I've always been a fan of the Youtube videos about dream set-ups, and don't get me wrong, they are always stunning, however, I do not have that kind of money.

I don't need the fanciest of things, just something functional to be able to work comfortably from work for my creative bursts of energy.

Took me two months, but I finally got to a stage where I feel comfortable sharing my work from home setup.

Here’s a quick part list with links for a TL;DR.

Now to justify the purchases to feel better about draining my wallet.

The Desk Literally Everyone Has

Ikea Alex Drawers with Desk Top
Peep the girlfriend's desk in on the side. Same Alex Drawers, just a much better table top.

Ikea's known for its budget-friendly furniture, often showing wear within the first year.  Part of this desk fits that stereotype, but the other half holds its own.

The tabletop is your standard Lagkapten, a package deal with the Alex Drawers from the Ikea website. Nothing to write home about – it stretches 55 inches wide and gives my deskpad a cozy home.

The biggest issue is the quality.

The material is flimsy, and after a couple of months, the board will start to sag with the weight it has on it. Luckily, the board can always be replaced with a thicker material or solid butcher block in the future.

The Alex drawers however are built to last.

These bad boys are the Hercules of the desk world. Once they’re in place, they're solid and glide like a dream – a stark contrast to some of those other wobbly desk setups.

And storage? You betcha!

They're holding my DIY tools, all the extra tech goodies, and the odds and ends that keep my fidgety hands busy throughout the day. The tabletop may give out, but the Alex drawers are set to last for years!

Great Chair For The Price

I'm all about the Ikea Markus chair. Why? Well, first off, it's got the height that suits my back and headrest like a glove. I’m able to lean back,  and the chair takes care of the height adjustment on its own, ensuring I'm perfectly balanced.

But wait, there's more – I managed to snag it for free.

Living in the city has its perks, one of them being that folks are always on the move and looking to offload stuff without the fuss of selling. Cue the Facebook Marketplace jackpot – there it was, listed for zilch, and I swooped in like a champ to claim it.

Now, let's talk price tags. Would I drop the full $250-ish dollars they usually ask for? Probably not, it would be outside my price range. But keep an eye out for those future discounts, when it drops under the $200 price, and you've got yourself a seriously recommended chair that won't break the bank.

Small But Mighty

The AudioEngine A2+ speakers are true legends in the realm of audio. Despite their compact form, they find their place elegantly on your desk, whether nestled under a monitor or standing proudly beside it. And let me tell you, these little guys may be small, but they sure pack a punch.

How loud?

My current settings are half spun on the dial of the speakers, and on my windows laptop... it’s a 2… out of 100. If I put it at 4, I will get yelled at by my girlfriend again.

To be fair, she did admit that she loved the sound of them, she just doesn’t like my music ☹.

When it comes to content consumption and gaming, these speakers shin, however if you do a lot of creative work, the speakers don’t have a flat tuning profile, so you won’t get the most natural sound out of them.

My primary use case as home has been jamming out to Spotify or playing Overwatch, and I can hear the footsteps as the enemy approaches, and while working on blogs like the one you’re reading, the music sounds perfect and prevents my mind from numbing out.

Please For The Love Of God, Don’t Get The Printer

The HP Tango – I dig its size, but the ink's a letdown. You'll barely squeeze out 30 sheets before the nagging ink subscription alerts start. For a more zen printing experience, I'd steer you towards any printer from Epson's Ecotank collection. If only they had a Tango-sized option – I'd snap it up in a flash!

Core Accessories

One of my biggest pet peeves is having wires running throughout my desk, and wireless mice and keyboard fix most of that problem.

Keychron K2 Custom Keyboard With Custom Keycaps

I’ve tried an abundant amount of keyboards, from the Apple keyboard, to the MX Keys, to fully customized mechanical keyboards, and I keep coming back to the Keychron 2. It doesn’t have the best pull rate and latency when it comes to gaming, however, for everyday office work, it’s the best option out there. For less than $100, you can get a decent sounding keyboard out of the box, and for a couple of bucks more, you can make it truly your own with custom keycaps, different switches (I personally use quiet linears), and some foam for that thockier sound.

Logitech MX Master 3S
Wear and tear from constant usage

For the mice, there’s no competition. MX Master 3S. Just grab it, don’t waste your time with gaming mice or any other cheap wireless mice. For video production, the side scroll wheel is a game changer, and I’ve fallen in love with the infinity scroll, where the wheel glides near frictionless to reach the bottom of the page or the top near instant. I couldn’t live with another mouse to be honest.

It’s why I have two, one at the office, one at home.

The Brains And Power Of The Desk

LG Gram 14 and Razer Core X
Peep the laptop skin. Decal from Sun Control of Minnesota

I used to have a dedicated desktop PC, made for heavy video editing and gaming. It was great, could handle any task I threw at it with no hiccup. However, when my kid was born, I had to make some sacrifices and got rid of all my toys since we lived in a one bedroom apartment and needed space. Now that we moved to a 2 bed 2 bath apartment, I have the space to build a workstation, but I don’t really need that much as I thought I did.

Say hello to my MVP – the LG Gram 14 2023, a 2-in-1 laptop. Armed with its beefy 12-core Intel i7-1360p processor, it's a champ at handling my everyday tasks – browsing, photo tinkering, light video editing, and watching Youtube. The laptop also runs on Intel Dedicated graphics, which means its battery life rivals that of MacBooks. I’m never left wondering if the laptop will make it to the end of the day.

For extra horsepower, that’s where the Razer Core X comes in.

The Core X is an external GPU enclosure that works with laptops with Thunderbolt 3 /4 ports, to add an external graphics card. It won’t give you the same performance as having it seated on a desktop computer, but it’s a night and day difference between integrated graphics and the NVIDIA 1060 it’s currently encasing.

Now, let's level with reality – not everyone needs this setup, but if you're all about a single, versatile system, these two work in perfect harmony. Who would've thought? I'm gaming on a sleek, lightweight machine that moonlights as my work partner throughout the day. It's like having the best of both worlds without any compromise.

The Window To My Digital Realm

The Eve/Dough Spectrum is overkill – a 4K monitor with 100% sRGB color accuracy, featuring HDR (only 6 zones though so really not great), and 144hz for a smooth gaming experience. I won’t need to upgrade monitors anytime soon.

I've got a soft spot for minimalism, and my desk is a testament to that. Near everything's dipped in a shade of black, including the monitor. It caught my eye for more than just its specs; it's the design that sealed the deal. This isn't your run-of-the-mill gaming monitor. No flashy logos smacked on the screen, no weird RGB light show. It's a clean, professional-looking slate that just does what it's supposed to – plain and simple.

However, Do not buy the monitor from Dough. Do your research before making a purchase, the company has been known to take ages to deliver the product, with some customers who preordered the monitor not the product or a refund. I get it, it happens with startups, but check eBay and try to grab it from the used market, at least then you’ll be guaranteed a product.

That’s what I did. Got a killer deal too.

Is My Setup Complete?

Functionally, yes it is. I have everything I can to get me going through my workday, yet I have a couple of things on my wish list.

My wall behind the monitor is baren. I want to figure out a way to personalize it without buying a generic print, whether that be photo prints of my previous work, or printing out images or friends and family.

One last product I have been eyeing for a while is a Grovemade Desk Shelf. It’s way out of my budget, however, I think it’d make a nice addition in the future to store any Knick knacks and catch all.

Regardless of what my plan is when I sit down, I want to feel inspired. It’s not a permanent setup, like everything in life, we have to adapt to change and growth, but for now everything in my box is ticked.