Inspiration for Home Office

[ejb190]

I'm feeling the bug to reconfigure my home office. So I turn to Google to find some inspiration and all I find are these totally unrealistic staged photos. They have no work surface, shelf space for about 3 books, and a computer on the desk in the middle of the floor with no cables visible. Not to mention the lack of a desk lamp, any place for file storage, or a printer.

So for those of you with a home office, what is your source inspiration?

Edit: I should clarify - this is my "work" office. I've been WFH for closing in on 20 years. I'm a field inspector, so I spend a good bit of the winter in here and store a good amount of equipment. I guess I'm mostly whining that even when it comes to offices, the internet is full of unrealistic expectations!

 

[eyoungren]

My 'home office' is one wall in the living room. A concession given to me by wife wife some years back. We have a three bedroom house, but the kids occupy two of those rooms. The garage is rather inhospitable during August (I live in Phoenix, AZ).

In any case, anything I do has to account for the 55" HDTV on the wall which serves as both a monitor and a TV. For my own personal Mac, the TV is just one of eight monitors so I need space. I'm using a dining table because large desks are hideously expensive (this table cost only $300).

I have plans to move another dining table in side by side to this one but just haven't gotten around to it. If I must have an 'inspiration' however, I suppose it's my two main 30" Cinema Displays. Both of those are also attached to my work Mac through a KVM.

If you care to see my current setup, just click the link that says '8 Displays' in my signature.

 

[mk313]

I don't know if I have an inspiration, but it's kind of to make my life as easy as possible. I've only been working remotely full time since Covid, but did work from home several days a week before that. The biggest thing for me (and I know this isn't possible for people using a room for multiple purposes ie: guest bedroom & office, living room & office), but it's having the desk not pushed up against a wall. In most home offices, the desk is against the wall, which feels much more 'cubical' than office-like. I enjoy being towards the middle of the room & being able to see the hallway out the door & the outdoors via the windows.

Aside from that, I just try to make my life as easy as possible, and while I don't spend a ton of money on my office any more, I'm happy do to so when I find something that will help. The most recent thing was a glass floor mat, which I love, and before that, a soul monitor stand to reclaim the space beneath both monitors. Both are fantastic.

With regards to those internet photos, I think some of it is ridiculous & I wonder how much work actually gets done in those scenarios, but I will say that I have all of my cables hidden and only have one extension cord running to the wall. And I have the printer in the office closet so I don't have to see it (we only use it a few times a month. If I were using it more often, I would maybe keep it out).

Good luck with the updates. Hope it turns out nicely for you.

 

[circatee]

My 'home office' is one wall in the living room. A concession given to me by wife wife some years back. We have a three bedroom house, but the kids occupy two of those rooms. The garage is rather inhospitable during August (I live in Phoenix, AZ).

In any case, anything I do has to account for the 55" HDTV on the wall which serves as both a monitor and a TV. For my own personal Mac, the TV is just one of eight monitors so I need space. I'm using a dining table because large desks are hideously expensive (this table cost only $300).

I have plans to move another dining table in side by side to this one but just haven't gotten around to it. If I must have an 'inspiration' however, I suppose it's my two main 30" Cinema Displays. Both of those are also attached to my work Mac through a KVM.

If you care to see my current setup, just click the link that says '8 Displays' in my signature.

...okay, I have to ask. In your setup, the monitor that is in the bottom left (by your feet), what is that used for?
Do you move it to the desk when you need to view data on it? Curious.

 

[eyoungren]

...okay, I have to ask. In your setup, the monitor that is in the bottom left (by your feet), what is that used for?
Do you move it to the desk when you need to view data on it? Curious.

Right now it's there simply because the DisplayLink device I am using has two ports - and I wanted to see if my Mac would recognize two additional monitors (it does). I am using it for apps I want to keep on (mainly music apps) but that I do not interact with much.

When I get around to rearranging things it will come up off the floor to the desk. As it stands right now there is simply no room for it. If I could hang it in the air I would, but unless anyone out there knows something about how to successfully defy gravity that's just going to result in a smashed display.

 

[circatee]

Right now it's there simply because the DisplayLink device I am using has two ports - and I wanted to see if my Mac would recognize two additional monitors (it does). I am using it for apps I want to keep on (mainly music apps) but that I do not interact with much.

When I get around to rearranging things it will come up off the floor to the desk. As it stands right now there is simply no room for it. If I could hang it in the air I would, but unless anyone out there knows something about how to successfully defy gravity that's just going to result in a smashed display.

Unless you had something like this, or that...

 

[eyoungren]

Unless you had something like this, or that...

I have some experience with stands…my two Mac Minis in the garage.



But as you can see with my 30" Cinema Displays and the 55" HDTV there's not much gap left. And that's after detaching both displays from their hinge mounts (they are just resting on top of the stands).



First world problems, LOL.

 

[ejb190]

I don't know if I have an inspiration, but it's kind of to make my life as easy as possible. I've only been working remotely full time since Covid, but did work from home several days a week before that. The biggest thing for me (and I know this isn't possible for people using a room for multiple purposes ie: guest bedroom & office, living room & office), but it's having the desk not pushed up against a wall. In most home offices, the desk is against the wall, which feels much more 'cubical' than office-like. I enjoy being towards the middle of the room & being able to see the hallway out the door & the outdoors via the windows.

Aside from that, I just try to make my life as easy as possible, and while I don't spend a ton of money on my office any more, I'm happy do to so when I find something that will help. The most recent thing was a glass floor mat, which I love, and before that, a soul monitor stand to reclaim the space beneath both monitors. Both are fantastic.

With regards to those internet photos, I think some of it is ridiculous & I wonder how much work actually gets done in those scenarios, but I will say that I have all of my cables hidden and only have one extension cord running to the wall. And I have the printer in the office closet so I don't have to see it (we only use it a few times a month. If I were using it more often, I would maybe keep it out).

Good luck with the updates. Hope it turns out nicely for you.

Thanks!

I get the desk in the middle of the room. I'm in a basement room with glass French doors and a small, high window in the corner. Right now my "desk" is a 10' standing height countertop along the side wall with a couple of storage cabinets under either end. My computer station is in the far corner right under the only window, so I can just see if someone pulls up to the garage or if the mailman walks by. That's nice.

I wall mounted my monitors on a homemade French cleat system that allows me to pivot screens. I do need to hide the cords better. I got a glass dry erase board that sits on the shelf over my dock - I absolutely love the thing! It replaced my post-it note chaos. (Well, most of it.).

My last remodel was a row of kitchen cabinets on the opposite wall with a countertop across it. Mostly drawers, but there's a couple of standard base cabinets with doors. The drawers are great, but I hate the doors. Stuff gets lost in the back and it's not easy to get bulky stuff in and out. I kick myself for not buying a set of used glass front, biology room cabinets I found in an antique store, but honesty they were 1" taller than my ceiling.