In the year of spending a ridiculous amount of time at this very desk,
I've learned that I can be totally productive working from home now
that the days of working out of a Starbucks all day are gone.
I've also learned that creating a comfortable, welcoming and zen workspace
has been so key for me to be productive and well sane during these times.
Hey, everyone, my name is Will from Going Awesome Places
and I'm back for another edition of the Level Up Your Home Office
Series to help inspire those that are well, happy with their work from home office
space, but looking to take it up another notch. To recap,
starting with a mess of an office space, I was able to transform my own office
into somewhere I felt at home could be really productive, organized,
and somewhere I was proud of putting together myself.
After the ergonofis sit-stand desk was put
into place with the walnut shelves, I went to close that gap behind
with my own DIY console table with galvanized pipes.
That's kind of where I left things off.
Well, as with everything,
the work is never final and just a constant work in progress.
There have been a number of things I've been wanting to tweak and in working
with growth made and a few other surprises, I'm excited to show you
the leap I've made in improving my work from home office. Grovemade out
of Portland, Oregon, meticulously crafts products for your desk and home meant
to elevate your work with minimalist and functional design that's rooted
in natural wood and especially molded plywood.
When you think of that clean look desk
setup, you're probably thinking Grovemade.
So I picked up a bunch of things that I
liked and felt like could match what I already have.
And here's how it all came in one box.
We're starting off with the walnut wrist rest.
Next we have the walnut keyboard tray.
This is the walnut trackpad tray.
This is the small one that planter.
Of course, we need coasters, and this is in a matte navy.
This big thing is the wood MagSafe stand in walnut.
We also have the small desk pad in matte navy,
and lastly, the walnut MacBook dock.
You'll notice some imperfections
in the wood finish, but I'll get into that a little bit later on.
Let's start the makeover. As a reminder.
Here's what we're starting with.
I jumped at the opportunity to upgrade my MacBook Pro dock.
The original one was fine but cheap
in some aspects, like the glued on rubber pieces.
This Grovemade dock is a masterful
integration of walnut, stainless steel, and merino wool felt.
The natural cork base also keeps the dock
on sturdy footing, but I've noticed that once I had it
installed that if you try to wiggle it or move it around,
it does move by some force, so that's good to know
and notice how there's actually room for the fans to breathe and hot air to vent.
And you know I love my walnut, right?
The swap itself was also super easy to do.
Now, ,my desk surface. It's been good, but I've had some gripes rapes with it too.
This is the Londo pad that I picked up on Amazon.
It's been serviceable,
but the issue I've had is that it slides around a lot,
so I was really curious to see how well the Grovemade desk pad works.
This particular one is the small size, and I felt like that's all I really needed.
After rolling it out and giving it a bit
of a massage, I went ahead to set up the keyboard tray,
trackpad tray.
Yes, I don't actually use the mouse.
And the wrist rest.
Again, these were effortless and slotting in the keyboard and trackpad.
They're perfect match.
I've also just been blown away by the handcrafted quality of it all.
Now, off the bat, I realized that the matte
navy is a bit darker than I expected, especially against the black surface
of the ergonofis, so it adds subtle color versus the tan brown leather.
But hey, I really do like my shades of blue, and I've really come to like it.
Here's a palette of blues to give you
an idea with a few things that I just have around the desk.
The surface itself, I really like as well.
Matte matches the desk surface matte and really has a unique texture.
It's also really easy to write on compared
to leather, which is awesome. And does it slide?
Well, thanks to the natural cork bottom
and also the weight of the trays, it hasn't shifted at all.
A little bit of a different story
for the trays and wrist pad, but I came up with that.
Now for the walnut color, you can see that each product is made
distinct and one of a kind with different grain patterns and shades.
I say the wrist rest is less polished than
the others, though, and if you're curious, the real walnut wood is pretty darn close
to the walnut stain I did on the shelves and console table.
Now with the wrist rest.
I wasn't really sure if I get used to it,
but after using it a couple of weeks now, I don't know how I could live without it.
The leather on top is supple and has a nice bit of cushioning behind it.
It's just really comfortable to type with it.
Now, in my previous home office
walkthrough, I installed and under the table wireless charger.
Well, I'm not afraid to admit when I'm wrong, the product was a total dud.
It basically wasn't strong enough to charge the phone.
It would register but would flicker on and off, and my phone would basically
use up more battery than what was going inside.
I realized that having my phone flat on the table was also kind of annoying
because I wasn't able to use FaceID, so it's got to go.
The reason why I mentioned it is because
I've also picked up matching matte navy coasters.
It comes in a set of four, and it's handy to keep the table surface clean.
The nice thing is that it's pretty easy to wipe off water stains on the coaster as
well, but one thing to note is that serious condensation will mean
that the coaster will stick to your glass when lifting.
You can never have enough greenery in the office space.
And so I thought it'd be fun to pick up
a walnut planner to go with all the other other walnut finishes and add a new succulent
plant first, though, I'd to head over to the local Home Depot to find them.
Luckily, they have a whole section
with these this time of year, so it was a cinch. This was as easy as transplanting.
it over, giving it a bit of a mist spray, and that was it.
Now I have a couple of different types
of plants in the room with basically a theme of all of them being low
maintenance, my cactus air plants, and new succulent.
While I was doing this,
I had a eureka moment that I could actually move my laptop all the way back
to the console table to open up the space on the side table,
and that I should probably just move my sound shield over to my left.
I quickly made the change, and that allowed me to pave the way
for a few of my plants to be right by the window.
So what happened to my Focusrite audio interface?
Well, I found on Etsy these nifty 3D printer- made
undermount brackets for the Scarlet Solo. Mounted it.
Reconnected all the cables to run under the table and voila, super clean.
So yes, the under-the-table charger was a failed experiment,
but with the introduction of MagSafe and the latest iphone,
I was really excited to set up the Grovemade MagSafe stand in walnut on my desk.
First off, this thing is heavy, and that's a good thing.
The MagSafe charger on its own is way too light, where you pretty much need two
hands to separate your phone from the charger.
This stand solves this problem and gives you a ton of other added benefits.
So yes, you need your own MagSafe charger,
but once you have that, you thread it through like this.
The stand has a sticky pad that keeps the charger in place.
The bottom of the stand has a special
track for the cable to run through, similar to what you find in a Dyson
to make sure it stays in place. From there, the cable comes out.
Now, what you have to remember is that this is a USBC cable,
so make sure you have the right block and you'll be good to go.
Let's test that how it works.
The phone connects with the MacSafe
charger really easily, whether vertical or horizontal.
That said, you kind of need to know what
your target is, because if you're off, it might not dock. Chalk it up to practice
I guess. What is a huge added benefit
with the stand is that you can lock your phone with FaceID.
You can use your phone while docked to check emails or join a Zoom call,
or you could turn on Netflix and multitask while working to pull the phone off.
It's a one handed operation, which is what you want.
I just learned from using this that when you're pulling the phone off vertically,
you don't want to yank the whole phone at once.
You want to gently pull it or start with one corner.
Horizontally, this matters even more.
Pulling straight-on results in a bit of a thump.
But if you peel the phone away from one side or one corner, you'll be fine.
Like I said, practice.
There's just a ton of nice accents and attention to detail to this product.
Between the leather finishes, the walnut wood,
cork base, cable management, matte black base, and stainless steel.
My morning ritual consists of making Chemex coffee where I boil water,
measure out my beans, grind them, and meticulously, pour the water through
the gooseneck Fellow kettle in a swirling motion to the exact water to ground ratio.
It really is a daily science project.
When I'm done, it goes into the 10oz
Ember Mug 2 that then goes upstairs to my office.
This has been a great addition to the office because it really does keep
the coffee out of perfect temperature throughout the day.
Now, the coffee doesn't last a day, but I do brew enough for two cups.
So the other cup I keep in my Thermos.
I never thought I needed it,
but it's certainly nice to have this at precisely 56.5 degrees Celsius.
My only issue is that the battery life is not so great.
I mean, it pretty much has to live
on the charging coaster. Auto sleep is a bit finicky, and if you're just having
a little bit of coffee left, it's gonna taste a little burnt.
Otherwise, this is a great wish list type of nice-to-have for the office.
Oh, what's this?
Remember those strange marks on the stain?
Well, I reached out to Grovemade,
and they suspect they packed it before the wood stain had completely dried.
But just like that,
they offered to send in a replacement, which came within a week.
All I had to do was send the defective one back.
And that was it. Now that's looking a lot better.
Talk about good customer service
to the left of my desk has always felt really bare, and I always found myself
just leaving my smaller bags on the ground.
I know, I know.
I have a lot of peak design bags with these Danish hooks from Hay that we
received as a gift, I finally got a chance to put them up.
It matches really well with the shelves and the black accents I have throughout
the office, and this gives the room that much more organizations.
Well, with all my sling bags
and backpacks. The company that I went with for my standing desk is ergonofis,
and one thing I harped on to my first review is their lack of cable management.
Well, they finally have a few products that should help fix that with something
literally called their Cable Management Solution and also Cable Net.
I also ordered their anti-fatigue mat.
Starting with all the cable management accessories,
the first step was to completely disassemble everything and flip the table
around, which was kind of annoying, but necessary.
This meant removing also the tray solution
I put in place last time and also getting rid of my upside down mounted power bar.
The ergonofis Cable Management Solution is comprised of this giant privacy screen
in matte black metal that is dotted with holes.
It also comes with a giant nine outlet
power bar that mounts on with giant zip ties that it comes with.
At first I kind of freaked out because I
wasn't sure if this was going to be an effective way to manage all my cables,
but after laying it out, I realized that there was actually more
potential and room to grow with this type of solution.
For one, I love that my plugs aren't right
underneath my knee, giving me more space when I sit.
They're also all oriented downwards,
which means that these large adapters can fit with no issue.
The next thing was really just getting comfortable with using velcro zipties
and bundling wires together and then basically tying them down to the screen.
5 are included with the kit, but I also needed to buy a few more from Amazon.
The top lip is also great for the larger
cables and adapters, where I also then tie them down.
Also, there are two rectangular holes
that come out on either side so you can feed wires through.
Lastly, with this type of metal mesh, even wires that dangle on the back side
can be looped together and velcro ziptied down with ease.
Now, with the screen in place, it meant that I couldn't have my ergonofis
power bar there anymore, so I moved this to the front,
which I hesitated to do the first time around, but I'm liking it.
I also had to shift over the Focusrite
undermount just to make space for it. On the back,
I was also unsure that my clamp mounts
for the monitor arm and the mic would fit because there's barely two inches to work
with on the back lip of the table and Cable Management Solution in place,
but thankfully it just fits. So that leaves the Cable Net.
At first, I had no idea where this is going
to go, because the truth is, the Cable Management Solution did such a great job.
The only dangling cables left were the ones from the ergonofis control
module in cables for the standing desk motors.
I used one of the cable clips from the ergonofis Cable Management Solution
to keep them up there, but there were still some hanging loose,
so I figured I'd clean up that whole bottom side by mounting the Cable Net
right underneath the middle track of the desk.
This comes with four pegs that screw
in on the corners and the elastic loops go around them.
Yes, it's a little extra considering that I don't have that many cables feeding
through there anymore, but I got to say, the table looks really clean and complete.
Now this is how cable management is supposed to be.
Finally, let's talk about the ant-ifatigue mat.
The one I bought off Amazon was a good price, although looking at it again now
one of those generic ones that worked both for the office and kitchen.
But the thing is, I always found that after long use
my heels and balls of my feet would really hurt.
The other thing I had was that it was a bit too long my fault for making
the pipes laid out the way it is on the console, but it kind of just rides
up one of the flanges like this for it to fit while not in use.
The other problem I had was that the mat was constantly slipping and moving around
on the floor with my feet resting on it while I was in sitting mode.
Putting the new one by ergonofis pretty much solve all these problems.
It's a tad smaller, so it fits in perfectly.
It has anti-slip pads on the bottom, which means that it doesn't move at all.
And while standing, there's
additional thickness, density, bounce an overall cushion for my feet.
Now that I've never had before,
I can finally stand for way longer than I did before.
So yes,
a legit anti-fatigue mat made specifically for standing desk makes a difference.
You can't just buy any old all purpose one.
And finally I've tried all sorts of apps for my to do.
But one thing I always went back to was good old pen and paper.
So when I found out about Ugmonk's Analog, the simplest productivity system,
I was really intrigued to see if it could work with my workflow.
It's pretty simple.
It comes with a walnut trays
card holder with a magnetic metal divider, and there are to-do cards for Today, Next, and Someday.
i can now scrap my random pieces of paper
that I always lose and have a proper place for my to-dos.
And one by one I can fill in a half circle to put a task in progress or full circle.
When something is done, when you're done your day or finish
everything on the card, you just put it away at the very bottom
of the tray and pull out the next card to fill out on top of the metal divider.
You can put your upcoming tasks,
which are the ones labeled next, and someday
the best part of it all is that you can really set it up however you want.
Ugmonk has their suggestions, but you can really adapt it to your own system.
The back side of the card is a dot grid
pattern that you can use to do sketches or take random notes on a call is.
I've also tried putting the analog in a few different locations,
but I think having it right in front of me is going to work the best.
The walnut tray matches closely with all
the other Grovemade walnut, which is awesome, but the one thing I'd
love to see improved are maybe a few cork pads at the bottom
to prevent it from doing this. I can't forget to mention my new Imperial Probe Droid.
Let's just hope this one doesn't self-destruct.
Once this was done, I took the opportunity
to rearrange the things on my shelf to be a bit more organized as well.
So
yeah, that's it.
I know, right?
You don't have to tell me. That turn out to be way longer than I intended.
Here's a look at the before
and now.
With this makeover it's all the details.
If you want to learn more about any of the products that were featured in this
video, I have links to every single one of them in the description down below.
I also have a handy web page that basically organizes all the different
products that have been featured throughout the entire series.
So if there's anything I missed, it's definitely going to be in there.
So make sure you check that out.
Thanks for watching and following along.
Keep leveling up that home office space and going to awesome places.