I just moved to a new home, and I am setting up my new home office. We are just renting, so I'm not looking to do any major renovations, but in terms of things I can do to make an ideal home office setup, I really want to do things right.
As we wrote about recently, our team is 100% distributed. Everyone works from a home office or a co-working space.
I have written in the past that what I am looking for in a home setup is primarily routine and consistency. When I have this I am happy and productive.
I also want it to be an enjoyable environment where I can pleasantly spend long hours and keep clean and tidy without too much ongoing work.
I work with one big 43" 4k monitor. Here is a review of the monitor I use...
My computer is a MacBook Pro with a broken screen. I converted it to desktop use rather than fixing it. I have an old MacBook Air which I use when I'm on the go. My next machine will be a dedicated desktop machine with plenty of RAM and CPU.
I'm just getting started with my setup, but I am happy for now. Since my large monitor needs to be further from me than a smaller one, I needed more room than was available on my desk, so I converted a dresser into a monitor platform of sorts and am using the top drawer as storage of machines and wires. The other drawers will be used for additional office storage and play things I want near me during the work day (namely LEGO).
The MacBook is fairly good on heating, but if I run into problems I'll need to add a fan or other cooling situation. If anyone has any ideas about this, please leave a comment. If I move to another type of desktop machine, I'll definitely need some info and I'm not very experienced in this domain. Any kind of quiet coolant would be awesome.
I shaved the corner out of the drawer front so I can run one cable into the dresser without having to leave it open and I drilled a hole in the top to run wires. I'm very happy with the overall cable management situation I have going here.
Without further ado, here are some pics...
I'll post more in the future when I make improvements.
I also founded a new tag specifically for workstation show and tell, pics required. If you like content like this, follow the tag.
Let me know if anyone would like to co-moderate it with me.
Happy coding! ❤️
Latest comments (60)
Invest in a good ergonomic chair, please.
I don't know about Mac and I've never had one before, but how you turn it on/ off? Do you open the drawer to turn it on/off or you keep it on sleep mode or what
The keys can all be pulled, and either rearranged or replaced with different keys from WASD keyboards. Unfortunately, the hardware switches at the back are only for switching between QWERTY, DVORAK, etc, but perhaps you could theoretically tell your computer to treat it like a Spanish layout anyway. The only other downside is that the WASD replacement keys don't support the backlight. So...blah.
i built a stand-up desk using a kitchen worktop from Ikea: youtube.com/watch?v=JUvDpJyUBJE
works well in the mornings, especially if you're not a morning person like I )
I can definitely recommend the Ikea sit/stand desk for that large monitor. I also have a 40" 4K monitor. I put it on a little 5" shelf on the Ikea desk and the desk/monitor moves up and down as I stand or sit. It's just above my laptop screen so I can use both screens as I use my laptop directly with the attached monitor.
Just be careful. The next OS-X update breaks 32 bit compatibility. Of course no such impediment in Windows 10. Granted you have a native terminal app whereas we windows folks have to use PuTTY.
Dang! Nice! I moved recently and my home office still consists of about 7 boxes and an empty desk with my laptop and an unplugged monitor. I need to step it up :D
This is my one. It is in a corner of my small tabletop studio, as I'm working now for ~ 60% as a photographer (doing this since 20+ years for 100%) and only the last years working in the programming field too. So it is all black and dark, but when programming, I can move the curtain on the left to uncover a window. :-)
I'm using a 27" and a 24" monitor.
After a long year, my workstation is almost complete
Next on my list:
Ben, why no arms on the chair? Ergonomic choice or ?