It's not mentioned in the article but one thing I constantly struggle with when laying out my office is facing the desk toward the wall (like he originally had it) vs. facing toward the room (the "digital" side of his desk now). I don't like facing the wall but I find when I face the room the monitor totally blocks my view and it kind of looks like ass from the other side. This guy did way better cable management than I have done but still, you're looking at the back side of a monitor like a huge 2001 style monolith, especially if your monitor is black.
I still don't have a good solution for this, and curious what others are doing.
Place your desk roughly in the middle of the room, in a direction where the room is not too wide/long, so your back is still fairly near a wall or shelves, with only a meter or so of space both behind your chair and behind your desk. That way your setup will mostly only be visible from the side.
Having just moved house, this is fantastic inspiration.
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.
As someone with full-height windows at home — depending on your climate (continental Europe here, so similar to NYC or Boston, with below freezing in the winter and 40C/104F in the summer) — might not work too well. You lose space for shelves and such, opening a window can let the rain in, floor will get very cold, and depending on the glass type, you either get it to be like a greenhouse/too hot in the summer, or not leveraging the same effect in the autumn/winter. In general, on sunny days air can get stuffy even in the winter.
It can also be too bright for some types of work during sunny days — especially if facing East or West and the sun is low. All of this depends on the orientation too, and facing north it is probably perfect.
They are otherwise beautiful and have many pros: but I wanted to warn of some practical drawbacks too.
I'm moving house soon. Still yet to work out the home office plans.
There's an area on the middle floor landing that could make an ideal little desk area.
It's something like 150cm wide (my existing desk is 140cm) and deep enough for my 70cm deep desk and existing chair. There is a window directly ahead. The only problem is isolation, there's no door to close things off (noise or distractions), but I may be able to make do with a heavy curtain and my existing noise cancelling headphones.
This would mean that the spare bedroom (which would usually be the home office) could be an alternative home office for myself or my wife, and more of a spare bedroom for visitors. Right now our existing spare bedroom is a dedicated office.
I'm going to use the article as inspiration for the spare bedroom and not just putting the desk up against the wall as I would usually do, but the planning depends on what size bed we can get in this room as well as a desk.
Adding another desk isn't "rethinking the desk". It's adding another desk with a slightly different purpose to the first desk. It's maximalism under the guise of insight.
He has an old picture of the desk against the wall. The new setup is the cluttered desk in center of the room. "Two-part desk" actually means a one-part desk, the source of your confusion probably.
The one on the shelf is probably a Akari paper lantern. I have an orange one that I quite like. You used to be able to buy them from Design Within Reach or the MoMA Design Store, but I can't find them on their sites now but they're on the Noguchi site. [1] The hanging sphere one might be similar.
For those not aware of them, Design Within Reach has a lot of nice famous designed furniture and shelving, but pricey. They often have 15% off season sales though. Good place to shop if you're into the stuff seen in this blog post.
I mean I love this kind of stuff but honestly the answer here is "have a huge honking office." I have a digital/reading split and there's actually a technical term for it: a mess.
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
A basic principle of ancient Chinese Feng Shui is that you should not sit with your back to a space. In other words, you need to have your back against a wall, not your face facing a wall. I believe there is a reason for this. When there is a space behind you, human instinct forces you to pay a subconscious attention on that space (we are very alert to danger from behind), making it harder to concentrate on what is in front of you.
I know that one of the main patterns in Christopher Alexander's A Pattern Language was "Light From Two Sides."
Basically, corner rooms are best.
When we worked with a German company, I was impressed by their offices. They tended to have two engineers per office, with really large windows.
I was told there's actually a law that requires it.
I remember visiting the Facebook office, in New York, and was kind of aghast. It was this huge open-plan cavern, with the managers' offices around the edges (with the windows), and rows of desks, in a fairly dimly-lit pit, in the middle. Of course, the desks all faced each other, and the engineers' backs were to the aisles, with no real buffer between where people walked, and where they worked. It was also noisy.
The Japanese do something similar, but at the company I worked for, there was a lot of natural light in the open-plan offices. The managers don't get offices; just desks, nearer the windows, and the aisles were quite wide.
A VP, with a billion-dollar budget, would have a little desk in the corner that would embarrass a fifth-grade teacher.
And the offices were whisper-quiet, with hundreds of people working in the room.
It's also pretty widespread in the US business world. I rarely see a manager's office where they're not facing the door. I've made it my practice throughout my own career, even when it meant improvising the fixtures in dank little cubicles. Also, nobody but me sees my screen.
For a while, I had one of those kneeling chairs that I kept in front of my desk, so if you wanted to sit down and chat, it was like you had to kneel in front of me. I only did it as a joke, but it was amusing. It didn't last very long because someone took it away and replaced it with a regular chair.
It is better for privacy and receiving clients, but a disadvantage is less physical space in the center/walking area. You can play with lego on the ground, too. I would also get rid of the bookshelf. Get an ereader. There is no way you need all those books physically in your vicinity (I am not arguing you should give up 100% on physical books).
Worse, if my desk wouldn't be at the wall (in corner) my cats wouldn't be able to hide in that corner under the desk, and they could play easier with cables which would also be way more in sight. Against the wall? Not so much. I do regret not getting a sit/stand desk, but the extra cost back then was too large. Oh, and I like Ikea. You can sell those refurbished for good price, too.
That's funny, because there was a joke going around many years ago that you could tell how much money someone had by how far their couch was from the wall.
Out of curiosity, I was trying to find a source for that, but didn't find much other than old Reddit threads and a 'viral TikTok trend.'
> you could tell how much money someone had by how far their couch was from the wall.
Isn't this just a proxy for room size? A couch is bulky furniture and in smaller rooms need to be tucked away. Also in smaller rooms even a pillow in the corner can see a wall-mounted TV anywhere in the room.
There is a new trend of bringing dogs to the office, and for someone that isn't used to having a pet, it's so disruptive to my focus. So many times I'm focusing on something and then having a dog climb on to you/lick you from the aisle behind you is so jarring and disruptive.
I do the same thing but with two physical desks, not just partitioning one desk into two logical desks.
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.
To anyone hesitant on the price of the Vitsoe system I just have to say I’ve had mine for two years now and can confidently say that nothing else compares. It’s truly well made. Feels like it will be around much longer than I am, and still look the part.
How is this shelving any better than what you can buy from say IKEA?
I've got wooden IKEA shelves in my shed and they take serious abuse of big heavy tools, lawn mowers, car batteries, paint cans etc being non-carefully put/clattered away and they're holding up 100% after years. I can't imagine any normal shelves needing to be "well made" to support a few magazines and a toy model Porsche?
Or is this just a "because I am rich and want you to know how rich I am" type thing?
Now when I checked his website in little bit more detail I get that feeling more and more. Looks like someone who brags about a lot of things he owns and cannot shut up about it.
I've been following Fatih on Twitter/X for many years now. He's someone that appreciates good design, and posts about it all the time (not just things he's purchased/owns). So he's someone that appreciates good things, and then reviews and shares for others to benefit.
Some people have other hobbies that cost a lot more than enjoying fine furniture, such as cars. It's easy to dismiss something as snobby when it's not a hobby you share. But if you get to know him (for me, obviously from a distance and only from following him on Twitter), he's anything but a show-off.
Between IVAR and now this 606, I actually don’t know any other non-garage-oriented “universal” shelving systems where you can like mix and match drawers, shelves, tables, etc.
Well, Fatih Arslan uses quite a lot more premium of the premium tools. I once stumbled on his website, on the topic of Fountain Pens (I think). I subscribed to his feed since. Leica for photography, 3D prints pretty interesting items, etc. He spends time and definitely have a taste and can afford some premium product for “ordinary use.”
I think there's an untapped market for really cool office furniture.
The shelving isn't that attention grabbing (looks like double-track
wall shelving)
but the cabinet with drawers, that is cool.
I think we should have lots more office cabinets with drawers so things can be in plain sight. super-functional shallow metal ball-bearing drawers like tool chest drawers. I think it would be organized and productive.
I completely agree and I think the fact that he's not being roasted by HN commenters for posting this is a good sign that it is over for this website/forum.
It's cheating, somewhat, to replace your desk with once that is as wide as two desks. I'm trying to figure out a way to do something similar with only one desk's worth of space.
It "looks" amazing. But you know, the real hard work is always done by the rag-looking, worn-out dirty, dented, scratched, faded-out, weak tools and work-benches. Not the shiny or rugged ones. Just like some notebooks that were used a 1000 times, with corners rounded by usage, not by design.
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.
I put my desk facing the middle of the room in a previous place a few years ago. I really liked it. Unfortunately it does require more space, though, which I don't currently have. If I ever have more space again I'll definitely be doing it again. It feels so much cosier. I don't like having my back to the door.
I'm not really convinced that this is a good solution. I have my own home office and I keep two separate desks. I have a modern motorized desk that can sit or stand. I also have a mid-century classic desk for "analog." And that's where I do all my real business planning. I use digital to-do app only for errands such as reminders to get milk and so on, so sometimes my actual projects get written into the digital world this way, which I do on my phone at the writter's desk. In this way, I'm not only much more distant from potential distractions, but also it's much more secure. Yes, people working at these companies can spy on you. Don't assume your digital notes are secure.
Very beautiful setup. I'm jealous of the space to do this. I like the idea of making the desk face out into the room, but my office is quite small, so it would end up floating in the middle of the room. Having it in the corner isn't quite as pleasing to the eye, but it makes it so the rest of the room feels larger.
There are bits in here that are a little bit over-designed in my opinion. Do you really need two fountain pens at the ready? Must they be there on the desk at all times? I find I carry my single fountain pen with me when I need it. I also can't see myself always sitting at the desk to read. I have books scattered about the house wherever I was reading last. Also, it's great to have such a wide desk for both digital and analog, but how many of us have the space for that luxury? Anyway, just food for thought if you look at something like this and feel jealous and think whatever space you work in today is now poorer for seeing someone else's nicer setup.
This motivated me to clean my desk, and turn it around so I'm facing away from the glare and out towards the room (now with a glimpse of view outside instead of the wall). \o/
Of course they are not next to the wall, the acoustics are terrible! Also wall is good place to put storage in, having desk face it is generally a bit of a waste and only worth if there is not much space behind it to have it other way
I made a big U with desks for PC/music/electronics, I did actually prefer having the most used side (computer) next to the wall but aforementioned acoustics were absolutely ass so I moved it
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[ 1.2 ms ] story [ 73.2 ms ] threadI still don't have a good solution for this, and curious what others are doing.
The "classic" answer is an L-shaped desk, or a desk with credenza.
E.g., https://www.borofkasfurniture.com/desk-2/bbgavioffice2-p207/... or https://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/H-9731/Office-Desks/Ind...
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.
It can also be too bright for some types of work during sunny days — especially if facing East or West and the sun is low. All of this depends on the orientation too, and facing north it is probably perfect.
They are otherwise beautiful and have many pros: but I wanted to warn of some practical drawbacks too.
There's an area on the middle floor landing that could make an ideal little desk area.
It's something like 150cm wide (my existing desk is 140cm) and deep enough for my 70cm deep desk and existing chair. There is a window directly ahead. The only problem is isolation, there's no door to close things off (noise or distractions), but I may be able to make do with a heavy curtain and my existing noise cancelling headphones.
This would mean that the spare bedroom (which would usually be the home office) could be an alternative home office for myself or my wife, and more of a spare bedroom for visitors. Right now our existing spare bedroom is a dedicated office.
I'm going to use the article as inspiration for the spare bedroom and not just putting the desk up against the wall as I would usually do, but the planning depends on what size bed we can get in this room as well as a desk.
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.
For those not aware of them, Design Within Reach has a lot of nice famous designed furniture and shelving, but pricey. They often have 15% off season sales though. Good place to shop if you're into the stuff seen in this blog post.
[1] https://shop.noguchi.org/collections/akari-light-sculptures
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
Basically, corner rooms are best.
When we worked with a German company, I was impressed by their offices. They tended to have two engineers per office, with really large windows.
I was told there's actually a law that requires it.
I remember visiting the Facebook office, in New York, and was kind of aghast. It was this huge open-plan cavern, with the managers' offices around the edges (with the windows), and rows of desks, in a fairly dimly-lit pit, in the middle. Of course, the desks all faced each other, and the engineers' backs were to the aisles, with no real buffer between where people walked, and where they worked. It was also noisy.
The Japanese do something similar, but at the company I worked for, there was a lot of natural light in the open-plan offices. The managers don't get offices; just desks, nearer the windows, and the aisles were quite wide.
A VP, with a billion-dollar budget, would have a little desk in the corner that would embarrass a fifth-grade teacher.
And the offices were whisper-quiet, with hundreds of people working in the room.
For a while, I had one of those kneeling chairs that I kept in front of my desk, so if you wanted to sit down and chat, it was like you had to kneel in front of me. I only did it as a joke, but it was amusing. It didn't last very long because someone took it away and replaced it with a regular chair.
It is better for privacy and receiving clients, but a disadvantage is less physical space in the center/walking area. You can play with lego on the ground, too. I would also get rid of the bookshelf. Get an ereader. There is no way you need all those books physically in your vicinity (I am not arguing you should give up 100% on physical books).
Worse, if my desk wouldn't be at the wall (in corner) my cats wouldn't be able to hide in that corner under the desk, and they could play easier with cables which would also be way more in sight. Against the wall? Not so much. I do regret not getting a sit/stand desk, but the extra cost back then was too large. Oh, and I like Ikea. You can sell those refurbished for good price, too.
Out of curiosity, I was trying to find a source for that, but didn't find much other than old Reddit threads and a 'viral TikTok trend.'
Isn't this just a proxy for room size? A couch is bulky furniture and in smaller rooms need to be tucked away. Also in smaller rooms even a pillow in the corner can see a wall-mounted TV anywhere in the room.
But it's cute, so it's ok apparently.
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.
Maybe one day I could face my desk away from a wall.
I don't know how those things are legal, like building a computer case out of recycled newspaper clippings.
A dream setup.
[1] https://www.vitsoe.com/us/606
[2] https://us.usm.com/collections/tables-desks
I've got wooden IKEA shelves in my shed and they take serious abuse of big heavy tools, lawn mowers, car batteries, paint cans etc being non-carefully put/clattered away and they're holding up 100% after years. I can't imagine any normal shelves needing to be "well made" to support a few magazines and a toy model Porsche?
Or is this just a "because I am rich and want you to know how rich I am" type thing?
Now when I checked his website in little bit more detail I get that feeling more and more. Looks like someone who brags about a lot of things he owns and cannot shut up about it.
Some people have other hobbies that cost a lot more than enjoying fine furniture, such as cars. It's easy to dismiss something as snobby when it's not a hobby you share. But if you get to know him (for me, obviously from a distance and only from following him on Twitter), he's anything but a show-off.
Between IVAR and now this 606, I actually don’t know any other non-garage-oriented “universal” shelving systems where you can like mix and match drawers, shelves, tables, etc.
I have IVAR in my office and it’s great.
The shelving isn't that attention grabbing (looks like double-track wall shelving)
but the cabinet with drawers, that is cool.
I think we should have lots more office cabinets with drawers so things can be in plain sight. super-functional shallow metal ball-bearing drawers like tool chest drawers. I think it would be organized and productive.
Michele De Lucchi & Giancarlo Fassina (1987)
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 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.
There are bits in here that are a little bit over-designed in my opinion. Do you really need two fountain pens at the ready? Must they be there on the desk at all times? I find I carry my single fountain pen with me when I need it. I also can't see myself always sitting at the desk to read. I have books scattered about the house wherever I was reading last. Also, it's great to have such a wide desk for both digital and analog, but how many of us have the space for that luxury? Anyway, just food for thought if you look at something like this and feel jealous and think whatever space you work in today is now poorer for seeing someone else's nicer setup.
I made a big U with desks for PC/music/electronics, I did actually prefer having the most used side (computer) next to the wall but aforementioned acoustics were absolutely ass so I moved it