Fixed up my Home Office / Music Room

[Jarick]

So with the new job coming up and a little PTO available, I want to redo my home office/music space. Looking for some input from the group.

Here's generally what it currently looks like right now. I have one big desk that I use both for work and music/personal, being able to switch the monitor and keyboard/mouse between the two. The space is about 10' x 12' or so.

I'm considering changing the setup for the new job into two separate desks: one for work, one for my music and personal stuff. I find that sitting in the same spot for 8+ hours a day makes me not want to go back to the desk to play guitar in the evenings and on weekends. So I end up playing during my downtime at work and never really get much done in terms of writing or practicing.

I also need to have my camera on much more in the new job, so will likely have my work desk facing the room with a plain wall behind me.

Another thing I have gone back and forth on is having a screen free area for guitar. Something like a chair with a guitar, amp, and a couple pedals. Where I'm not necessarily focused on tweaking the modeler or surfing YouTube or TGF.

TL/DR:

1. Would you try and keep your home office and music spaces together (one desk) or separate?
2. Anyone else tried a small screen free practice area?
3. Any good pictures or posts for inspiration?

 

[Achilles]

Get a bigger black wire rack!

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

So with the new job coming up and a little PTO available, I want to redo my home office/music space. Looking for some input from the group.

Here's generally what it currently looks like right now. I have one big desk that I use both for work and music/personal, being able to switch the monitor and keyboard/mouse between the two. The space is about 10' x 12' or so.

I'm considering changing the setup for the new job into two separate desks: one for work, one for my music and personal stuff. I find that sitting in the same spot for 8+ hours a day makes me not want to go back to the desk to play guitar in the evenings and on weekends. So I end up playing during my downtime at work and never really get much done in terms of writing or practicing.

I also need to have my camera on much more in the new job, so will likely have my work desk facing the room with a plain wall behind me.

Another thing I have gone back and forth on is having a screen free area for guitar. Something like a chair with a guitar, amp, and a couple pedals. Where I'm not necessarily focused on tweaking the modeler or surfing YouTube or TGF.

TL/DR:

1. Would you try and keep your home office and music spaces together (one desk) or separate?
2. Anyone else tried a small screen free practice area?
3. Any good pictures or posts for inspiration?

Separating music/work to two different stations was a huge boost for me on both work productivity and music productivity sides. My space is 11.5'x12.5'. I have work desk on one wall with camera facing into the room and my music station on the opposed wall -- I don't worry soooo much about whether my music gear is in view during camera-on times, but am slightly embarrassed when the monitor of that station is in view and clearly on a gear forum, or some guitar-gear youtube or something. To the point that I did eventually go in and make sure my default video-con is with a background image loaded. If things are okay behind me and I think about it, I will turn off the background image, because I do find I'm able to better engage with folks that are showing me their actual room rather than some weird office background image (or worse, tropical beach).

The biggest challenge is when having both stations set up for seated and I'm rolling the chair between the two...no rug on floor is only way I comfortably make that work. And the only way I've gotten to where I can live with that from a "god, the reflections!!!" perspective is to create a very big cloud by stuffing rockwool between the floor joists above and covering with fabric (drop ceiling would work pretty well for that, too, I imagine).

I find playing through a cab that is offset to be enough to keep me away from the screen -- definitely do more "I'm just playing guitar in my room like I used to do in high school" rather than the awkwardly surfing the web while noodling that I often fall into when playing through monitors.

 

[Jarick]

Separating music/work to two different stations was a huge boost for me on both work productivity and music productivity sides. My space is 11.5'x12.5'. I have work desk on one wall with camera facing into the room and my music station on the opposed wall -- I don't worry soooo much about whether my music gear is in view during camera-on times, but am slightly embarrassed when the monitor of that station is in view and clearly on a gear forum, or some guitar-gear youtube or something. To the point that I did eventually go in and make sure my default video-con is with a background image loaded. If things are okay behind me and I think about it, I will turn off the background image, because I do find I'm able to better engage with folks that are showing me their actual room rather than some weird office background image (or worse, tropical beach).

The biggest challenge is when having both stations set up for seated and I'm rolling the chair between the two...no rug on floor is only way I comfortably make that work. And the only way I've gotten to where I can live with that from a "god, the reflections!!!" perspective is to create a very big cloud by stuffing rockwool between the floor joists above and covering with fabric (drop ceiling would work pretty well for that, too, I imagine).

I find playing through a cab that is offset to be enough to keep me away from the screen -- definitely do more "I'm just playing guitar in my room like I used to do in high school" rather than the awkwardly surfing the web while noodling that I often fall into when playing through monitors.

That's great stuff, thanks! We have similar sized rooms. I'm planning to build some rockwool sound absorbers and place those in a few spots to avoid reflections as well. I have linoleum floors and can't do rugs because of the cat, so some room and wall treatment will be key. Likely going to get a second chair to avoid having to drag mine around all over the place.

Yeah I don't really want backgrounds to be a distraction, especially as I'll be presenting more in this job. My wife has all kinds of decor behind her and I may try and do something similar (like a nice landscape/cityscape picture behind me or something).

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

That's great stuff, thanks! We have similar sized rooms. I'm planning to build some rockwool sound absorbers and place those in a few spots to avoid reflections as well. I have linoleum floors and can't do rugs because of the cat, so some room and wall treatment will be key. Likely going to get a second chair to avoid having to drag mine around all over the place.

Yeah I don't really want backgrounds to be a distraction, especially as I'll be presenting more in this job. My wife has all kinds of decor behind her and I may try and do something similar (like a nice landscape/cityscape picture behind me or something).

On the rockwool absorber front, all the diy stuff online about them is SOOOOOO much more expensive than needs to be. For the frames: Get some cheap-ass plywood, cut strips to the depth you want/need, and either use pocket screws to join together, or if you don't have a pocket screw set up, just get some metal 90 degree angle brackets. I don't remember exact dimensions I used, but I had the dude at home depot basically take some cheap sub-floor plywood and cut a 4x8 sheet once to break it down to two 4x4 sheets, then had each of those ripped once I think maybe at like 18 or 19" to give 2 4x18"-ish pannels and 2 4' x 30-ish inch panels. Once home, I then ripped off 9" wide sections from those for 9" deep rockwool panels and then cut those to length as needed for assembling rectangular boxes. 6" deep would be totally fine, too. 3" (one layer of rockwool) works, but 6" is much better.

For fabric....canvas drop cloths in the paint section -- its actually a pretty nice neutral color once stretched and stapled over the frame. Since that covers the plywood sides, I don't care how ratty the plywood looks.

 

[TSJMajesty]

1. Would you try and keep your home office and music spaces together (one desk) or separate?

I'm fine with that myself. I guess it depends on your focus level, i.e., can you stay focused on work, while working, or will music being so close, be a distraction?

 

[Jarick]

On the rockwool absorber front, all the diy stuff online about them is SOOOOOO much more expensive than needs to be. For the frames: Get some cheap-ass plywood, cut strips to the depth you want/need, and either use pocket screws to join together, or if you don't have a pocket screw set up, just get some metal 90 degree angle brackets. I don't remember exact dimensions I used, but I had the dude at home depot basically take some cheap sub-floor plywood and cut a 4x8 sheet once to break it down to two 4x4 sheets, then had each of those ripped once I think maybe at like 18 or 19" to give 2 4x18"-ish pannels and 2 4' x 30-ish inch panels. Once home, I then ripped off 9" wide sections from those for 9" deep rockwool panels and then cut those to length as needed for assembling rectangular boxes. 6" deep would be totally fine, too. 3" (one layer of rockwool) works, but 6" is much better.

For fabric....canvas drop cloths in the paint section -- its actually a pretty nice neutral color once stretched and stapled over the frame. Since that covers the plywood sides, I don't care how ratty the plywood looks.

That's exactly what I was thinking of doing. Canvas drop cloths, plywood for framing, and insulation.

What specific Rockwool did you use? Was it batt insulation from the hardware store or did you special order the acoustic stuff?

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

That's exactly what I was thinking of doing. Canvas drop cloths, plywood for framing, and insulation.

What specific Rockwool did you use? Was it batt insulation from the hardware store or did you special order the acoustic stuff?

Batting from Home Depot. At the end of the day, if I’m not gonna be putting in time taking a lot of room measurements and serious tuning, all I’m really looking to do is tame flutter, first reflections, and try to trap as much bass for least cost/effort possible. To those ends - a quick trip or two to big box hardware store and spending what - maybe $2-300 total? Made a lot more sense than overthinking the fuck out of it.

 

[Jarick]

I'm fine with that myself. I guess it depends on your focus level, i.e., can you stay focused on work, while working, or will music being so close, be a distraction?

I've used one desk with two computers since Covid started. It's not too distracting but it just gets tiring being in the same spot all the time. Also the new company is going to supply some extra office gear I think.

Anyways, I made a trip to the hardware store and picked up some paint and supplies. Spent a couple hours patching up walls and repairing some of the water damage from when it flooded last summer. Got some before photos and will be fun to see how different it looks when I'm done!

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

I've used one desk with two computers since Covid started. It's not too distracting but it just gets tiring being in the same spot all the time. Also the new company is going to supply some extra office gear I think.

Anyways, I made a trip to the hardware store and picked up some paint and supplies. Spent a couple hours patching up walls and repairing some of the water damage from when it flooded last summer. Got some before photos and will be fun to see how different it looks when I'm done!

If you get a bug up your butt and think "Hey, maybe I'll try to bleach these canvas drop cloths" -- don't. (1) It only slightly improves the color. And I do mean very slightly even after leaving them in a pretty concentrated bucket overnight. (2) Kinda weakens the fabric to where it frays even more than it will normally when you cut it up. (Oh, also -- the canvas drop cloths are great and cheap, but you ARE left with a whole bunch of individual strands of frayed canvas all over the place when you cut it up. Not a big deal to clean up, but just be warned. Not that my wife yelled at me once or anything...).

 

[la szum]

Good advice in here.

Can also buy some cool fabric at the sewing/hobby/fabric place to wrap your clouds/diffusers/panels.

Maybe even some cool Paisley. I went with boring Black.

Easy enough to rewrap.

 

[Stone]

My Room is small and so is our House so Dont have 1 dedicated room for music i share Office/studio, it works out well
older picture below gear has changed but setup is the same Work laptop headset and dock shared with my Monitor KB and mouse on top of my power conditioner
it works

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Good advice in here.

Can also buy some cool fabric at the sewing/hobby/fabric place to wrap your clouds/diffusers/panels.

Maybe even some cool Paisley. I went with boring Black.

Easy enough to rewrap.

My end game, which years later I still haven't reached yet, is to make simple face-frames with some decent fabric to put on the front. I've got...a lot of panels...to the point that cost-effectiveness of using the uber cheap canvas drop cloths to wrap them and "nice" fabric only on the front face amounted to a BIG cost differential.

 

[Jarick]

Finished the bulk of the work on the office space tonight. Recap of the work includes repairing the water damage to the drywall, making a new sewer pipe access cover, rewiring the flourescent ballasts for LED, caulking all the trim gaps, and then repainting all the walls and trim. It's a hell of a lot nicer in here now.

Next step is to figure out where I want to put everything. I got a second smaller desk top for work that I'm going to set up tomorrow, then start moving things back in.

 

[Jarick]

Some updates:

I was running two different desks for the last couple months but it got to be a lot of clutter in the room. I decided to drop back down to a single desk again. I also got a new monitor mount for the desk so I can save some space. Right now I have my big Yamaha HS8 monitors mounted on floor stands between the desk and wall. It's not the most space efficient, but it seems to work fine.

I also ordered a Hercules guitar rack for all my guitars. I had them on the wall for a while but I ended up preferring them in a rack to keep them out of sight. I have a really cheap and crappy guitar rack that only holds five, and since I've added a couple I need more storage. The Hercules should be a lot better quality and can do seven guitars.

Then I got a couple more wire shelf racks for storage. I have a lot of stuff that I keep moving around between my office and basement as I try to sort through it all, but I don't have anywhere to put it even when it's sorted and packed away. That should help there.

Lastly, I think I'm going to build some acoustic panels next weekend. My room has a fair amount of echo and I've been meaning to do this project for a while. I did a detailed plan today and should be able to build 10 panels with rockwool insulation for a little over $200. It won't be perfect but will be a lot better than it is today.

 

[Warmart]

Wow, busy busy, good luck with everything!

 

[dbagchee]

Room looks great! Those Hercules racks are awesome too - I bought some extra neck holders and spacers for it and can get 10 guitars on there if I pack them tight.