Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with desk

Help me stain or paint my ikea desk

If only I had a penguin... — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 19:38:31 -0800

I want to stain (ideally) or paint (less good) my ikea wood veneer desk. How can I best do this? I have a desk made of the same material as this one. It's basically a light coloured wood veneer. I'd like to make it a darker brown-black colour. While I could get a desk of the same material in the colour I want for a mere $69, it's not the same size and I really need the new desk to be the same size.

How can I stain or paint this? I'd prefer a stain or a glaze that would let the original grain markings through, but I might settle for paint. Whatever you advise, I will go to Ikea and buy a piece of board of the same material/colour in the as-is section to try it on before tackling my actual desk.

I'm aware of a previous question about painting ikea laminate, but I don't think this is laminate (except, see next paragraph)

Oh, and one more thing: I'm not absolutely sure it's wood veneer. It might be some kind of plastic. What makes me doubt is that I have an Ikea Billy bookcase that is an ash veneer (stained brown-black) and you can actually feel the grain of the wood. You can't feel anything on the desk. It's super-smooth. Does this mean it's not a wood veneer?

So what do you advise oh wise hive mind?

How to deal with desk with sharp edges?

shivohum — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:31:20 -0800

A desk I bought from office depot a couple of months ago has sharp edges -- not sharp enough to cut, but sharp enough to be plenty annoying if I ever touch those edges. Is there any easy and not-ugly way to deal with these?

Seagate Hard drive Mac

yegga — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:10:15 -0800

How to get a Seagate FreeAgent Desk external hard drive to work with my Mac? I have this model: Link.

The drive came without any installation disks. Apparently compatible only with Windows.

How do I get this working with Mac OSX? Help!

My desk gets really hot.

Damn That Television — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:21:57 -0800

Thermodynamics-filter. I own a large metal desk that I keep pushed up against my window. Underneath my desk top (clearance of a few inches) is my furnace. Whenever I turn the furnace on, the desk top heats up very quickly. I do not want to move my desk if at all possible. (great view). Could I make a heat shield for the underside?

Looking for metal legs for monitor stand.

Atarah — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:49:11 -0800

Can I make or buy a version of these metal desk legs? I've made myself a monitor shelf out of an IKEA Shelf and these legs. However, it's a bit too high for my liking. The legs should be around 3" instead of 4".

I've been looking for something like the IKEA Slinga brackets, except without the extra edge sticking out. Have you seen or heard of something that matches that description? About 5-6" long and about 3" high. Preferably in stainless steel. I'd rather purchase it somewhere, but I can build it if it's not terribly difficult and doesn't require expensive tools. It's for a work desk, so it needs to look "nice".

Can you help me with my search? Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Nice desk and chair for reasonable price?

shivohum — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:17:59 -0800

I need recommendations for a desk and chair for my home please. Requirements inside. Desk:

-will be used for laptop and spread out papers, fairly standard stuff
-contemporary style, should look reasonably good
-should be medium-sized; no l-shaped things
-need drawers, bookshelf, and filing cabinet with it
-<$500 (though the cheaper the better!)

Chair for desk:

-comfortable, ergonomic, reasonably good-looking
-<$200

Both:

-need suggestion as to where to buy these in New York or via mail order.
-need delivery and assembly from seller for not too much more

Thanks!

The Best Automobile Driver's Seat

five fresh fish — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:11:11 -0800

Which driver's seat. To my surprise, replacement automobile driver's seat -baby -infant didn't google up anything useful. Surely there's a widely-held opinion as to which junkyard car seats are the best! If it matters, it would be for a custom desk, not for a car. Seems to me a car seat designed for long drives would make a good reclined seat for a geekdesk.

What's the best way to find plans for building an office desk from scratch?

carlodio — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 07:27:02 -0800

I'm a tall, skinny software developer, (6'5"/196cm) who cannot find a desk even remotely what I need/want in terms of style, quality, and size. I am going to have a carpenter build me a desk. Google has found me nothing. Do you have a desk you love? What makes you love it? Are you a tall person who finds they need keyboard/mouse at exactly the right height? How did you solve this? Do you have plans you love or a desk design you can recommend? i am quite particular about desk height as i have long arms and if the desk is too high it causes overuse/carpal tunnel-y problems.

My office is a 100+ year old building in Buenos Aires, Argentina so I'm not looking for ikea-style semi desposability, more big-old-oak durability. There is no 'office depot' but that's not the style or quality i'm looking for anyway...

What's the best way to find (I'm willing to pay) a set of desk plans that I can give to a carpenter to have a desk built from scratch? Alternatively, If I draw my own, what do I need to provide?

Any and all thoughts about how to tackle this problem are welcome... help make my 10 hours a day more enjoyable!

Help me surf while I bike.

grumblebee — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 09:25:17 -0800

I own this exercise bike. I would like to set up some kind of laptop stand so that I can watch DVDs and surf the web while riding. I've thought about something like this mini-desk, but there's no room under the bike for the desk's support bar (note the horizontal bar on the bottom). I need some sort of desk that has legs facing away from the bike (legs that don't need to go under the bike) but with a table that juts over the bike.

I've tried putting my laptop on a stool next to the bike, but I wind up hurting my neck, turning to watch the screen.

Challenges:

(1) I'm not very handy, so I'd rather not try a solution that involves building something from scratch -- or seriously modding the bike.

(2) I rent an apartment and can't screw stuff into the wall.

(3) My place isn't all that big, so I'd like to have something I can easily store when I'm not exercising.

Important stats:

When I'm biking, my knees jut up about 38", so I need a table that is higher than that.

There's about 15" between my chest and the handlebars.

Help me design my perfect computer workstation setup!

pbh — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:59:17 -0800

Help me design a computer workstation setup for home that incorporates a 30" screen, a Linux compatible video card, a possibly height adjustable desk, and a silent or very quiet desktop machine. For my job, I can work at home, and I'm about to start a project which will likely involve a lot of programming there. Until now, I've gotten by with an 8 year old desktop machine with a relatively small screen. It seems like it's time to upgrade, and I've got a fairly reasonable budget to do it, but I can't figure out how the components fit together or what the best way to do what I want is.

Here's what I'm looking to do:

I would like to have a 30 inch LCD. I've been eyeing something like the Dell 2007wfp or the Samsung 305T, but I'm not sure whether it matters what I choose. I don't need a high refresh rate for gaming or anything, and I'm not particularly concerned about color reproduction accuracy or anything like that.
I would like to have a video card that can drive the 30 inch (I think this means it needs to have dual link DVI, but are there also other requirements, like some amount of video RAM?). It doesn't need to be particularly high powered, though it does need to be Linux compatible, and specifically I would like it to work with Ubuntu. (Ideally, the video card should be from some vendor that has had consistently good support in the past.)
I would like to have the machine be very quiet, since it is probably going to go in my living room, and I don't want it to be a huge distraction when I'm doing other things. I seem oddly attuned to fan noise, for some reason. This seems like it might affect both the desktop and the video card choice. Some fairly average specifications (maybe 4 gigs of RAM, a few cores) would be fine so long as it is quiet, drives the screen, and the hardware has Linux support.
I also need a height adjustable desk for the machine and screen, ideally one that I can adjust easily for standing or sitting (inspired by this, but I'm worried those specific ones are way outside of my budget).

I'm in the US, and my budget for all of this is maybe three thousand dollars (do let me know if any particular requirement seems like it will make things much more expensive). I'm happy to build it myself or use some generic option, so long as it vaguely fits these requirements. A previous askme looked at a similar question, but in a much different price range. That thread also suggested the Ars Technica System Guide, but that guide seems to be orthogonal to the question of quiet and the monitor size that can be driven.

Suggestions on any or all of these components would be great!

Looking for 1890's desk set for stage production, Toronto.

dirtynumbangelboy — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:48:17 -0800

Propsfilter. Looking for a specific prop to use in a Fringe production. Difficulty level: free, sourced in Toronto, 1890's period accurate (repro is fine). A friend of mine is production manager on a fringe production of Shaw's Candida. All props and sets are sourced, but for two outstanding questions:

1) They need a desk set--blotter, pen (not quill), inkwell, pencil holder, etc--for the entire show. Run starts in July, so there's some time left. We need to find a source for something--as I said, repro is fine--but it needs to be free or incredibly cheap. Any thoughts?

2) Were typewriter erasers used in 1890's London, and if so, where could we find one or how would we accurately reproduce one? Again, cheap or free.

My friend has extensive contacts in Toronto theatre, and is asking there as well.

Muscle tensions in space?

jfricke — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 12:09:08 -0800

If my working desk were in space, would I still experience tensions in my back? This might be a very stupid question but I had a discussion with my girlfriend today about whether I would still experience tensions in my back after working for long periods on my desk, if my desk were in space or in a room with no gravity.

I believe that without gravity there are no muscle tensions or at least it is less likely to have them. Am I wrong? And if so, why?

Help me buy a kneeling chair online.

odinsdream — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 17:11:06 -0800

I'd like to buy a kneeling chair, but I can't find any locally to try. Do you have any tips about buying one online? After using a few kneeling chairs over the years I'd like to get one as my primary desk chair. I can't find any stores locally that have them, though, so I can't physically try any out.

Do you have any tips for buying one online as it looks like I'll need to do? Any particular online stores to check out? Searches unfortunately return a lot of what look like fly-by-night type operations.

Another issue is that price ranges from $60-$400 and I only have pictures to go by, no real solid reviews.

Is the desk on This American Life's TV show really there?

scottreynen — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 20:06:11 -0800

The opening of every episode of This American Life's TV show has Ira Glass at a desk in the middle of some unlikely location. (YouTube video of some examples.) Are they actually taking the desk to these locations, or is this some fancy video editing? (Or are some real and others faked?)

Any handy way to warm up my idle feet?

filthy light thief — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:11:54 -0800

My feet often get cold at work, and I like the idea of under-the-desk pedals, but I think my desk is too low most of them. Any other ideas? I have a desk job, and my feet and lower legs can get cold from lack of activity, especially in winter. I'm in sunny California, so it's not really that cold in the office, but cold enough to be annoying while I'm idle. While I can walk around the office when I want, I think my time would be better spent at the desk (plus, I might look like I'm killing time by pacing the halls or running stairs).

Lifehacker has a really brief article on one, but a lot of the comments make them sound fairly cheap in terms of construction, or that desks are too short to use the pedal systems.

I'm 6'2", so my legs are pretty long. There is a good bit of depth to my desk, but not a lot of height. It's a modular desk system, so I can't raise the desk. Are there smaller pedal options, or something else to push my feet against? While I could probably work on twitching nervously to keep my legs moving, that seems like an odd solution.

Office-Supply Me

granted — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:45:24 -0800

Say you had a desk, at your job, and say you were also pretty disorganized, and so your boss handed you an Office Depot catalog and told you to buy what you wanted as long as it was within reason. What would you buy? What are your ESSENTIAL office supplies? I pretty much consider this the opportunity of a lifetime but I'm feeling overwhelmed and don't know where to begin. So what do YOU use to organize YOUR desk? We're talking basic, here. Pretend I haven't attempted anything like this since the days of Sanrio pencil boxes. I have also read Getting Things Done and know about inboxes and shit, so something like that would be good. My desk has some drawers, two normal-sized, and one that can be used for hanging file folders. OK, thanks.

Using an exercise ball as a desk chair

Ziggy500 — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 04:31:24 -0800

Does anyone use an exercise-ball as a replacement for a desk chair? I have horrible posture and have heard tell that I can improve this if I use an exercise ball as a desk chair (to replace my current chair, the back of which has broken off). Apparently it engages the abdominal muscles or something. Does anyone else do this, and is it horribly uncomfortable? I spend a lot of time at my desk at home. I don't want to buy a ball and then not use it and have this massive thing rolling around my tiny flat not being used... as I'm blatantly not going to use it for exercise ;)

Bye-bye, corporate. Hello, artsy.

913 — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 01:14:14 -0800

I had to replace my cool rustic desk for a standard, boring, corporate-drone desk today. The new desk has a much larger workspace and honestly doesn't look too bad but it has no personality. What can I do to make it more...hip? Here it is. Go nuts. It looks as if it is covered in wood veneer (yes!)

It definitely needs to be eclectic, you know, to fit it with its surroundings. I don't need to do an overhaul of the whole thing, just the part you see. I'm excited and ready to tackle this come tomorrow night! Will post updates.

It's...ALIVE! (?)

TochterAusElysium — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:55:03 -0800

How can I bring life to my cubicle at work? I will soon be moving my desk at work to a new area, and it’s the typical cube-farm setup. However, being in a somewhat more creative group, we’re being given some freedom to decorate our new areas however we choose (within the rules set up by Facilities, of course). In thinking about what I’d like to have at my desk, I’ve decided I want some kind of life form that isn’t a plant. I won’t have any sunlight, and no one will be able to care for it over the weekend, so it would have to be pretty low-maintenance. And ideally, not more than $50 or so. My first thought was an ant farm (and depending on answers here, that might be what I have to settle for).

Here are some I’ve considered and eliminated: Hamster or other small mammal – would love one, but might get smelly and may not be happy over the weekend. Praying Mantis – so cool, but will only live 8 to 9 months. Leech – looks great swimming in water but how do I feed it? Where would I even get one? Eco-Sphere – cool, but very expensive at a size large enough to be interesting.

Some others I am thinking about: Fish – will it live over the weekend without food? Spider in a tank – cool, but can I feed it reliably? Sea Monkeys – failed at these as a kid, can I do better now?

Your opinion, Hive Mind? Help me liven up my boring work area!

Black spots and surface damage on my desk?

Pope Guilty — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 13:06:55 -0800

I've had two desks with that Ikea-style "wood" finish, and both have had the same issue. They end up covered in tiny pocks which occasionally get some kind of insubstantial black material in them, and always only under the area where I use my mouse. I can't figure out where the pocks are coming from, nor the black material. Any ideas?

Designer desk recommendation?

roundrock — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 18:38:56 -0800

I'm actually earning my keep doing what I love - photography and design. I just got an amazing Cintiq 21UX, and there's just one (unanticipated) problem - I no longer have enough desk space to accommodate all of my equipment, so I'm in the market to get a dream workhorse desk once and for all. I'm putting together a triple monitor setup (Cintiq flanked by 21" monitors on either side) and also need a pull out surface for a keyboard, lots of wiggle room for a mouse, and extra space for writing/sketching/knick knacks/making piles of things. Bonus if the height is adjustable (working height on the Cintiq is lower than viewing height) and if there's a place for multiple printers (including a big Pixma Pro9000).

Any graphic designers / photographers / etc out there that can recommend something amazing? I've seen the MILK desk, but it's out of my budget (hoping to stay under $1500), and it doesn't have a pull out anyway (this is critical, because I'll pull the Cintiq right up to the edge of the desk when I work, but I still need the keyboard very accessible). The closest to ideal that I've seen is this:
http://www.anthro.com/ppage.aspx?pmid=18

Seeking a table for behind our couch to act as desk

forthright — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:46:42 -0800

Furniture filter: we are looking for a specific table for behind the couch that we saw in a vacation rental house years ago, but have still never seen something close enough for our purposes in a store, nor in on-line searches. I suspect we are just not looking in the right places, so I am prepared to feel stupid. Details within. In the rental house the table was behind the couch at approximately the level of the top of the couch back. It was a heavy metal frame with glass top but had *no* cross bracing, so you could pull up a chair to the table and work at it (given an adjustable height chair or stool) without having something in the way of your knees or feet. We have also occassionally seen something like this in hotels, but never in stores.

For our purposes the table should be approximately 60 inches wide, 32 inches high and 18 inches deep. It does *not* have to be metal and glass.

Note that many of the tables we see in stores have cross bracing or are not deep enough (intended more for a flower vase than to sit at and pay bills with your laptop). Or they are too deep (more like dining tables). And of course we are *not* talking about low coffee tables (even though I know there are some that have tops that can pull up to a higher level). We are basically just looking for a flat table of a specific width, height and depth with four legs and nothing else.

We have wandered all through our local Ikea, furniture stores, furniture sections of Department Stores, etc.

The way our room is laid out we just think this kind of table would be best, and we'd be willing to believe it doesn't exist if we hadn't seen one in existence!

I don't have the skills to build a furniture quality piece. I suppose we can consider having one custom made, but before we go that route I thought I'd see if my MetaFilter friends could help out.

By the way, if there's an official term for what I am describing, please lay that on me too.

Where to find desk and office pretties?

alpha_betty — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 11:35:47 -0800

Where to find pretty and unusual desk and office accessories? I'm about to start a new job with a new desk and a new area to decorate. My old job did not allow for much personalization, so I'm pretty much starting from scratch. I want to accessorize my desk with pretty, colorful and professional items (e.g. pencil cup, business card holder, etc.) that coordinate, but have run into a wall when it comes to where to buy these items. I'd like to find something more unusual than the typical black, leather, or wire mesh things you see in most offices. Aside from SeeJaneWork and Red Stamp, what are some online shops where I might find what I'm looking for?

GLASS + INTELLIMOUSE = FAIL

SirStan — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 19:47:59 -0800

Glass desk from Staples; Microsoft Intellimouse; Horrible mouse tracking -- how to fix? I have big hands. Its not a ZOMG STUPID BIG HANDS embarrassing feature, but its a fact. I love my (3rd gen?) Microsoft Intellimice (the one Microsoft recalled due to the shitty cable). I wont admit it -- but there may or may not be a small horde of them in my closet. Seriously -- it fits my hand like a dream, its decently professional looking, and functionally complete.

Mouse aside - I have a glass surfaced desk that I purchased from Staples (it has a blue/green solid surface under it -- its not translucent, but its still glass).

The two do not get along. At all. I have been taping paper to the mousing area for years.. but I have been killed enough times in Counterstrike because of it -- made enough errors in photoshop because of it, and generally feel like it mistracks enough that I need some help with this setup.

I am not adverse to a mousepad -- but I want it no thicker than a piece of paper -- and smooth on the edges. There should be no way to accidentally slit my wrists on my desk like some mousepads do.

Looks are nearly irrelevant -- but I wouldnt mind it looking nice.

My ideal solution would be something that sticks to the glass (so it cant move), is amazingly tactile so the mouse doesnt mistrack, but isnt overly resistant to mouse movement (I hate mousepads in general).

I am about 15 minutes away from ducttape and 1500 grit sandpaper.

Thoughts? Is there a laser mouse thats "big", a slim, 8x11 mousepad with edges that will not slit my wrists (ie, arent as high as the mousepad itself) .. or a howto on sanding your glass desk?

A desk with doors?

The corpse in the library — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:44:36 -0800

Can you recommend a specific secretary, armoire, or rolltop desk that will hold (and hide) a large-ish computer? DeskFilter! My situation:

- The desk will be in the living room, and I have small children. I would like the desk to have doors of some sort, so I can close it off and make it less tempting.

- I'm tall, slouch, and want legroom (I bang my knees on most armoires). My current desk is 30" front-to-back, which is great.

- I have an iMac, which stands 19" tall. It's thin, but too tall for the rolltops I've found.

- I'm in the USA, near Seattle.

- I don't want to design or build the desk myself (no time, no skills, no time to learn the skills).