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This morning, while I was minding my own business, playing around with the HTML5 mobile boilerplate, I realised that my workspace was just… wrong. I don’t know why I suddenly decided that, but I did. And I needed to do something about it.
As it happens, I’m having a new kitchen fitted in the next few weeks so I need to clear some space downstairs in my house. My glass dining table was one of the items of furniture that was due to be sold off. I’ve never really liked the desk I’ve been using for the past couple of years. It was one of the ‘choose the legs and top separately’ ones from IKEA. It was supposed to be a temporary one until I found something better and it felt cheap, wobbled if you nudged it too hard and had a slightly rough texture to it which I never really liked. However, as with most temporary solutions, they tend to become permanent.
Anyway, the circular glass table from downstairs gave me an idea and I set about reorganising and rearranging things (something I haven’t done since I moved in 3 years ago).
4 hours later and I’m quite pleased with the result. My Mac Mini, Drobo and a couple of other hard drives are sitting on a small, pine chest of drawers while my 23-inch monitor, keyboard, iPad (on a Twelve South Compass Mobile Stand) and speakers are sitting happily on the glass table.
It’s going to take a bit of getting used to, working at a circular table and my desk chair looks a bit odd sitting next to it, but already I much prefer it over the cheap, slightly wobbly IKEA desk I had previously. I can get the monitor further away from me which is better for my eyes, and my Darkfield Logitech Anywhere MX mouse feels great on the glass surface (I’m glad I went for a Darkfield one now since I cannot stand using a mouse mat).
Things I will probably change: swap the Apple wired keyboard for a wireless version, change the lighting behind the screen and maybe add an Apple Magic Trackpad (since using Lion without gestures can be painful at times once you get used to them). I also need to work on tidying up the cabling. I have one cable wrap where cables are visible above the desk, but now I can see the cables through the desk, I need to work something out.
Things I’d love to change if I had unlimited budget: swap the Mac Mini, speakers and screen for a 23-inch iMac. I think a 27-inch one would just be too big for the size of the workspace I have available. Plus, it would probably go straight through the table!
Incidentally, my Apple keyboard cleaned up really well with just a wet wipe – I’ve been thinking about the best way of cleaning it for a while – that’s the only problem with the white keys. I’d love to see a version with black keys instead (backlit?) like on a MacBook.
Not yet sure if I’ll miss having a space to plug in my MacBook Air, but I can always put it in place of the iPad if needs be. The great thing is that I can fairly easily push the screen back and then there’s enough space for two people to sit with a laptop each.
Anyway, that’s my setup – feel free to share any thoughts, comments or links to your own setup below!
