As many of you know, I'm currently having a house built. It's not far off being complete now (and survived a 6,000ha grass fire getting 3km away from it, sigh - really? Already?), and while myself and my brother have now pretty much bought most of the furniture to go in it for the lounge and bedrooms, I haven't made a lot of progress on furniture for the study yet.

The usable area for the study is about 3m by 3.68m (open space at the front (West), closed walls on other three sides, window on the East wall), and while we'd like to fit the two of us in there with the computers, maybe we have to compromise on it being just one person.

But either way, I'd like to get desks and stuff right. So since we're all IT people here, and I'm sure we've all come across situations where you'd like a little more desk space or depth, or a different layout, or that annoying shelf not being there cos a screen can't fit - how would you design your ultimate desk and layout for all your computers etc?

Right now I have only a 50cm deep desk, most of which is chewed up by the base of my 27" Dell monitor. A Razer mousepad barely fits in front of it (in fact, it kinda tucks under it. My second 22" LG monitor can't fit back in the corner cos there's shelves there. All said, I'm using about 1.8m wide of desk space, and that's nowhere near close to fitting all my gear.

What design considerations would you guys suggest? How about on layout? What are some things you can suggest so I can consider when ordering furniture?

My setup is that I had a media room and study built together as one room, but there is a clear division with a bulkhead into 2/3 media and 1/3 study. Could be considered a multi purpose room or formal dining if a buyer has no need for study/media. I want to have some kind of sliding door or bi-fold door or something proper if I want to close the study off.

I intend to have a desk built to fit the size, could seat up to 3 people across, but ideally only 1 or 2, and there are double power points on the 20 centimetre long walls (lined up with the bulkhead) on each side of the room , and data. Currently I just have my shithouse ikea desks. So the desks in the study face the TV in the media room.

The back wall of the study - well I would like to put a light tone-on-tone wallpaper and cover it with transparent magnetic paint and transparent plastic, so the whole wall would be like a magnet-board AND a whiteboard, at least above desk-height and not counting any shelves, etc...

I would get the same wallpaper pattern but in a dark colour and use it on the media room wall behind the tv.

Here is a shot from the media room looking into the study. Pretty fucking plain right now, but you get the idea of the layout.



This 'desk facing tv' is essentially something I started when I was 13, and when I lived in various townhouses and apartments I'd basically just set up the living room to be like my old bedroom, and now I have a room in the house especially for this and it's where I live.



I regret the middle window

Corner desks are a horrid waste of space (IMO).
I think OP needs to consider what he wants to put into the room before furniture comes into play.

The only piece I really have to say on the matter, is desks that are 50cm deep really belong in a primary school classroom.
My 'minimum' dimension (if I'm going to have monitors on the desk) is 75cm. 50cm Might be workable of you wall mount the monitors (or use a monitor stand, or the super-cheap option, a plank of wood attached to the desk with a VESA mount on it.)

There have been a few reasonable reads over on 'Lifehacker' (most copy/pasta'd from elsewhere)

One concept (mainly to give you some ideas as to what you *can* do with 'space saving' ideas.) was to create a 'cart' that can be used in any room of the house... just wheel it out, 'deploy it' and you're good to go.
office-in-a-box-from-ikea-parts

Another idea for a 'multi-purpose setup'. Clearly this isn't usable for long hours at the computer, but might give you some ideas.
Hidden creative compartment

Here's [what I presume to be] a bigger version of what you're going for. Clearly there is a contrasting concept of budget, but given that the OP is skint on the details, so's the gaps in this post.
the-custom-cabinets-workspace-for-two

Tinted tempered glass on a stainless frame and add monitor arms. I went all out and got this type of office desk fitted all away around my office. Looks fancey! considering I spend many hours in my office I think it's worth it.

Whoop. I love it. It's like a western take on asian living. Instead of futons it's fold-outs.

my advise would be get a large dining table and use that as a desk - make sure it overlooks a window so you can look outside to give your eyeballs a break

A mate purchased a 'corporate table' from a renovating bank, think board room style. Great quality, cheap and huge, very huge. It went from his lounge room, through the dining room and just left a small passage to between the closed in kitchen and hallway. If I had the room that's what I'd be searching for. It rocked.

I love that vid Whoop. Only thing he's missing is somewhere to put his pc.

Obviously he has all he needs in there without a PC, someone with a regular house could just make one room an entire fold out PC room. Instead of kitchens and beds, just make spare PC's fold out of the walls for LAN games :)

I am using the rackit pallet shelving from bunnings bit on the industrial looking side but practical as hell

Ultimate price $30

Happy to spend a few grand, doesn't need to be on a $30 budget :P