January 2009

I’m 5’4″ tall.  I’m short, but not tiny.  Still, a standard 30″ desk is way too high for me.  Raising the chair just leaves my feet dangling, and I’ve never found a footstool that works without sliding around and getting in the way.  Chairs are always too deep for my short thighs but it’s hard to sit forward in a chair without the counterweight of the floor for your feet to push on.

I needed a new desk anyway, suitable for our living room/library, so I decided to design something that would really work for me.  I’m very proud of the results.

First, we had this perfect corner in the room with a 4 foot long wall – just the right size for a workspace.  For the desk, I got a tabletop with adjustable legs from Ikea.  The desktop is 25.75″ high and my chair is at the lowest setting.  The arms of the chair just barely slide under the desk.  When I sit and type, my forearms and thighs are parallel to the floor and my feet are flat on the floor.  I pull my chair forward and sit up straight just because it feels natural and comfortable – something I’ve never experienced before.  I’ve put my monitor on a wall mounted shelf, also from Ikea, so that it is right at eye level.  There is just 2″ of space between the desk and the bottom of the shelf, but it’s enough to slide my keyboard under the shelf so I have a nice, big area to write with pen and paper when I need to.

Next to my desk is another Ikea piece:

It’s supposed to be an entertainment stand, but I use it to hold my printer, stationary, and all that miscellaneous stuff you need by your desk like paper clips and stamps.  The hole in the bottom that is supposed to be for your TV cables is perfect for the printer connection.  But it also serves another purpose – we needed a long, low storage unit to block off the drop into the sunken foyer (the banister had been removed prior to our moving in).  Since you see the back of it when you walk in the front door, it also had to have a finished back, which is rare with inexpensive furniture.  We searched long and hard for this one.  It is modern, sleek and stylish and serves all of these functions perfectly.  It gives me such pleasure just to see it every day.

I also have a bookcase (from Ikea, of course) mounted above my desk for my papers and other storage.  I need to get a couple of baskets to slide onto the shelves to hold mail and stuff to be filed, but then the setup will be complete.

I’ve been using this arrangement for a couple of weeks now and it was well worth the effort of designing it, finding the pieces that would work, and setting it up.  It’s been so long since I’ve been able to do things like this – to make my living space work for me, and to look good too.  When you rent and move around a lot, you just make do.  A functional and comfortable workspace is the kind of Little Thing that I love to surround myself with.