Workspace Plan, finally
I finally created a hard plan for my workspace, and I'm actually kind of happy with the result. Next step: getting stuff, then build the thing!
As some of you might know (but most don't), I don't really have a good workspace at the moment. When moving to this apartment, it was decided that my workspace will be below a loft bed I built to maximize the space available in the apartment. Since then (nearly 2 years ago) I don't have a workspace. For a while I used the dinner table as desk and sat on a bench, then I get a (pretty tiny) used desk as a temporary solution, and then I procrastinated. I had some ideas floating around on what I wanted to have in my work area, and how to organize everything, but I never actually made a plan. I had some rough sketches of ideas I threw away later, but nothing actually doable.
Some of the requirements I really wanted to incorporate were: having at least two actual desks, have lots of storage room, space for multiple screens, possibly a drawing space, some good storage space for tools and crafts, and a few minor details. I have to say, I managed to actually incorporate nearly all the requirements! Let's get over them one by one.
Let's start with the sitting desk. It's located with the shoulders to the window (and radiator), and to reach it I have to climb over the ladder to the loft bed. Those are the two major downsides, and both are acceptable. In exchange, I have a nice big space with a wrap-around desk which features enough space for various items I have laying around (drawing tablets, keyboards, phones, etc... ). It will have no legs to the ground, and no visible cables too, which looks nice and will help with keeping the place looking more or less clean. Ideally I'm gonna have a massive hardwood desktop, but maybe I will just get something at Ikea to save money, let's see what I can find. The desk will have various things incorporated, including a hidden inductive charger so I can just place my phone on the table to charge it. This will probably be the most-used desk, so I'll have to optimize how I place my stuff on the desk.
The second desk will be a standing desk (with the option to convert it to walking desk in the future). It's gonna be above the sitting desk, and extend a bit beyond it, and it will be looking in the opposite direction of the sitting desk. I'll have a barstool or similar available for longer session or when tired, but generally this should be used while standing (the benefits of a standing desk are numerous and listing them is far beyond the scope of this post). This desk will probably also be the VR station, with sensors mounted on the left and right extremities, thus allowing a nearly-roomscale experience. I have the feeling this desk will also hold most of my figurines and other fandom gadgets, as it's gonna be highly visible and easily accessible.
I have this crazy idea of having a third desk for drawing and/or using a laptop computer or tablet. It's gonna be on a raised area and be a kind of half-standing-half-kneeling "chair" with an inclined desktop. The kneestopper and the desktop will be mounted on a Kallax shelf, the sitting... trapezoid will be mounted on one of the bedposts and part of the desktops for the sitting ad standing desks. This position could be very comfortable, I just have to find the right angles and padding, and with this placement I can have good lighting on the actual desk, ideal for drawing. I can see myself spending lots of time here doing worldbuilding, either for D&D campaigns or for games I'm working on. Maybe I could even setup some cheap used projector hooked to a raspberry pi or something to allow to trace stuff.. who knows. This might be a bit of an unusual idea, but it's really tingling some part of my brain.
As I mentioned, I want somewhere to keep my tools, my crafts stuff and possibly also some additional work area. After scrapping a lot of ideas I settled on this idea: the circled area in the image won't actually be a solid block or shelves or similar, but it will be an empty shell open on the front, a "garage" if you want to call it that. I will then create a small cart on wheels with drawers (or something similar) and a felt-covered isolated top. I can then put my tools and crafting equipment in the drawers, and use the area on top as additional craftspace. Thanks to the wheels I can also bring the whole thing to the living room or kitchen or wherever it's needed, and if I manage to make the drawers removable I can even just take one drawer somewhere. And when I push the card in the space, it will be tidy and clean, and not all laying around as it is at the moment.I tried to consider statics and stability when planning this, and drew everything in blender - as much in scale as possible. This means that theoretically I could go ahead and purchase everything right away - I won't, I'll sleep on it a few days, but if I'm still convinced, I now can go ahead and purchase everything in one go and then actually build it. When actually building it I will try to document the process as much as possible, and I will definitely post some updates and pictures of the finished thing, so look forward to that! Also, I will have more details in the finished product (of course), for example more lighting, chalkboard areas, lots of walkways and climbing spaces for my feline assistant, ... Yes, I have a bit of work ahead of me. But I think the result will be worth it!