Ask HN: Home Office Layouts | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Home Office Layouts

15 pointsSenHeng18 comments

I’m building a garden room to use as a home office and I’ve had this dilemma for a couple of years now. Desk in the middle of the room or along a wall. I’ve read many articles and videos about the pros and cons regarding usage of space, movement flow, balance. Despite all that I’m still undecided.

Therefore I'd like to consult the HN community and hear your thought process when laying out your office (home or corporate).

Layout: https://imgur.com/KJ6PJEe

Due to local zoning laws, my little shed can't be more than 10m2. The floorplan is 3.7m by 2.7m, give or take 20cm for studs, insulation and walls. As you can see from the image above, it's a little snug.

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My home office is a large table, Herman miller chair, a book case, an old cup/mug as a pen holder for pens, highlighters, marker pens, good mouse and mechanical keyboard.

I keep reference books and notebooks to hand.

A larger whiteboard would be nice I have a small half whiteboard / half cork pin board. Post-it notes.

A movable desk lamp with colour tone options (white - orange light) and brightness options.

Two monitors although in truth I use my laptop screen and one monitor most often. I think one large monitor 32”+ would be good for me.

I’ve been learning more about design and thinking about my workspace as a “studio” more than a workspace for purely laptop work. I Would like a second large table in the middle of the room to sit at to sketch and mind map etc.

I wrote some notes about this:

A good workspace should:

- promote/enable good design

- promote the idea of software craftsmanship (using tactile materials and work on paper as part of the process helps)

- promote creative output without worrying about that output being final.

- enable reading more

- enable writing more and prefer evergreen notes and writing over temporary/time based writing when learning or making technical notes.

- aim for a functional space and digital minimalism.

Yes, I would love to have a proper whiteboard mounted on a wall! I would probably have it behind me so I could draw on it while doing video meetings. That or mount on the wall to the east.

I was initially planning to have a small seating space to the side by the window for relaxing and sketching, but after actually standing in the area where the garden room would be, I've realised how tight things would be.

I may move that area outside instead, under a pergola of some kind. Wouldn't be of much use during the winter though.

Your notes remind me of something I learnt back in uni, though I can't remember the specifics of it. It was about the psychology of a space and furniture, and the habits we develop using them. Like say a reading chair where every time you sit in one, you instinctively and subconsciously do things that lead you to read rather than fuck around on your smartphone.

That is what I aim to have with this space.

Try it both ways for a week, see which feels better. Home office setups are about what works for you, not what is popular with everyone else. So try a few things and then choose.

You're absolutely right. Should have just stuck to an iterative flow like we usually do when building software. It's weird how we sometimes forget all our skills when working on a different thing. Reminds me of a PM friend that uses kanban to plan grocery runs with his girlfriend.

I've been working at home for years before the pandemic. My current space is approximately the same dimensions as yours. I have a floating desk I built with dimensional lumber and plywood. It's floating so I don't have to jockey my chair around legs. I trimmed it with pine boards for aesthetics and topped it with some decent mdf so I could write on it.

Its a single corner desk 24" deep that's along two walls. To one side is paperwork and typical office supplies. The other acts as my bench and lab. On the bench side i have an 18" floating shelf a few feet above the desk.

My monitors and keyboard are mounted on arms in the corner so I can switch between the two quickly.

I like Jay Carlson's approach. Think about your workflow, not just pros and cons.

https://jaycarlson.net/2021/09/18/juggle-embedded-projects-h...

That tip about workflow is gold. Currently I just work around my desk only but I've always wanted to have some standing space and a whiteboard like I used to have at at the office, as well as some pacing space for thinking. The latter is why I worry about the lack of space with a huge desk in the middle.

Definitely food for thought. Thanks!

Great write up. I'm thinking about building out a new work from home space and I'm definitely going to be copying some of your ideas.

Middle, not along wall, is my advice.

I have built this very thing, and my shed office is where I am writing this comment

I started out with a smaller space and then rebuilt. Currently 4.4m by 2.5m, so not to dissimilar to your plan.

My biggest issue was heating as I am in the UK. I found I was getting chilblains in my feet during the winter months. My advice is not to have your feet against the shed wall because of the cold gap. In my bigger space I have my desk centred, with the desk drawers between where I sit and the wall. This means I'm not against a wall on either side. It also means I am not sitting right on top of heat sources, which we tend to put on the wall.

The sun is shining on my legs and feet at the moment, which is ideal. I fitted a large, second-hand double glazed window from Gumtree.

I used to run ethernet from the house but I now have an external wifi point screwed to the wall of my house. It's been working great for a year or so. The shed is about 15-20m from house.

Oh wow, I never knew chillblains was a thing. I had always thought it was just my skin drying out during the winter, and cracking along the joints. Now I know why all that moisture cream didn't help at all.

I'm in a heavy snow area so my little shed will probably be better insulated than most homes but I'll make sure to see how cold the walls get. My house has about 40 or 50cm of insulation and the walls don't feel cold at all. I have the heater running at 19C all winter long and the sun easily brings it up to 23C.

I too live in a cooler climate and am prone to chilblains. I stuck a heating pad on the ground under my feet. I highly recommend.

What sort of pad did you go for? I thought about this but pads often seem low voltage.

Here's what I'd suggest. My set up is pretty minimalist, but you might be able to gain something from it.

- Desk facing the window, natural light helps me stay in a good mood, and easily take a break from looking at my monitors. - Bookshelf behind me (looks cool as a background during video calls,) I also like to read from my desk - Side note, I keep my phone in a separate room during work hrs - Analog clock hanging to the left or right of my desk. Reminds me to stand up, or take a step outside after a few hrs of deep work. - Amazon sells a portable standing desk, which I just place on top of my desk and pull the lever when I want to stand up.

Maybe we are kindred spirits? There are no perfect places to put the desk, just tradeoffs. I solved it by putting my desk on casters, so I can esily roll it (and lock it) as needed or to try things.

Good idea disconnecting from the house. I have a room (apt) for coding but it doesn't work very well if my son is super active. Just someone knocking at the door, or the possibility of it makes my focus worse... (I know I know, mindfulness, etc)

I hate being in the same place all day. So my big office 'hack' that works for me was putting in a small love seat against one wall and my desk is the opposite, so sometimes I work from my desk, other times from the sofa.

if you want some inspiration checkout

https://www.reddit.com/r/battlestations/

Open office vs cubicle?

I've just moved. So I'm the same process but in a spare bedroom, not a garden office but about the same size as you office. Most of the stuff is still what I had at my last place.

Current setup

- Desk against the wall. Window into the garden on my left to give me something to look at other than screens.

- Ikea Bekant sit/stand desk. A few years old now but it has been fine for me. I've not used the motors too often. Honestly I thought I'd use the different height more often.

- Generic gaming chair. It was around £120 years ago. Purchased because it was much cheaper than an Herman Miller and the like. It has been fine certainly better than office chair of a similar price point. Coming to the end of its life. Something I'm actively looking to replace in the next couple of months with something more high end.

- Cable trays to keep most of the cable off the floor. Triple monitors have a lot of cables. Cables on the floor just get in the way and collect dust.

- Triple 27 inch monitors on a monitor arm bolted to the desk (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01MR0448N/).

- Logitech Brio Webcam on a Elgato mount above the middle monitor.

- BenQ ScreenBar monitor light (https://www.benq.eu/en-uk/lamps/computer-desklamp/screenbar....) over the middle monitor. Expensive. I'd get one of the cheaper knock off if I was buying today.

- Two Elgato key lights.

- Stream Deck XL for short cuts and to control the lights.

- Mechanical keyboard.

- Gaming mouse.

- Old PC speakers I've had for a decade or more.

- Giant mouse pad.

- Laser printer/scanner. I still end up having to print stuff but not often enough to avoid inkjet drying out

- Everything that can be on wired ethernet.

Things I'm looking to change

- As mentioned. A better chair. I went with a gaming chair as it was much cheaper than a fancy chair while still being better than a cheap office chair. Originally I was working from home occasionally and could justify the cost of something a Aeron or similar. Now I'm working from home most of the time, that equation has changed.

- A better mounting system for monitors, lights, webcam etc. My current monitor mount is mostly great but the end of the outside monitors do droop a little. When I purchased the mount I only had the monitors. The lights and webcam mount were later additions. Having a single mounting solution to fix everything to would be great. Better support for ends of the monitor arms would be lovely.

- Replacing the Screenlight with something controlled from the PC/Stream deck would be great and generally being able to automate things via the Stream deck.

- Getting a dry erase board. Mostly to sketch out ideas. The big thing I've missed from an office over the last couple of years

- Book and general storage. So I can have my work related book near me when working and not cluttering up the rest of the house. The new place I finally have a door I can close on the office when not working

- Better cable management. Things are fairly clean currently but could be better. I'm thinking about cable duct on the monitor arms for the video, power, and USB cables

- Air con. All the kit kicks out some heat. This has been great over the last few weeks when it was cold outside. I expect it to be less welcome once things start to get warmer.

- Blockout blinds. The curtains I have now are just what was here when I moved in and aren't great. The office gets sun in the afternoons

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