Recently I put a lot of work into my office (as I frequently mentioned in my Twitter account) – revamping it, adding new furniture, hanging up art, and generally moving things around. I’ve received some questions about my set up so I’ve taken some pictures and detailed them here.
This is my primary work area in the apartment. I work off of a previous-generation Macbook Pro (Core 2 Duo, no Wireless N support) on a 24″ LCD. I use the nice new Apple Keyboard – and swear by it. I like to position my desk to overlook the street (the bay window provides that nicely). I primarily drink water during the day and keep a gallon jug by the desk.
To the right of my desk is my whiteboard (primarily used as a rough to-do list). Note the stack of Pro JavaScript Techniques books on the shelf.
The primary location of my technical books. The print is by Shepard Fairey.
The primary seating area of the office. It’s very important, for me, to have comfortable places to sit. Throughout the day I frequently change positions in the office (moving from desk to couches and vice versa). The shelf also serves as a location for my printer (an ever-reliable Brother Dual-sided laser printer), wireless base station (D-Link 802.11 B/G/N), Wii, and projector (BenQ 720p HD). The large painting was created by my brother Steven, as his Chirstmas present to me. The owl print on the wall is from aestheticapparatus.com. The door is just a storage closet.
Where the projector shines to. The result is surprisingly bright – very effective even during the day with all the sun coming in to the room. About 90″ diagonal.
todd (April 30, 2008 at 12:46 am)
i have the same coffee table. go ikea.
Ryan (April 30, 2008 at 12:46 am)
Nice setup! Got any books to recommend? I see you have lots, I’m sure there’s a few in there that are good.
Adnan Siddiqi (April 30, 2008 at 1:30 am)
Interesting to see that you use both laptop and desktop at workplace. Now question is that whether you have replicated entire development environment on your laptop as well or you just use it for presentation purpose.
I have a 19 inch ViewSonic LCD screen but since I use Laptop now , it’s getting wasted.
Josh Skidmore (April 30, 2008 at 5:50 am)
The office looks great! I just bought a 22″ Dell LCD and love it. No Macbook though :(
Thanks for sharing!
Manfre (April 30, 2008 at 7:59 am)
The set up looks nice. I wish I had a bay window to look out of when at the computer. When I was working from home, I eventually bought a desk that could be easily height adjusted from sitting to standing. Coding while standing can become a work out after an all-nighter.
John Resig (April 30, 2008 at 9:20 am)
@Ryan: A couple that I just picked up, I like: High Performance Web Sites, Visualizing Data, and Programming Collective Intelligence.
@Adnan: My workspace is not replicated, no. I run a number of the same applications but I tend to leave my files and preferences independent of each other. This is probably more out of laziness than out of preference, though.
Matt (April 30, 2008 at 10:01 am)
John,
What printer model do you have specifically? I am in the market for a dual sided laser…
gallon jug is a good idea, might have to steal that one
John Resig (April 30, 2008 at 10:10 am)
@Matt: It’s a Brother HL-1650 with the extra ethernet adapter – a little dated at this point (I’d assume) but works like a charm. I bought it refurbished and it’s been running beautifully for about 4-5 years.
Anthony Ettinger (April 30, 2008 at 12:33 pm)
Looks similar to my setup…now, if we can just find more companies with a WFH-friendly view :)
leveille (April 30, 2008 at 12:47 pm)
Looks like your bookshelf is about one book shy of catastrophe. I’m surprised that it can hold all those books, much less the monster XML book.
Very serene setup btw.
John-David Dalton (May 2, 2008 at 1:14 am)
Your setup is similar to mine as well. I have the couch, whiteboard, 24 inch monitor, large windows, imac in the corner, books in the corner, and my little SN26P Shuttle PC :).
Hector Santos (May 2, 2008 at 9:09 am)
A whiteboard says a lot about a person. Only one problem – its BLANK! Put some circles, squares and connecting arrows on there for the next photo op. :-)
No Joke, I once read a story about Phillip Kahn, the founder of Borland and how he got his a big break Magazine review when he started the Turbo pascal business. He had no real office, borrowed a big room on the 2nd floor of a pizza palor where he worked, put a desk, chair, his computer and threw around books, and put a big whiteboard on the wall and drew an elaborate flow chart of ideas which made no sense but it impressed the hell out of the visiting Magazine interviewer. Turbo Pascal sales skyrocketed!
Sunny (May 5, 2008 at 1:54 am)
Very Good
Darren (May 8, 2008 at 2:57 pm)
Excluding Visualizing Data, I’m checking out those same books.
BTW…how about sending over any ‘extra’ books, I mean since they aren’t doing much for you. ;-)
Grandma (May 18, 2008 at 9:09 pm)
Your apartment office looks great, especially the drapes and Steve’s painting. Grandpa wants to know where Fat Cat is. I’m putting a package in the mail tomorrow for you. Grandma
DRUID (May 22, 2008 at 1:07 am)
That’s awesome that your family participates on your site. Sounds like you have a nice family. Thanks for letting us have a peek into where all the magic happens!
=)