redoing desk setup, need advice

[furcalchick]

about six months ago, i posted this picture in the mac setup thread:

i saw the comments and i also realized it wasn't the best of setups, esp. with the white chest, plus the desk is starting to fail. i repainted the room last week and i'm replacing furniture as my bookshelf has filled up on space and my dvd's are in a small unsightly cubby thing and the tv is on yet another piece of furniture, making the 11X11 room seem more crammed than it is.

here's the desk i'm probably going to get. it's about 14 inches narrower than my current one (i got the first one when i had a desktop and needed more book and writing space) and would leave a bit more room for storage on the side as well as less of a need to "fill" the desk. and i since moved the desk to the corner to make the desk seem less messy. suggestions for storage are also recommended.

i maxed out on a 24"x48" bookshelf and i was looking at this bookshelf, but then i realized that i gain little shelf space when i saw it at ikea the other day. i also saw this one, but it looked too big for me, and i'm also thinking about getting two of these and putting them together, but i think it will still look funny. i would like the bookshelf to be open on both sides, as i plan on using it as a room divider.

i'm planning on keeping my tv table, but my main concern is that i can't really hold dvd's on it without causing major trouble if i want to take one out. i would rather have a complement that could go on the bottom shelf.

if you have suggestions for other furniture, i would prefer it either being from target or ikea, although it doesn't have to be from there. thanks for the help!

 

[jcrazyjj]

dont go down in desk space. believe me youll miss it.

id get the biggest desk you can fit in your room and store stuff underneath that. i absolutely love my 72" x 24" desk, im pretty sure id go crazy not having the space i have. its not even cluttered either.

 

[Perrumpo]

Here is the desk I just set up for myself from Ikea. I am very limited on space, so I needed to make great use of the space I have. The desk you linked to from Target it pretty expensive. Mine is pretty affordable.

The desk with legs was $40. The red drawer unit was $40. The shelf sitting on the desk is an Ikea shelf I had left over from a TV unit, but they sell similar shelves that you can put the various length Capita legs on. Having that shelf on top of the desk really adds a lot of space and flexibility. It is particularly useful for someone with a laptop and monitor (like yourself) or two laptops (like me), since you can keep the laptop below and have the monitor on the shelf where it is raised to a comfortable viewing level.

So, my advice is.... build up to take advantage of the vertical space!

EDIT: By the way, my room is 11x11, too, and I just finished replacing my furniture with stuff that actually makes an efficient setup in my entire tiny room, so if you want to compare some more ideas, I'd be glad to.

I am still tinkering with my setup, but here it is right now:

 

[steviem]

Perrumpo, I really like that desk setup.

So much so, that I think I'm going to have to go to ikea some day next week and get my setup done.

Looks like It'll be:

-Lack 110cm shelf
-Vika Amon 120cm desk top
-4x Vika Curry Legs

Altogether, that'd cost about £31, which is awesome!

 

[Perrumpo]

Perrumpo, I really like that desk setup.

So much so, that I think I'm going to have to go to ikea some day next week and get my setup done.

Looks like It'll be:

-Lack 110cm shelf
-Vika Amon 120cm desk top
-4x Vika Curry Legs

Altogether, that'd cost about £31, which is awesome!

Thanks! Yup, that's what's there, besides the shelf on the desk. I'm glad I didn't buy an mStand since I ended up with this setup!

 

[furcalchick]

Here is the desk I just set up for myself from Ikea. I am very limited on space, so I needed to make great use of the space I have. The desk you linked to from Target it pretty expensive. Mine is pretty affordable.

The desk with legs was $40. The red drawer unit was $40. The shelf sitting on the desk is an Ikea shelf I had left over from a TV unit, but they sell similar shelves that you can put the various length Capita legs on. Having that shelf on top of the desk really adds a lot of space and flexibility. It is particularly useful for someone with a laptop and monitor (like yourself) or two laptops (like me), since you can keep the laptop below and have the monitor on the shelf where it is raised to a comfortable viewing level.

So, my advice is.... build up to take advantage of the vertical space!

EDIT: By the way, my room is 11x11, too, and I just finished replacing my furniture with stuff that actually makes an efficient setup in my entire tiny room, so if you want to compare some more ideas, I'd be glad to.

I am still tinkering with my setup, but here it is right now:

that setup looks very nice, i think it's better (and cheaper) than any of the ideas i had, but what did you do for books and dvd storage?

but here's my question: why would the red cabinet look nicer than the white thing i have it now? is it because you can't see the stuff inside of it?

 

[jcrazyjj]

the white thing is kinda "my mom just bought this for me cause i needed a place to store stuff and it was on sale at walmart" where as the red thing is "i bought this to store stuff and it looks cool because i care about how my room looks"

 

[Perrumpo]

that setup looks very nice, i think it's better (and cheaper) than any of the ideas i had, but what did you do for books and dvd storage?

Thanks. Well, I keep textbooks on a shelf in my closet, and I keep DVDs in the living room in the drawers that are part of my tv unit out there. I can't tell what would work best in your room, but the below $6 Lerberg DVD shelves from Ikea have been a great option for some people I've seen on here. Since you mount them on the wall, vertically or horizontally, it saves you a lot of space:

Also, if you really want to store DVDs on your TV unit, you could get some heavy bookends to keep them in place when you remove one from the row.

but here's my question: why would the red cabinet look nicer than the white thing i have it now? is it because you can't see the stuff inside of it?

Similarly to what jcrazyjj said, it's like would you rather store stuff on a shelf in your room with this cardboard box...

...or this cardboard box:

 

[furcalchick]

thanks for your help, i think i know what i want to do now, but i'm still open for suggestions regarding the desk setup. about the dvd's, i'm going to put them in nice cardboard boxes under the tv most likely.

but i still have a question about the bookshelves. as i stated earlier, i maxed out on my 24"W x 48"H 4 shelf bookcase and i want to get an upgrade.

i was planning to get this one, but balked at the last second, because it wasn't much of an improvement on size compared to the one i have now, so i came up with two more options.

will the two narrow shelving units look as nice acting as two halves of a bookcase? i like this because together, it's about the size of a standard bookcase.

or should i look into this one instead? i'm not a fan of this one, it's too wide at 41 inches, and only 4 shelves.

thoughts? thanks.

 

[furcalchick]

here's an updated photo of my setup. just to let you know, it's not finished yet, but i wanted to explain the changes. first off, i moved the desk to another corner of the room and changed my walls to teal green. i also just put a memo board above the desk.

now to explain the unfinished portions. first, the two green things at the ends of the desk are the "legs" to hold up the shelf that i'm still planning to buy (in black). the dvd is there mostly as a reference point, and i put the monitor above the sub-woofer as a height visualization, and it will be on the top of the shelf later. same goes for the pencil rack, paper filer and camera. i posted this mostly to see if where i'm going sounds like a good idea and if the green legs would work.

 

[furcalchick]

i got the shelf and i feel that essentially, the desk setup is complete. i'm still going to paint the desk (which i'm going to keep after all) and the shelf a darker color to make it look more classy and i think the green bars are going to stay to contrast the black colors. i can now use the above monitor as a mirror since it's around my eye level. i would like to get some more thoughts on the setup if it's still messy or if it's more organized. thanks.