I've seen on Twitter recently a lot of chat about people who are now self-isolating due to Covid-19 and their various work setups at home. Some people are seasoned WFHers, but for some people this has come as a big change to their working routine.
One common topic is that of workspaces. If you use a computer for work, where do you put it? Where do you sit with your laptop? What if you live in a studio apartment and several of you are trying to isolate? I've seen posts of people with laptops on top of laundry basket in the hallway.
When I moved into a new office myself about 4 years ago, I had no desk at the the time and used a pile of boxes of leaflets as my make-shift desk, and a smaller pile as my chair.
One common complaint is, of course, ergonomics. If you are suddenly sat for an 8-hour work day using a dining room chair or kitchen stool versus a proper desk chair, how long before you get aches?
I used to have quite a nice setup at home for my home-office, in which I had a nice Ikea sit-stand desk:
Then one our grown up kids needed to move back home and I lost the 'study' I had as we needed to convert it back into a bedroom again. So I made a desk up in an alcove in the bedroom. I bought a worktop and some table legs from Ikea, and then cut the worktop to fit exactly in the alcove... worked pretty well:
Then the other grown up kid needed to move back home as well... damn kids! And so we lost that bedroom too.
And so I was relegated to my computer on the kitchen table. Alas, the kitchen table in our house is a 'dumping' space for general stuff, and also there isn't much room, so I was constantly in the way, and everything was getting a mess.
So, I decided to build a quick-and-dirty standing-desk-come-sideboard-come-storage. [editors note: 'come'? 'cum'? Hrmmm... me: "I think the 'cum' is latin" son: "that sounds too jizzy, that is not the best way to describe furniture"]
I thought this might be of use for other people suddenly needing to make/find some space at home to work.
And the result:
Another Ikea-hack masterpiece. It is made of two Ikea Metod 60x37x100 wall cabinets screwed together side by side and similarly sized Bodarp Green-Grey doors. I added few packs of Utrusta shelves to go inside. The top is a piece of Eckbacken concrete-effect laminate worktop cut slightly shorter to fit the space. The entire thing is mounted on some casters as well so can be moved away from the wall if needed. There is a radiator behind it, hence the gap you see from the wall. This radiator is only on low as the kitchen already gets quite warm from cooking. The total cost was something like about £180.
It also gives us some extra storage space in the kitchen, which we greatly need:
The entire thing is perfect height for me to stand and work (I'm 5'9" / 175cm) if you are shorter you might need to forgo the casters, taller and may need to add spacers between the cabinets and the worktop.
So I now alternate between standing at the counter working, or sat on the sofa with the dog:
Take care everyone!
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