If you're concerned about the window's position, ancient Feng Shui advised the window should be located to your side, specifically on the side of the hand you don't use for writing. I think their reasoning was: this way, your head and the hand you use for writing won't cast shadows on the area where you're writing.
I would love a table that has uneven solid wood surface, with cracks and scratchers, burn marks, broken corners, worn-out edges, ink-marks everywhere, shaped out by the usage, not by design.
A dream setup.
The chairs in front of the desk might be a pair of Vitsoe 620 Chair Programme.
- A sitting desk for coding
- A standing desk for thinking and working on paper
There is something magical about standing while working on paper.
I’ve also found that this separation became more important to follow since the arrival of LLMs.
To be fair, the huge window by the desk in the article makes it a naturally more appealing space than my own. But it’s enough to make me rethink the layout we have here so far. Especially since we want space for non digital projects too.
I'm lucky enough that there is a large window in the room, and I also only use one monitor. While I think my room is not as large as his, I can still make it work.
The one thing that was stopping me was cable management - but with clever furniture placement, I think the cables can mostly be hidden.
The non digital side makes total sense and I would love to mimic this
Long story short, what kind of desk are you working with? I would consider my desk fairly small but it has lots of room for common things.
Aside from the obvious advantage of more space it really helps put your mind in a different context when you are at a different location. In his example just moving over slightly would do nothing for me with the computer just arms length away and still in full view.
What I like to do is think of the office less as a discrete space and more like a colonial, expansionist government - if I have sat in a chair for any amount of time, anything in a five-foot radius starts accruing stacks of books, paper pads, that kind of thing. My wife loves this! Sometimes it gets cold in a room and I leave it for a while and when I return months later it's like discovering an office from the past
Maybe one day I could face my desk away from a wall.
Michele De Lucchi & Giancarlo Fassina (1987)
I have considered that as a dual setup (a desk towards room and a desk behind you up against wall)
That was everywhere in my childhood.
<https://duckduckgo.com/?q=round+paper+lamp&iar=images&t=ftsa>
I still don't have a good solution for this, and curious what others are doing.
Overall, power and data management dominate this entire arrangement. I have far too many devices each of which draw very little power but demand their own massive power connections. In the end, I will likely just rack most of them to make room for the second child we plan to have.
I just live with it. I'm on the good side. The few times a day my wife needs to talk to me she just comes around to my side of the desk anyways.
I don't know how those things are legal, like building a computer case out of recycled newspaper clippings.
Would you like to buy a fire insurance policy against the specific casualty of that lamp igniting from its light source and burning OP’s flat down? I’ll sell you one for a great price.
You're literally arguing that rice paper is an acceptable material for electrical safety.
Frayed cord, damaged/defective socket, the list of potential ignition sources goes on but hey let's wrap it all in dry grass and kindling.
They pair it with a 2.8W bulb: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/solhetta-led-bulb-e26-450-lumen...
Less than an ancient phone charger. OP’s flat will be fine.
And in OP’s pictures, I totally believe that’s the bulb they’re using. Notice they have a desk lamp for up close work, and a freaking enormous window to let in sunlight. No need to flood the space with light with the hanging pendant thing.