Standing desk and #workfromhome ergonomics
The chair (or sofa, or bed) you are sitting on can make or break your long-term performance. It’s a frog-boiling experience though. You most likely won’t realize you are in trouble until your back pain messes with your sleep. If you used to work from an office, or even a co-working space, the furniture was probably chosen with work ergonomics in mind. That's probably not the case with your kitchen chair.
On the flipside, your kitchen chair actually fits into the kitchen. While your back would love a proper office or gaming chair, your sense of esthetics might not be on board with a black monster in the corner. Something similar happens with standing desks. They tend to be quite bulky, especially if you don’t have a dedicated office at home.
So let me introduce my current setup, both at my permanent home in Spain as well as at my parents’ place in Germany.
Reasons to choose a shelf-based standing desk
There you go, I made up a word: shelf-based standing desk. It certainly sounds better than “just shove your monitor into an existing shelving unit”, though that’s also an apt description. So, here’s why I chose a shelf-based standing desk.
My living room has the best view, so it does not make sense to hide myself away in the bedroom.
My living room also needs to accommodate a 2x1m solid wood dining table. There’s no way I can fit another work table in there.
I like to move between working on my feet at my computer with drawing on papers on that dining table.
When the kids are home, working from the living room allows me a bit more flexibility.
A standing desk keeps the computer out of reach of my preschoolers’ engineering hands.
Basically, I needed a way to integrate my work space into my living room without compromising on esthethics or practiability. I had a lot of experience working from a “normal” standing desk already, and the nature of my work allows me to step back from the screen itself occasionally. I actually enjoy plotting out processes on paper, so installing my monitor at height would encourage me to not be glued to it at all times.
Things to consider when creating your own shelf-based standing desk
Your work station will be yours, and yours only. Unless the other people in your houshold are of your exact size, your adjustments won’t exactly fit anyone else. This can be an advantage ;)
If the shelving you choose is closed behind, make sure to account for where you want the cables to go. I chose a wall-mounted combination, so no drilling was needed.
Beware the distance between your eyes and the monitor. With “just” a shelf unit (even those who call themselves “workspace combinations”), the default will put you way too close to the screen. There are solutions though ;)
While your monitor will be fixed, your laptop should be easy to retrieve. If you are going to use both screens, make sure that the laptop isn’t too far away from your main screen. You can solve this in different ways, as you’ll see below.
#IkeaHack: Svalnäs series on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all
I used the Svälnas shelf unit (now discontinued) by IKEA. It includes an integrated desk. However, the work space is too narrow to hold a monitor and and computer, and who wants to sit down anyway. So I made these adjustments:
I changed the place where the classic “workstation” goes to my personalized elbow height.
When working I extend the drawers and put a shelf on top. That’s where my hands rest while typing. I take off the extra shelf and tuck the drawers in when not at my computer, so the kids can’t run into the corners.
This it what it looks like at my place:
The lowest shelf stores the "electronics" my kids hold precious: a TipToi for each child and the corresponding books.
And here's how the "expandable" drawers work. Since only my mouse and my wrists go on there, it works. I wouldn't put my tea pot on the shelf-on-extended-drawers, though.
OK, I clearly put my mug on there. But I swear, that's it.
It looks great, it does the job, and I can move back and forth between my standing desk and my gorgeous dining table for more creative stuff.
And during the summer month at my parents’ place? Well, I ended up rummaging through the basement and ended up with this combination:
It does the work just as well, especially given that it’s visually tugged into a corner where visuals aren’t that much of a concern ;)