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Ask HN: What cool desk ideas do you have for a home office?

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Re: Ask HN: What cool desk ideas do you have for a home office?

#71

Post by godelski »

squeegee_scream wrote: post #60
godelski wrote: post #49

Are we talking ultimate dream desk that definitely won't ever be built or something more approachable? This is weirdly one of the things I daydream about. In the latter case there's a few things I'd do, but in general simpler is better. I like clean desk surfaces, so starting with a nice piece of wood is great but entirely optional (and wouldn't do on first version). Most important thing to me would be to start with…

These are some great ideas! This is the kind of stuff I was looking for. I had a few standard ideas like integrated cord management, but thanks for giving me more ideas.

If you want to go way overboard there's a bunch of videos showing how to make a touch sensitive table[0]. Which now that we're talking about it, I'm a bit surprised these aren't mass produced because these should be fully automatable (pun unintended) and I could see being in high demand for things like high end bars. But I think it is more a Field of Dreams product than existing demand one.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3mriHLV3oo

Re: Ask HN: What cool desk ideas do you have for a home office?

#72

Post by the_third_wave »

squeegee_scream wrote: post #67
the_third_wave wrote: post #53

Get an older desk - preferably one of the many-drawered variety - at a thrift store, Craigslist, second hand store or similar. Also, get a 25 to 30 cm wide, 4-5 cm thick slab of some fine wood, Oak or Elm or something else relatively heavy. The slab should cover at least the width of the desk plus ~12-14 cm but it can be wider. Cut two 6 to 7 cm heigh 'feet' for the slab off the side and mount these on the bottom of…

For some reason I'm having a really difficult time understanding your design. I've read it 4 times. I'm pretty sure my ability to visualize is poorer than average. Can you explain it in another way, or link a picture or sketch?

Imagine a staircase with only two steps. The bottom step is the desk surface, it extends all the way to the back underneath the second step. There is no riser under the second step, this is an open staircase. The second step is the slab on top of which the monitor(s) stand.

      _               __________________  __________________
     | |             |                  ||                  |
     | |             |                  ||                  |
     | |             |                  ||                  |
     | |             |                  ||                  |
     | |             |__________________||__________________|
      T                       | |                 | |
   XXXXXXX            XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
   HHHHHHH             H  [laptop]   [keyboard]   [drive] H
   =================   ====================================
   |               |o  |[___o___][______o_______][___o___]|
   |               |   ||       ||--------------||       ||
   |               |   ||       ||              ||       ||
   |               |   ||       ||              ||       ||
   |               |o  ||      o||              ||o      ||
   |               |   ||       ||              ||       ||
   |               |   ||       ||              ||       ||
   |  ____________ |   ||_______||              ||_______|| 
   |_|           |_|   ||       ||              ||       ||


   XXXXXXX = heavy wooden slab
   HHHHHHH = feet for slab, made out of same or similar wood
   ======= = desk surface
      o    = knob on drawer or door
The desk itself is an older type with loads of drawers behind the right door, shelves behind the left one. I'm using the right monitor as main, the left one is only switched on when needed.

The wooden slab is not attached to the desk, it stays in place due to its own weight - one of the reason for choosing a heavier type of wood. I'm using a slab of oak I cut from a dead tree I felled some years ago. I did not cut the edges straight so the front edge is uneven, this is where the bark used to be. The top of the slab leans over a bit since it did not come from the middle of the trunk, this gives more top surface while looking interesting as well.

Re: Ask HN: What cool desk ideas do you have for a home office?

#75

Post by squeegee_scream »

the_third_wave wrote: post #72
squeegee_scream wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some reason I'm having a really difficult time understanding your design. I've read it 4 times. I'm pretty sure my ability to visualize is poorer than average. Can you explain it in another way, or link a picture or sketch?

Imagine a staircase with only two steps. The bottom step is the desk surface, it extends all the way to the back underneath the second step. There is no riser under the second step, this is an open staircase. The second step is the slab on top of which the monitor(s) stand. _ __________________ __________________ | | | || | | | | || | | | | || | | | | || | | | |__________________||__________________| T | | | | XXXXXX…

Wow, I did not expect such a thorough response, thank you. Yeah, I like that idea, I bet it looks amazing with that piece of oak.

Re: Ask HN: What cool desk ideas do you have for a home office?

#76

Post by michaelbuckbee »

coffeebeqn wrote: post #38
michaelbuckbee wrote: post #3

So I have a big 4k TV that I use as a monitor. The distance from the bottom of the TV to the desk should really change when I switch from sitting to standing. It would be cool if the screen mount also lifted when going from sitting -> standing.

Any downsides to using a TV? Anything specific you have to look for or are they basically the same as monitors these days?

The pixel density is less, but that's offset with your face being further away from them. The only other real thing you need to do is fiddle with the settings to turn down stuff like auto-smoothing/auto-sharpening or whatever proprietary processing TVs designed for movies and shows are set to.

Re: Ask HN: What cool desk ideas do you have for a home office?

#77

Post by michaelbuckbee »

reckless wrote: post #24
michaelbuckbee wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A Samsung 55" Curved - they stopped making them as I suspect they moved their production capacity over to higher margin curved monitors, but it's great if you can find one.

They do a 55" curved one called the Samsung odyssey ark

Yeah, that's a ~$2500 55" curved monitor and I'm using a ~$500 Samsung Curved TV.

Re: Ask HN: What cool desk ideas do you have for a home office?

#78

Post by shermanm »

blamazon wrote: post #52
shermanm wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What sort of finish do you recommend for a desk? I used some sort of polyurethane for my current desk and it’s gotten gummy and gross from my hands and wrists (I’m assuming).

I like polyurethane most, since I dislike the repeat maintenance of other options, and like the resilience of polyurethane, but I find it's a pain to get it right - I usually have an algorithm of try, wait, sand it down to bare wood, try again, wait more, sand more, repeat a couple times until I'm satisfied. If you're okay with periodically re-applying, and don't need the durability of poly, something like tung oil i…

I definitely applied it in my garage in the summer and only let it sit for a day or so.

Re: Ask HN: What cool desk ideas do you have for a home office?

#79

Post by paddy_m »

I have a Steelcase Airtouch desk. I think it's probably the best lifting mechanism on the market, fast, no electronics, single column. I want to make a new base for the mechanism that is much heavier so the desk doesn't move, probably adding 100 pounds of mass to it. With this I could mount a larger surface to the desk.

Re: Ask HN: What cool desk ideas do you have for a home office?

#80

Post by kkfx »

Not done, nor designed yet BUT I plan a certain refresh of my "desk":

- I do not need a desk to use my desktop, so I'm looking to build a kind of "wardrobe" on wheel (see after why) that will contain two desktops easily accessible on the back, my new main monitor (34.1"/21:9) and a secondary vertical mounted one (27" 16:9), inside the rest of such "small wardrobe on wheel" structure I've put a classic UPS, few extras (like my not-so-much-used-anymore laptop on the back, cables and so on), a compact laser printer etc all connection TO the wardrobe: just a power cord and a cat6A cable. FROM the wardrobe a usb cable;

- separated from it my standing desk, reduced in size, to have a place for keyboard, trackball (both wired, I do not want wireless ones), a "conference bottle" (poors man Meeting Owl, meaning a "bottle with mic, speaker and cam") and few extras;

- under this system a simple magnetic treadmill (so I can walk and stop without having to touch anything, even if I need a small angle to use such system) and a tipper chair that when I want it, it goes over the treadmill, when not in use remain behind.

My target is having a standing desk (done, but not as I wish) where I can:

- "walk" starting and stopping when I want, no buttons needed, no fixed or not so quick to regulate speed;

- being sit when I want, with the minimum effort, so I can switch in few seconds without moving much stuff around;

- a complete hand-free setup (done, but not done for cam) while I'm still far from the monitor.

Perhaps I've build a good enough prototype in few months :-)

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