doorway.
I just live with it. I'm on the good side. The few times a day my wife needs to talk to me she just comes around to my side of the desk anyways.
A few scattered thoughts but a board with decoration or art of a similar size could be a nice cover, the other (more building required) would be to look if there’s a way you can fold down/away the monitor when not in use.
You just need a home cubicle.
If you do good cable management it looks good imo. I have a desk arm with monitors attached on their VESA mounts. All the monitor cabling is attached to the mounts and goes into the cable management tray under the desk with everything else.
I can’t sit with my legs down like this, I always need them on top of something, and my legs are like super long. :/
I'm not really convinced that this is a good solution. I have my own home office and I keep two separate desks. I have a modern motorized desk that can sit or stand. I also have a mid-century classic desk for "analog." And that's where I do all my real business planning. I use digital to-do app only for errands such as reminders to get milk and so on, so sometimes my actual projects get written into the digital world this way, which I do on my phone at the writter's desk. In this way, I'm not only much more distant from potential distractions, but also it's much more secure. Yes, people working at these companies can spy on you. Don't assume your digital notes are secure.
I put my desk facing the middle of the room in a previous place a few years ago. I really liked it. Unfortunately it does require more space, though, which I don't currently have. If I ever have more space again I'll definitely be doing it again. It feels so much cosier. I don't like having my back to the door.
Adding another desk isn't "rethinking the desk". It's adding another desk with a slightly different purpose to the first desk. It's maximalism under the guise of insight.
He has an old picture of the desk against the wall. The new setup is the cluttered desk in center of the room.
He didn't add another desk. Did you read the linked article?
This does not look like the work space of someone who does serious work.
Will there be a follow-up when that Ikea tissue-paper lamp catches fire and burns his flat down?
I don't know how those things are legal, like building a computer case out of recycled newspaper clippings.
Those where everywhere in the late 80s, complete with 80W incandescent light bulbs. I'm not suggestion that it can't catch fire, but even if it did wouldn't the paper would burn so fast that not enough heat is generated to ignite anything else?
Betcha there’s an LED in there creating less waste heat than the sunlight hitting it during the day.
Would you like to buy a fire insurance policy against the specific casualty of that lamp igniting from its light source and burning OP’s flat down? I’ll sell you one for a great price.
I don't know when's the last time you handled an Edison base LED bulb but they get really goddamn hot at the base where they cram all the improperly-cooled electronics into an area the size of a thumbnail.
You're literally arguing that rice paper is an acceptable material for electrical safety.
Frayed cord, damaged/defective socket, the list of potential ignition sources goes on but hey let's wrap it all in dry grass and kindling.
Looks like this is the product: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/gullsudare-pendant-lamp-shade-w...
They pair it with a 2.8W bulb: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/solhetta-led-bulb-e26-450-lumen...
Less than an ancient phone charger. OP’s flat will be fine.
2.8W when it's operating properly.
No one is lighting a room with a 2.8W LED (equivalent to a 25W incandescent). That is barely enough light for a focused desk lamp.
40W equivalent, if you read the link.
And in OP’s pictures, I totally believe that’s the bulb they’re using. Notice they have a desk lamp for up close work, and a freaking enormous window to let in sunlight. No need to flood the space with light with the hanging pendant thing.