Thoughts on a Proper Work Space
I wrote a while back about the custom dining room table I made with an old door. I didn’t mention though that once I caught the door bug, I used the same idea to create a better work desk at home. My old desk used to be the crappiest tiny particle board Walmart desk. I hated it so much that after sitting there for 5 minutes, I always wanted to get up and find something else to do. This is difficult for me because I do a lot of creative work at my desk at home at all hours. I decided it was time to finally create a work space that frees me and gives me everything I need.
Because the door worked so well for the dining room table, I went back to the same Habitat for Humanity and found an incredible flat, white door that would make the perfect desk top. It was solid, heavy, clean, and had no fancy indentions, so I didn’t need to buy an expensive piece of glass to cover it. Best of all, it was only $5. Copying my pal and fellow designer Matt Bolt’s idea, I then headed to Lowe’s to buy some simple sawhorses to set the door on. I bought two sturdy metal sawhorses for only $18 each (the edges really aren’t as sharp as they warn you about). That’s $41 for a complete huge sturdy desk.
My top priority is having lots of space on my desk top, so the door is perfect. I have lots of paperwork, music, computer gear, cameras, and other stuff on my desk at all times and need lots of real estate. I thought the door might slide around without being fastened to the sawhorses, but I was wrong. This thing isn’t going anywhere. Drawer space is not important to me. I have a penholder, a basket for a few random things, and a file cabinet for documents, and that’s all I need since the majority of what I am doing is on the computer.
I firmly believe that a proper workspace should have all the comfortable elements that make the job easier. A good chair, a good desk, and good lighting. It vastly improves the quality of your work, and for someone in a creative field like me, it makes the long hours of having to be artistic much more bearable. Now if I could only retire my five year old iMac, but that is down the list a bit and it’s still pretty fast.
