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- Hacker News
- You have one monitor yes, but what about second monitor?by rickdg
- When you have two monitors, is your head always turned to one side? That always hurts my neck, so I wind up with the second monitor relegated to the side, where I never actually look at it.by dnmc
- 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.
by porknubbins - Yep, even more-so with a corner desk (L-shaped). Although there are times my work involves both papers and computer, and the quick swivel of a corner desk is great.by Tempest1981
- His Studio Display 3D printable model MacBook holder: https://arslan.io/macbook-holder-for-apple-studio-display/by thadk
- 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
by mold_aid - 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.
by lorecore - You just need a home cubicle.by normie3000
- 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.by layer8
- A few scattered thoughts but a board with decoration or art of a similar size could be a nice cover, the other (more building required) would be to look if there’s a way you can fold down/away the monitor when not in use.by IanCal
- If you do good cable management it looks good imo. I have a desk arm with monitors attached on their VESA mounts. All the monitor cabling is attached to the mounts and goes into the cable management tray under the desk with everything else.
- Walking into my office, you definitely see the backside of my dual monitor + audio interfaces + studio monitor speakers (I dabble in music production as well as tech) from the doorway.
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.
by spectra72 - It's not an issue if your office is so small that no one is hanging out in front of it. :)
My wife only comes in to get printouts and supplies if I'm working, and if she's working (we share the "battle station" by switching out whose laptop is connected to the dock) I basically only go in there to quickly chat and walk around to the other side.
by jedberg - The "standard" answer is to do basically what he did - cluster the monitors on a corner (either angled or straight).
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...
by bombcar - I place mine against the wall. It is most convenient this way because the Ethernet and power outlets are against the wall. In addition it means that the remainder of the space is large enough to be used for other things. My wife and I sit in the same room with a table with the 3D printer, home servers, and our various shared workbench tasks in between us. I sit by the window because I like sunlight and looking over the city, and while my wife does too my mood is more mercurially related to it than is hers.
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.
by arjie - Very aesthetic, the author must be a photographer, these photos could fit very well on r/malelivingspace.by satvikpendem
- He’s a software engineer with taste. I know taste is subjective but I happen to like he’s taste.by lifty
- When I went remote for COVID I did something similar in terms of analog-digital separation, but at the level of my home, not my desk. All of my work-related gear never left my home office (even my laptop). When I leave my home office this allows me to "disconnect" mentally.by solenoid0937
- I ended up at the same conclusion as you guys but implemented in yet another way: my home office has a desk for digital work, and a 'study nook' for analog (mostly reading, but it has its own little desk as well).
If I had a larger home, a dedicated den or study room would be a pretty high priority for me. I want my office to be a minimalist, businesslike space with no distractions that focuses me on the screen where my work happens. But the study is a place for clearing my head, thinking and reading, more about comfort, dimmer lighting, familiar objects, and no screens unless I bring in a small e-reader.
by safety1st - 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.
by baliex - I also just moved to a new house, and am very happy this showed up. I'm trying to do a complete furniture refresh for my office, declutter, and reorganize.
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
by Upas - 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.
by necovek - 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.
by alexfoo - 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.
by allenu - The guy is obviously passionate about his fountain pens: https://arslan.io/2025/12/19/a-look-at-my-fountain-pens/by dudul
- 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.
by zkmon - It is possible to take care of your tools. My workbench looks used, but why would it have burn marks etc? I take care when I work. My office desk looks pristine because it's not a workbench.
- > 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.
So buy a table and start using it.
by normie3000 - Wow this guy has the 606 Vitsoe Universal shelving [1] and USM Haller desk [2]
A dream setup.
by porphyra - The Vitsoe shelving is the goal for my office, but the initial cost is just so high. I know it will last me the rest of my life, and I should just have bought it when I first wanted it 15 years ago.
The chairs in front of the desk might be a pair of Vitsoe 620 Chair Programme.
by mrweasel