Workspace

Small footprint, but high ceilings

If your spending a lot of your time working in an environment it's a good idea to make the experience as pleasant as possible, In December 2009 that is what I did.

I built this page after my workspace on was shown on lifehacker, I received a lot of questions about it, and here I've tried to explain why and how I made my workspace.

There are still some things I would like to do as and when money allows, and when those changes are made I will of course write up the details.

Last updated: January 11^th 2011

Initial Ideas

I wanted a big desk, something which would have my laptop, screens, mouse & keyboard and still have enough space to spread out papers and notes. I also wanted a double bed, yeah a lot to ask in a room with only 8 square metres of floor space.
When a building needs a lot of space they build vertically, my room has a high ceiling, so I realized that was the only way I was going to get a big desk and have room to relax.

I didn't want to just buy a loft bed, because I wanted a desk which was made for the space, something which didn't have gaps between it and the wall, the only solution was to make a custom desk and bed.

I started off by putting together a list of the things I dislike in an office, the biggest dislikes for me are small desks where there is no space to work. I then looked around the web for inspiring and cool ideas. Some great places I found were Lifehacker and DeviantART.

Developing Ideas

The platform which I would sleep on was 2 x 1.4 metres which was the same width and just longer than a double mattress. I would support the platform with three pieces of 4 x 4. And it would be secured into the wall on the left and back and the wardrobe on the right.
Two of the supports would be used as a ladder; this meant my desk had to be less wide than the platform so it would be possible to put your feet comfortably on the rungs.

The wardrobe to the right of my workspace was custom built for my old room, the top of the wardrobe is a cupboard, in here I store things which are rarely needed.

I love to play music in my room and I like good lighting, but I hate wires. So I decided I would recess 4 200W speakers and 4 15W LED spots in the roof. In addition to this I planned to have a SUB on my desk and a centre speaker in between my duel screens. This would give me 5.1 surround sound, which is great because I love good action movies

I hate desks with clutter, I needed somewhere to put the items of everyday clutter, so I planned a draw for stationary, wallet, keys ect... And a cupboard below it for files.
I wanted somewhere for my desktop and where I could put a printer in the future. So I made a simple open cupboard the full width of the desk down the left side.

Finishing Touches

I worked out where I would place the electric equipment; SUB in the top left, monitors and peripherals in the centre, laptop in the bottom left. I decided to give myself added flexibility I would have a hole for wires in the centre, top left and right and the bottom left.
I would run trunking between these holes under the desk.

I wanted a room which was light and airy, I chose white for the walls, the woodwork is off white and the carpet is cream. I wanted a splash of colour so the wall opposite the desk is an ivory green.

I had laminate in my room for several years and I've gone back to carpet, it's quieter, comfier and most importantly it's easier to clean - that may sounds odd, but laminate flooring collects dust and dirt. I found I would try in vain to clean the floor every 2 days. Carpet however can be hovered once a week.
I try to avoid eating in my room, and I'm careful with my drinks. So the carpet shouldn't get stained.

The green wall also has my 30" sony bravia TV hooked upto my PS3. Because this is behind me I haven't got into the habit of 'working' and watching TV at the same time, which is great because that never works.

My desktop computer which sits under my desk has 4GB of RAM a 1.86GHz duel core processor and runs Window 7 Ultimate (64 bit) Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on two 22" LG monitors. It's also hooked upto my sound system, my desktop is just for development and media. I have all the browsers for testing, apache, php, mysql & notepadd++ I have virtual machines running browsers and server setups for testing as well as photoshop. My laptop is used for social stuff; it has msn, chrome, thunderbird and feedreader broken.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Safety concerns of having lights under mattress, lack of ventilation.

A: The lights are LEDs and produce very little heat.

Q: Would it have been possible to put the ladder at the end of the bed to open up the desk area?

A: Sadly no, it would have blocked access to my wardrobe.

Q: Why haven't you mounted the monitors on the wall?

A: Sadly the monitors [LG W2261VP 22"] do not have a VESA MIS bracket so I can only use the supplied bases.

Q: That desktop, monitors and sound system wouldn't be bad for gaming. Do you game?

A: I have a PS3 for gaming, my desktop is for work.

Q: You must hit your head on the ceiling?

A: No, it's never really been a problem.

Q: Is it okay to sleep in the same room as a combi boiler?

A: Yeah, there are no problems sleeping in the same room, I do have a carbon monoxide alarm above the boiler, and fortunately it's very quiet.

Q: What's with all the relentless cans?

A: I love the designs on the cans and they add a bit of colour to my desk... And when I get bored I can rearrange them =)

Q: What are all the remotes for?

A: I have a remote for my amp, another for my TV and a third for my PS3.

Updates

Since originally writing this page, I've added some new stuff to my workspace.

Working

Below is a short timelapse taken on the 9^th of January 2012 - there are several other timelapses on my Vimeo account.

Questions

If you have any questions which haven't been answered here feel free to contact me and I'll try to answer it.