Sunday, December 04, 2011

Bit of DIY

So this weekend I made the big push to get the first part of the standing desk sorted. I took a good look at what I had and worked with it. No point spending a fortune or rearranging my whole work environment if it's going to cripple my back or not be practical.

A good place to start seemed to be with the existing shelves in my office. I don't have a lot of room, but I can squeeze a running machine in if I want to.

I found a couple of chunks of good solid mahogany in my dads shed (I was going to go down the route of welding extra bits to brackets but it turned into a faf so I ditched that idea and dad suggested wood) and spend a tenner on bolts, a bit of shelving board, some cheap beading, and some screws.

After I attached the beading (with wood glue) I resined the whole thing (plug for my dad's website at UK Epoxy Resins, cheers dad) to seal it (in the certain knowledge that keyboards and desks gather more dead skin than a George A. Romero film). A bit of drilling and it all went together fairly painlessly. I'm not that practical when it comes to DIY, but measure-twice-cut-once served me well as a manta and it wasn't rocket science.

The biggest problem was space. I've lost one long shelf (that was 90% marketing books and Doctor Who stuff) plus desk access etc. My office isn't exacly cavernous and there's the 'European action figure and plastic tat mountain' in there. A lot of juggling and shuffling went on for another day just to find a space for everything, which I eventually did. The cat's not chuffed - but it's not exactly a rent payer - as it's now relegated to the window ledge. I did gain the space under the desk and a few other cubbly holes, which I made the most of with some serious Tetris skills. It's all still a bit jumbled, but it'll do for now so I can crack-on with work.

Anyway, it's done and tomorrow's my first day standing. Will report back on how that goes.