Welcome to My Office

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For many developers their office is their home away from home -- hell, some developers are at that office more often than they're at home.  For that reason most of us take great pride in our offices, keeping them as tidy (...or not) as we'd like and injecting as much personality and comfort in said office as possible.  Whether it's a home office, cube, or coworking space, we need it to be pleasing to us for the sake of good work environment and sanity.

I get asked about my office quite a bit so I thought I'd share with you what my office looks like, what's in it, and how it keeps me productive!

Note:  I've chosen to write this post looking "left to right" in my office.

Office Location

I work remotely and have chosen to have a home office instead of use a coworking space -- I'm a homebody that, despite the interruption caused by family, love to be there for them.  My office's location within the house isn't ideal -- it's right off of the front door.  Lots of traffic and noise but I'll show you how I deal with that in a moment.

I love the French doors but they give me the feeling that I'm being watched; maybe that's what keeps me on task most of the time.

Beer Beverage Fridge

Having a beverage fridge in my office is a blessing and a curse.  I enjoy the fridge because it allows me to stay in my office and avoid distraction when my wife holds play dates for the kids or my mind simply starts to wander.

Where the fridge becomes a temptation is when I have it stocked with my favorite beer or wine.  I try to avoid caffeine due to crash and usually opt for Gatorade or sparkling water.  Today I have a few solid brews in the fridge so I it may be a crazy last hour of the day!

Note to self:  clean out that ice in there and stock this thing up!

(Standing) Desk

My Jesper standing desk and ergonomic chair are the best $300 I've ever spent.  I find that I'm usually sitting (get off your ass, Walsh!) and the chair forces me to keep good posture and the padding is a pillow for my knees and backside.

Both the desk and chair have wheels so it's easy to move around a bit depending on if I'd rather work near the window or closer to the TV.  To deal with the noise around the house I have a sweet set of Beats by Dre headphones.  They kill much of the sound in the house so I'm able to work peacefully, even when I don't listen to music.

Window

My first job had me stuck in a cubicle for over eight hours a day with no view of anything but a wall and partitions;  I told myself I'd never work in an environment like that again.  My office has two nice, big windows that give me a beautiful view into the Cul-de-Sac.

Combine the view with a glass of Champagne on Fridays...

...and I think I'm well on my way to getting past my cubicle PTSD.

TV & Game Systems

My new role at Mozilla has me creating, testing, and optimizing HTML5 apps for Firefox OS TVs.  The TV provided is the Panasonic 60" 4K Ultra HD Smart TV.  The picture is beautiful and Firefox OS has been getting very positive reviews.  At present the TV is not mounted but will be soon.

Along with the television I have a Nintendo 64, Nintendo wii, and an Xbox One.  I rarely get to play games anymore (I'll occasionally fire up Call of Duty during lunch) but they all purr on this television.  I also have a Chromecast in this room which I rarely use.

Couch

Since my office is visible to anyone that walks into the front door, I want it to look presentable to friends, family, and other guests.  The white rug and black couch, along with my Firefox friend, should hopefully make the room look like more than a nerd's office:

I don't get as many headaches/migraines as I used to but the couch makes for a good resting place when one hits.

Tea & Coffee

I'm trying to stay away from coffee but that has led me toward tea.  In any case my office has a basic Keurig to make whichever drink I choose.

Beer, wine, tea, and coffee in my office?  I have the entire day covered!  Here's a final look within my office from the opposite wall:

I love my office and don't have anything I'm looking to add.  I was going to frame Arsenal or Real Madrid signed jerseys on the walls but I enjoy the room's simple but modern look.  Let me know if you have any ideas, and thanks for stopping by my office!

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Discussion

  1. Beautiful office. I need something like this :)

    • Awesome office . I wonder how you manage on such a small table . A talent Indeed.:)

  2. James

    Thanks, that’s a sweet office!

  3. MaxArt

    Nice office and great view from the window! Thanks David for the tour

    The only thing I don’t like very much is the small desk… I wrote *a lot* of notes on paper (rigorously with a pencil) during my brainstorming moments, and I like to keep the sheets I scribble on around.

    • I put all of my notes into my text editor — my penmanship is terrible due to all the computer work!

  4. DrifterZ28

    Looks like the same size as mine but mine is full of my hobbies like 3d printer, raspberry pi and arduino stuff. I wish my office looked like yours.

    • I wouldn’t mind a 3D printer! And I never got into the raspberry pi thing, I really should have.

  5. Hope I can also build mine.

  6. Nice Office!!! I’ve been using that type of Jesper standing desk for 2+ years. I didn’t seen any of your Arsenal stuff inside though :)

  7. Jeremy

    How do you get by without a second monitor?

    • I work on TV stuff, dogg, my second monitor is the 60″ TV!

  8. Rob

    The most important question, is how does someone acquire their own firefox friend??

  9. Beauty at its best !! Cool environment to work !

  10. Like you, I work from home as well, and need to be hooked to my Bose noise cancelation headphones due to kids noise… so… I decided that I’ll take my office out of the house… I’ll get a very good sized shed, when spring comes, and put on my back yard for my new home office… This will make the space my own and I can do all kind of noise I want to, when working late. I saw in the internet, many people doing the same and I’m looking for to do this… I already got some stuff to put there, like couch and rug… Besides my office, the space will be my man cave, since I don’t have that now…

  11. how do you connect your mac with your TV? do you use any cable?

  12. I love your house n’ neighborhood, where do you live (City)?

  13. Nice setup! I’ve thought about a fridge many times, but I figure it’s probably better for me to get up and move a few times a day (upstairs to my kitchen) to get my drinks.

  14. WOW! I can take some ideas for my work space :)

  15. What’s your favourite headphone ? to isolate you from all the noise around

    • The Beats by Dre headphones I have are incredible.

  16. Man, didnt you know its much better Feng-Shui when you face the door when sitting on your desk?
    Like, this, you will always have the feeling being watched, very uncomfortable.

  17. Wow, you have a really nice office, as I would expect, :) but do you really not use a mouse? I can’t imagine working without a mouse. I feel really trapped on just a touchpad. Maybe that’s just me…

    P.S. Thanks for sharing your office with the world! I’m redoing my office currently and it’s nice to see what other people have done.

  18. is there any way we can get a picture of you sitting/staying in/on your chair/thing? i cant imagine how that works, never saw something like that, sounds cool but i need to see more..

    nice view!

  19. Beautiful! I love the French doors. Definitely inspirational for my future office. :)

  20. i love your workspace especially that window view. Just for curiosity, i would like to know from how much time you are working as Remote Developer? Also are you working as Remote freelancer or working with some company?

  21. wenkhairu

    nice offices dude, look comfortable and very very good color design, i always wanna have an offices like yours

  22. Great home office! I like the view! Nice ideas for work space…

  23. Awesome office!

    Please write about Hardware / Software setups you use, your productivity hacks and How you manage work/life balance.

    Thanks
    -Motyar

  24. Nice office David, I’m a dev-dad too so I appreciate the Beats tip. Two questions:

    1) Is the wall color a tribute to wine? haha

    2) Any open source project at Firefox OS TVs that you’d suggest taking a look at?

    Best from Chile,
    David.

  25. That’s a great setup, I envy you!

  26. Awesome office! The best thing is the Dale’s Pale Ale! :)

  27. Sweet office. #OfficeGoals.

  28. Roy Tinker

    Wow, you have a beautiful view! (I live in southern California… green anything looks like a lot of money from here.) May I ask what general region you live in?

  29. Illya

    Champagne in a wine glass?! Good lord! :)

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