A 21st Century Desk for a Classic Home Office
I’ve been in my new job for six weeks now - it’s been a major change for me and for the family on several levels, but it feels really good.
The biggest adjustment has been going in three or four days a week up from only one. Before, I had a 45 minute commute that was easy enough: I could walk Claire to daycare and then catch the bus just across the street straight down 3 miles to the coworking space we used. I now walk Robbie to school, head two blocks over, and then hop on a bus that takes me 2.5 miles right to my office; door to door is about 50 minutes. (Interestingly, the commute now feels a lot shorter even though it’s not that much closer. I literally mapped out the distances as I was drafting this post because I was curious and I’m shocked! Maybe because Robbie walks faster and more directly than Claire…) I actually really enjoy going in and working in person with my colleagues, but it means I’m able to get less house stuff done during the week. It used to be easy to fold a load of laundry when I took a break for lunch or to prep dinner while I waited for the kettle to boil for tea in the afternoon and that isn’t generally an option anymore!
Another, which relates to home decor and is the reason for this post, is that I’ve gone from a single laptop that I brought to/from home and my hotdesk at work to external monitors in my office. Yep, I’ve finally joined the modern white collar workforce! I didn’t understand the appeal of having external monitors until I got them, and now I can’t live without them and my wireless keyboard and mouse.
So that cute little 35”-wide desk I loved in my Designing Our Home Office post from November is simply not going to work. When we move back in after the renovation, I’m going to need an external monitor at home - and therefor a bigger desk! It might mean that we can’t include a storage piece in our home office, but I think that’s okay. I don’t actually use any drawers in the secretary I work from currently for work stuff and Jon lives entirely out of his work backpack (and plants himself at the dining table when he works from home). I did look at desks with built-in storage, but most are them are too deep to accomodate a chaise on the other side of the room, which is more important to me than having extra drawers.
Of course the two that Jon likes most out of the five above are the most expensive, so we might just use this as a design brainstorming exercise rather than a potential shopping trip…
