Working from home during Covid lockdowns has some challenges – this is what I have done in my home office to make a difference.
Elements:
Desk – a kitset desk from Treasurebox. Nothing too fancy
Floor pad – DIY project made from click together hardwood flooring – protects the carpet and provides a solid base for the chair to roll on. I saw the idea on Pinterest. It really works well!
Chair – Hummer. One of the better investments I’ve made. I struggled sitting for long periods in my previous chair which was a budget model, and this one is so comfortable and highly adjustable. I wish I had got this earlier.
Green Plant Wall – an artificial green wall sized at 1.5m2 from a garden centre. It gives me a nice contrasting background behind my monitors and encourages me to focus beyond which helps eye fatigue. I also have a small artificial plant on top of the PC – it was my first touch of green in the office.
Audio – Logitech z333. Sounds good for working with music in the background. The sub isn’t too big and provides more than enough sound. I also have headphones
Webcam – Logitech C920 HD. Works very well with Teams and other conferencing software. Works perfectly under Linux and has a great camera that provides a good image under most lighting conditions
Monitors – Main one is a good 23″ with a bright crisp display. Secondary is a 22″. Both monitors are 1920×1080 in a side by side configuration giving a total desktop area of 3840×1080, and use either display port or DVI. I also have a 10″ tablet on a UGreen stand to the left – this is handy sometimes for a web page display as required.
PC – an upcycled ex-lease 3rd generation i7. I’ve given it a birthday with 16gb RAM, a SSD for the main drive with a large HD for the backup and secondary working. The PC is running Linux Mint 100% with a native version of Teams for most online work. I also use RDP to connect with my Windows box on my desk at work.
Network – domestic fibre connection running at around 920Mbps. The PC has a direct ethernet connection to the hub in the office.
Work in progress / To Do List – cable management!