My Wife’s Home Office Setup For 2022
For most of this pandemic, I’ve been working in the living room or bedroom of our condo. And my wife has been working in our den. But that changed when we both made a decision to both work from the den and making the den as comfortable as possible. That stared with yours truly creating a home office setup from scratch. But my wife wanted to take a different route as she has a desk that she really liked and wanted to adapt it to her workflow. So based on that, I worked to find the items required to make that happen. Let’s start with the desk:
Now the desk itself was something that my wife got from a government auction about 30 years ago. And she’s unwilling to give it up because they don’t make desks like these anymore. So while it’s not new and cool, it does everything she needs it to. You’ll also note that there’s a desk mat on the desk. The one I got her was this desk mat from a Toronto company called Uncrowned Kings. It’s made of vegan leather, it doesn’t move around on the desk, feels very upscale, and best of all only cost me $21 CDN on Amazon. On the left you can also see a coaster that I got from Amazon that she doesn’t always use which will become clear in some of the pictures to follow.
The chair that she uses is a ergoCentric tCentric Hybrid Task Chair. Now this isn’t a cheap chair as it cost her about $850 at the start of the pandemic, but much like the one that my wife convinced me to get, it is custom built to her needs and is the most comfortable chair that she has ever used. My advice to anyone who is wanting to get a chair for their home office setup is that it’s important that you try out a number of chairs guided by an expert who can help you find what you need. And then get ready to pay as comfort doesn’t come cheap. One other thing, you also want a substantial warranty just in case something goes wrong with your office chair. This office chair from ergoCentric has a twelve year warranty which is in line with the best office chairs on the market. The bottom line is that the cash that you put into your chair now, will help with your comfort later on.
On the desk is a Acer Nitro XV271 Z 27″ Gaming Monitor which is the same one that I have on my desk. Now my wife doesn’t game, but she got it because she liked how bright and sharp it was. It also fits her use case which, which was to have it power a Mac and a PC. More on that momentarily.
The monitor sits on a VIVO Black 39 inch Extra Long Monitor Riser. The logic in using this is to fold. The first reason was that if she wanted to put a second monitor or a bigger monitor, it would be no issue. The other reason was to put both her computers underneath it. The one on the left is a Lenovo ThinkPad T14 that’s from her employer, and the one on the right is an 16″ MacBook Pro with a M1 Pro processor. It’s been skinned with red carbon weave DBrand skin to reflect her style as red is her thing. The monitor is connected to both computers and should she need to take one out, it’s easy enough to do as I have found cables that take up very little real estate because they are right or left angled, but are quick to unplug. And switching back and forth between computers is done via controls on the monitor.
She only has one keyboard on her desk which is the Kensington Multi-Device Dual Wireless Compact Keyboard. She likes the feel of it when she types on it, and the fact that she can flip between both computers easily as the Mac and PC are connected via two different Bluetooth connections.
On the monitor stand is a Native Union Drop Classic Leather Wireless Charger which she uses to charge either her iPhone 13 or her AirPods Pro in her MorfCraftStudio AirPods Pro Leather Case which matches the red vibe.
To her right, we have a Kensington SureTrack Dual Wireless Mouse with a DeltaHub Carpio 2.0 wrist rest that we both swear by. The mouse can be connected to two computers. Thus it is connected to the Mac via Bluetooth and to the PC by a 2.4 Ghz wireless dongle. To the right is a Satechi R1 Aluminum Multi-Angle Foldable Tablet Stand which she uses with her iPhone 13 if she wants to do Zoom, Teams, or Slack calls as the front camera of the iPhone is way better than the camera in either of her laptops. Above both those items is a Microsoft Modern USB Headset that she also uses for Zoom, Teams, or Slack calls from her work laptop.
For reasons that she’s never explained to me, she wanted a USB hub on her desk with the most ports that she could find. After hunting around Amazon, I found the Atolla Powered USB Hub 3.0 with 10-Port USB 3.0 Ports. She’s got a bunch of things plugged into it including her Jaybird wireless headphones which she uses for her workouts when she sweats a lot. The glow in the the dark thing that this USB hub doesn’t do it for me, but she seems not to mind. Thus I’m not going to say anything.
The USB hub is connected to a Kensington UH1400P USB-C Mobile Hub, and connected to that is also the power adapter for her MacBook Pro, and a cable from the UPS on the floor that I will show you in a moment. It also has a HDMI cable that connects the MacBook Pro to her monitor. The net result is this gives her a one cable solution to charge her MacBook and connect it to her monitor.
My wife often has a notebook to make notes, and she’s used the Kensington SmartFit Easy Riser Go to hold it. While not intended for this purpose, she likes it and I’ll good with anything that she likes.
As you likely guessed, cable management isn’t a top priority for my wife. In fact when I offered to do it for her, the response was “why?” Thus I left it alone. Having said that, all the power plugs into this APC Back UPS 650 which will keep things running in the event of a power outage, as well as protecting all the gear on her desk from power spikes, power surges, and power sags.
So, that’s my wife’s home office setup. All of this according to my wife have given her a much more functional workspace that she wants to use and spend time in. Other than cleaning her desk, is there anything that you would suggest as to how she can make her setup even better? If you’ve got suggestions, please leave a comment and share your thoughts.
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