Green Tee Readings

I didn’t bring a desk out with me to Portland, which meant that using my desktop involved painful contortions of massive re-arrangements of pillows, blankets, and sleeping kitties. This was not ideal. I ended up using it mostly to watch DVD’s and Hulu. When some roommates were moving out, one of them told me I could do whatever I wanted with her old rolltop desk. A small portion of the left foot had broken off, a cosmetic break, but a break that she said she didn’t want to see anymore. I said “Great, thanks” and didn’t think much about it for a day or so before realizing that it’d be a perfect computer desk after a few modifications.

“A computer-perfect in a rolltop desk?” you ask.

It’s more likely than you think.

Calling it a rolltop is accurate, but a smidge deceiving, what with the flat top shelf on it that’s deep and wide enough to hold my monitor, and also a small lamp. The shelf has a small drawer under it which I’ve used for keeping mail, postcards, maps, stickers and other small, thin items. Then there’s the rolltop portion, which does pretty much what you’d imagine. The desk part under the rolltop at first looks really small and cramped from the small cubby holes*, but a writing shelf slides out. More on that later. Below the pull out writing shelf is another drawer, still not very tall, but home to USB cords, scissors, and larger type papers. Under that are two bookshelves. Bookshelves! Which is where the modifications will come in, but first it’s time to go back to that pull out shelf.

Even without sliding out, it’s just big enough to fit a standard keyboard and a mouse. It isn’t, however, big enough to fit those and a kitty face, which has caused a bit of dissatisfaction from one member of the household. This has been ameliorated a bit by my starting to pull out the writing surface a few inches, and the purchase of a new wireless keyboard that has a more compact layout than the standard setup. It might be missing a scroll lock function, and there’s no dedicated print screen key, but with the right windows key replaced by an FN button to give an alternate function to the F_$ buttons, I don’t seem to miss any functionality. There’s the added benefits of no longer using a PS/2 keyboard, and when I eventually pick up one of the mice that Logitech sells with the unifying receiver, I’ll only give a single USB port for the combination of wireless devices. Sweet. One other neat-o feature, this’ll all be compatible with the macbook, while also being small enough to be portable, should I desire.

Now that I’m done modifying my present and future gear, the bookshelf portion of the desk needs a little tweaking to be optimal. If it’ll be structurally smart to do so, I’d love to remove a small section of the top of the two shelves out so I can put the desktop case there. I’d also take off a section of the back panel to better keep cords out of site. I think I’ll also hack on a little basket or something like that to help with keeping the cords neatly organized.

After all that gets done, it becomes the ideal desk for limited space. Heck, there’s still room to increase screen size without forgoing the lamp. I think a 24 inch monitor would fit easily and in a studio apartment that size monitor easily doubles as a TV.

Can you tell I <3 my new desk?

I should note that it’s not just the desk that has me thinking constructive thoughts. I’ve been eying some IKEAhacker mods for enclosed litter boxes, and I just refinished an old four shelf bookcase. It’s almost presentable. I’m also thinking about making a wooden rubbish bin, since I came out West lacking one of those, too. Cedar would be nice, I think.
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* Three sections of equal width, with the end sections each with a horizontal shelf. The end sections are just a bit bigger than a cd, and fit the 24 CD sized wallets very well. I have pens and assorted useful stuff in the middle one.

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