New home office/studio desk setup (and current gear cave)

Jarick

Shredder
Messages
2,327
Had an incident over the weekend which luckily didn't do too much damage, but did prompt me to redo my home office/studio desk setup.

I have a big shelf full of books and some other stuff that came tumbling down and crashed onto all my stuff on my desk. Was EXTREMELY lucky that it did almost no serious damage to any of the expensive gear. My monitor speakers, display monitor, computers, interface, and all that were right underneath but the only thing that broke was the monitor arm. Then I had a bunch of glass shatter and spray across the room, but it somehow completely missed all my guitars, modelers, pedals, and everything.

I had been thinking about redoing my desk setup anyways so I got a few supplies. A few months back I built a custom desktop shelf for my Axe FX 3, but then I found I didn't have enough space for the computers and other stuff, and it got really crowded. Also, my cheap Ikea desk top was bowing in the middle as it's made out of basically cardboard with a wood veneer and that also needed to be replaced.

I got a new solid wood desk top from Ikea that should be more durable, and is compatible with the adjustable legs I already have (I like my desks a little lower than average). Then I picked up some supplies to build a new monitor shelf/riser: some adjustable legs, a nice pine board, and a can of water based poly.

Managed to get everything done in half a day, including cutting the shelf to size and doing a full poly finish. The Minwax polycrylic is super easy to work with, has almost no fumes, very fast dry times, and easy clean up. I managed to do 2-3 coats of poly then wet sand and buff it to a really smooth satin finish in just a few hours. It turned out much nicer than my last attempt with an oil based stain.

Here's the finished project. I can keep both my computers (Macbook Air for personal use and Dell PC for work), my interface, and my hubs under the riser and out of the way. On top I have my 28" 4k monitor, Genelec 8020 nearfields, and will set up a couple things like a phone charging dock and pick bowl and all that stuff.

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It's a little smaller than the old desk which is fine. I can bring more stuff in on the sides if I want. I may put my big 6.5" JBL monitors on stands on the sides at some point too.

To my left I've got a wire rack shelf with the Kemper, Axe FX 3, and some headphones and cables. It's really nice to be able to tweak the Kemper knobs and buttons on the fly. Can do the same with the Axe 3 but I prefer the software for that.

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On the right, I've got the Boss Katana Artist along with my little HX Stomp board. Behind that is the Blackstar HT-5 and my other studio monitors.

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Off to the side is the wall of guitars:

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And in the corner is the island of misfit toys, my bass leaning up against the clearly not fully setup drums:

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Looks awesome, I’m jealous of your tidy studio room :chef

Dude you should see the piles of junk I didn't post lol

There are two big piles of stuff in two other corners just out of sight that I need to go through yet. I've got a shelf full of containers of stuff that I need to sort through and slim down. Probably something like 50 different pickups, tons of guitar parts (don't ask how many Strat pickup covers/knobs), lots of cables, lots of random stuff. Then I have boxes full of things I need to sell, and I have boxes full of boxes of things I want to keep in case I sell them. I've got all the books and magazines that fell from the shelf, cushions from chairs that I don't want the cat to pee on, I've even got tubes of wrapping paper from when I cleaned out our utility closet!

My next project in here is going to be fixing up the walls and re-painting everything. I may re-do the floors to match the rest of the basement I did. But when I had the flooding issue last summer (which again miraculously didn't destroy anything because I was right there when it happened), it damaged a lot of the paint and the paper cover of the sheetrock, so lots of work needs to be done.

Would love to eventually have one of those super cool home studios like you see on YouTube. Maybe someday!
 
I like how you fixed up your gear setup cus your bookshelf tumbled over! :grin
jk but hopefully you did something about the shelf too...?

Looks like a fun room, tidy where it matters! How are you switching between the two computers, do you have a KVM switch hidden somewhere?
 
I like how you fixed up your gear setup cus your bookshelf tumbled over! :grin
jk but hopefully you did something about the shelf too...?

Looks like a fun room, tidy where it matters! How are you switching between the two computers, do you have a KVM switch hidden somewhere?

Well I had a shelf that was mounted on the wall above my desk with drywall anchors that somehow came undone. The anchors pulled out of the wall, then the books and things fell onto my desk, mostly on my monitor, my Genelec speakers, and then my keyboard and stuff. I had the monitor mounted on one of those desk clamp arms, and I think either the arm bent or the desk cracked inside as it was twisted. With my Genelecs, they looked scuffed up but I wiped them with a damp cloth and they look brand new again. Good plug for metal speakers!

Great question on the computers. I started working from home basically full time when Covid hit, and after a while of switching back and forth between two sets of keyboards and mice, I invested in some things to make it easier. Instead of going the KVM route, I have a monitor with multiple inputs, one from each laptop hub. For my keyboard and mouse, I bought a Logitech MK850 set which supports multiple connections, and the keyboard can be used for PC and Mac.

So when I switch to my PC, I change the monitor input to Display Port and then click "1" on the keyboard and select "1" on the mouse. When I switch to my Mac, I change the monitor input to HDMI and then click "3" on the keyboard and select "3" on the mouse. Takes just a few seconds and way cheaper than a true KVM. It's been really stable too, working without issues for about three years now.

That's also why I went with a single large 4k monitor instead of dual monitors. To save on some desktop space and to easily use with both sources.

One other thing I do quite a bit is to run my Macbook Air on the side while I am working. That way I can have a YouTube video up (running through my monitors), or control music, or have some guitar software/editors up, etc. You can see I'm waiting on a new desk pad which was supposed to be delivered yesterday but is running late.



And the keyboard/mouse:
 
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