Home Office Update Oct 2024: New Home, New Office in progress

Right after publishing my updated home office setup earlier this year, we started looking for a new place. I’m happy we found one we love, but that meant that the office had to be completely redone. I took it as an opportunity to fix and add things I always wanted to change about my previous office. I want to better utilize the space to fit more Lego as my collection grows exponentially. I also wanted to give the room more uses other than just working and taking meetings. I want to be able to use the room to build Legos, have a proper workbench, and maybe even play games. Hopefully this will be the first of a series of post of projects I’m working on the new house.

Planning

My favorite part of creating rooms is the panning. There are so many possibilities that it can be a little overwhelming. I follow a few sites and save inspiration on Freeform. It really is an underrated app, especially on the iPad with the Apple pencil.

I love sketching many different combinations for the room's layout. Even though I know how to use Rhino and can create 3D models of the office, I find it so much quicker to mock up the room and furniture in Figma. I use a 1cm = pixel scale to ensure everything is up to size. I also create components for each Ikea product, with variants for each of the unique combinations. That way, I can duplicate the rooms and play with the layouts.

Double Desks

I’ve always felt that I was not using the full potential of my space in my previous office. I wanted to be able to fit more Legos and wanted the room to have more uses than just working and taking meetings. After looking at some inspo, I wanted to turn my room into more of a studio with multipurpose spaces. The first step towards that was getting a second desk. This way, I can keep a dedicated desk for work and meetings with a fixed neutral background for calls. At the same time, the 2nd desk can be used for hobbies such as building Lego.

I switched back to a smaller desktop using the same standing desk frame for my work desk. I stripped back everything to the bare minimum. My Studio Display, Stream Deck MK2, Apple peripherals and an Elago Magsafe Dock for StandBy. It looks plain, but those are all the things that I need to work on, and it's refreshing not to have any clutter. Sadly, my day as a remote UX designer is filled with lost Zoom calls. For that, I use the camera of the Studio Display, which is not the best, but it's better than 90% of my coworkers, so it evens out. The mic is trash, so I use Elgato’s Wave Mic 3 with their boom arm so it is out of sight on calls.

On the other hand, the Lego desk is a cheap, simple desk from Ikea. I got it to test the idea of 2 desks, and if it works, I would consider a proper standing desk. I’m currently using it to build the UCS AT-AT, which is massive, as you can see from just the legs. Before, I used to build Legos on portable trays around the house, but for sets this big, having a desk is worth it so you can spread all the pieces for easy finding. I like to watch stuff while I’m building, so I keep my 11in iPad Pro on an Elago Magnetic Stand. To separate both desks I’m using two Ikea Skadis pegboards.

So far, It's been great! Having the dedicated work desk in the corner helps me disconnect from work when I'm not there, leaving the rest of the room so I don't feel like working evenings or weekends.

New Lego displays

I used Ikea Eket for Lego displays in my previous office. I loved them, but they were not scalable and wasted much vertical space. It was tough to stack them, and I could not adjust the individual cube’s shelves, so there was a limit to the number of sets I could display.

I did a ton of research comparing and measuring different Ikea modular display units. I was between the Besta and the Billy. The Besta was the one that would look the best, but it was not as modular as the Billy. The PAX unit is the one used for closets, and it was a cool option because it could display bigger sets but way too deep and took too much space. Ultimately, I went with your typical Ikea bookshelf, the Billy. The main silly reason was that it was the only one that could comfortably fit the UCS AT-AT, which is massive!

I got Billy shelves with a height extension. I wanted them to look built-in with an Ikea hack, but that was too much work. The best part about the Billy’s is that they are made for this type of display, so things like adjusting the shelving height are super simple and do not require screwing.

Because of my AC unit, I had to get smaller shelves for the far left side. It ended up working great because those smaller ones serve as the zoom background, which I had to tone down a little on the Lego so it's not as distracting or “childish” zoom calls.

Future plans

I’ve been pretty satisfied with the room so far. First, I want to replace the ugly IKEA curtains with a proper light filtering rollup like in my previous office. The current ones just make the room look smaller. I want to add one or two Billy units to fit some of my unopened sets. After that, I want to add lights to the shelves, but I’m not sure if they should be the same Mitled that I used on my previous Eket displays or if I should use the Komplement ones.

I also want to add a small TV and a small couch to see if I can create a small gaming nook or just play YouTube videos in the background. Last but not least, I want to play around with the general aesthetic of the room to make it look more cohesive.

Sneak peak

This is a sneak peek for another blog post. I went full Unifi on the new house, and this is one of the 3 Access Points I have around the house. I also have a direct Ethernet connection going to a small switch below my desk, providing 1 GB speed to my laptop. Stay tuned for more on this!

I hope you enjoyed this update! I will post a more final look once I finish up and will also update my Uses page with the new gear. If you have any questions let me know!