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How do!

I feel I should apologise for the thread title, but I’m not gonna.

Anyways, having now moved into my forever home and got rid of knackered excess furniture, I’m now in a position to starting sorting out a proper, proper PROPER permanent hobby room. Not just for wargaming projects, but also my other periodic artsy fartsy whimsies and that.

The room itself is a reasonably sized second bedroom. See pic. Hopefully the game boxes will serve as some kind of rough scaling.

My plan is to have my work desk up by the window. Not only is the radiator there (mmm, toasty legs), but it’s west facing with no large buildings opposite, meaning I get lots of decent sunlight. But…desk. What desk? I don’t have a desk.

I did have a desk, but it was dreadful. Much too shallow to be anything but shelving. And too big a gap between shelves to be decent shelving. Hence it’s off to the great skip in the sky.

And so to start construction of my grandest hobby vessel? I’m looking for recommendations. Room’s width is around 8’ 10”. And I wouldn’t say no to a desk that filled that width. Open to custom built if anyone can make such a recommendation too.

If you want a simple, no fuss desktop that you can evolve your hobby space around, then I'd recommend checking out what Ikea has available. I've got 3 Ikea desks, two of the plain white sort and one an older glass desk (which I'm not sure they make anymore) and they do my just fine. They're high enough that you can stick a cabinet/drawers underneath them and maximise your un-utilised floorspace and both long and wide enough that you're not lacking in desktop space. I've got good sized cutting mat/painting area as well as 5 paint/tool racks and my computer screen w/mouse & keyboard and still have plenty space left over for a plate of food, cup of tea, other random detritus, etc.

The great thing about ikea stuff is that even if you don't like it long term/permanently, it's cheap enough that you're not gonna pauper yourself if you decide to upgrade in a few years time, or if you randomly find some that suits you better.

I'd second Ikea for cheap and cheerful, that you won't get too worried about knocking over a full pot of Nuln Oil over on it.

If you want something fitting across the width of the room you could look for drawer units at a suitable height for you (you're quite tall, if I remember rightly) and then stick a piece of counter-top, well, on top.

Oh, and lots of shelves for your kits / supplies / finished display models!

Oh shelves can be attached to the walls. My little kingdom, no penny pinching landlord to moan about trivial things.

I have found a rather fetching 240cm x 80cm one made from reclaimed wood.

Cheap it is not. But it’s a local company *cue Tubbs and Edward*, and this is a proper Forever Investment. So gonna give it careful thought.

As for spilling Nuln oil? Not a problem if I go for the onyx colour

https://www.therusticgrove.co/products/computer-desk-with-square-frame-legs?variant=45577731801377

Are you going to need the window space for a vent hood? Any of your toys/tools spray or outgas toxic stuff that needs the space?

Natural light is nice, but is not consistent. There are times of the day I can’t hobby due to the glare at the wrong angle.

I’m spoiled with a giant table my mom used to use to cut mats for framing artwork. In addition to the desk, give some thought to hobby organizers for tools/paints/etc. if you don’t alreasy have a nice setup.

Anything smelly or whiffy will get done in the garden, which this looks out over. Granted, not necessarily doable in the poorer weather, but that’s largely a matter of proper planning.

I do have a small spray booth with an extractor, and the pipe for that can be temporarily positioned out the window.

When I need consistent light, I’ll have posable lamps.

If you have the spare space it can be nice to have spots for everything so you don’t need to bother setting up and breaking down. Spray, built, paint, photograph, display.

Remember:

The floor is just a really low shelf.

Just measured up. 240cm x 80cm desk would fit nicely.

Shame it’s…..71cm clearance.

71cm. Now, I know I’m above average height like, but that’s titchy. Maybe if I kneeled, sure. But it’s way, way too low.

Congratulations on the move! and on the forever home!
I always wanted the 2 Husky Workbenches with a lever that you can raise it up or down for my room but never had the money for it.

So made my own table at the height I wanted. One long table from wall to wall.
Three 2X4s X12ish across and a thin sheet of plywood on top, that is it. Hope this gives you ideas.

Congrats! I'm in a similar position with a new house and a spacious garage to make my own art studio.

Still unsure how many workstations I will have/need, since I have other art mediums priorities BUT..,. If your main thing is painting minis, I think the first thing you need to plan is where will your collection of paints will sit... Visible? On shelves? Tucked away in a drawer?
It's your choice but the volume of paints you have (usually 200, 300 pots) and where will they be, will help you figure out desks, furniture and wall shelves around that.

Hope it helps and good luck Sir.

I think this Ninjon video is pretty good for thoughts to think. It was a while back I watched it , but from memory, he went for kitchen units with a big worktop all the way across.





Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also if you have an FDM 3D printer (or a handy friend with such), then Ikea Skadis wall thingies allow all the flexibility

Kitchen stuff could work! And as I’m only leaving here in a box? Might even go marble.

Yes. Marble. For the fanciest of hobby spaces.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
On my meanderings earlier today to get a new tyre for my car? Noticed a neighbour just up the road is a carpenter, due to the sign on their fence.

Reckon I’m gonna chap their door tomorrow and see if they can spare a few minutes to measure up and offer at least a rough quote.

Won’t be a big job for them, natch. But remember, Tradesmen! Cash Is Tax Free!

Not a tradesmen meself, but I can’t imagine designing, making and installing a work desk 8’10” wide and *wait I need to measure that other dimension* deep is gonna be a work of Hercules.

Plus I find people knowing I’m well clever and informed in financial complaint matters tends to make them quite well disposed to you!

I'm going to go against the grain and say don't get Ikea. Ikea is cheap, but it's still expensive for what you get.

Buy some furniture board or maybe just plywood (19mm), cut it to length and screw it down to some 40mm square section you've put around the walls. Boom, desk which fits the whole length of the room. Maybe brace it with a leg made from 40mm near the middle.

Oh, we're going the cheap route, eh?

Nothing beats some plastic milk crates and some mdf board.

Definitely not doing IKEA.

Never been impressed with their stuff. And about ooooooh….25 or so years ago? Via two utter idiots, I nearly died in a house fire.

Said Two Idiots had this awful pine and canvas wardrobe thing from Ikea. And liked to keep a massive church type candle next to it.

Hence the fire.

If IKEA didn’t sell such flammable junk? Likely wouldn’t have happened.

Well. They’d still have been idiots of course. But not “came close to causing me to die in a house fire”.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
Oh, we're going the cheap route, eh?

Nothing beats some plastic milk crates and some mdf board.

MDF board is better than what 99% of IKEA furniture is made from. Highly recommend some of their stuff like pegboards etc, but buying a desk from IKEA is just a waste of money

Been a while, but serious progress has been achieved.

Majority of boxes now unpacked and done away with. New work desk with shelves and that arrives tomorrow, and a lockable storage cabinet for my crafting resources should be arriving soon too.

Already started moving the To Build pile in, but I think I need to find a cutting mat. I did have one, but it’s disappeared. So likely a trip round the corner to The Range in the next day or so.

Desk and cabinet both arrived.

I’ve put the cabinet together and am now a hot, sweaty mess. So the desk needs to wait for a wee bit.

Booked a trip run for tomorrow morning, so the packaging can be responsibly disposed of. Also to ensure I do indeed build the desk tonight!

And it’s now a usable space at long last. Still some organisation to go, but the important part is that it’s fully usable.

Next step is to move the To Build pile to the shelves.

What's with the Millennium Falcon in the box?

Oh, saturnine box I knew what's you gonna build next..
Also nice table, I think I weld something similar for myself.

Love the colors, the wooden wall board, and the spider rug, very cozy.

A lot of progress indeed!
Plan to install air outtake airbrush/spray box vent?

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
What's with the Millennium Falcon in the box?

That, is my Legacy Series Falcon. They’re fairly hard to come by MIB, and honestly it’s so chunky I don’t have anywhere to display it properly at the moment.


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 Mothsniper wrote:
Love the colors, the wooden wall board, and the spider rug, very cozy.

A lot of progress indeed!
Plan to install air outtake airbrush/spray box vent?

Rug is mine, the rest came with the house!

Definitely leaving the board up on the wall though. Get some drawing pins, and it’s a hand receptacle for kit instructions for stuff like Legion Weapons, where I may not use all the options all at once.

I can also add some hooks, hang up my Cricut sticky mats.

Tomorrow is another tattoo day, so probably won’t be up for much hobbying. But I will pop round to The Range, see if I can get a cutting mat. Also need to start looking for a decent, mid-range PC.

And yeah, I do need a new spray booth. If I can find the right key*, the window looks to open nice and wide. So provided it’s not too cold outside, open window, position booth. Switch it in, skoosh skoosh skoosh, and close the window again after a few seconds. Something I did find recently as pre-cut baking paper sheets. One of those, and a bit of blu-tak, and I’ve got a disposable liner for the booth base. Which is nice.

You leave your toys in the box?

You know what my thoughts are on boxes:

Need to sort custom shelf space for it, the Ghost and the Razor Crest.

They’re all massive things so takes a bit planning.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Need to sort custom shelf space for it, the Ghost and the Razor Crest.

They’re all massive things so takes a bit planning.

Can't you just rig up some fishing line and hang it from the ceiling?

Are there bit-eating gaps between those floorboards? I’d say you should get an area rug under the desk, but knowing small parts they would still bounce across the room to find a place to hide.

There are such gaps. Need to get some kind of ruggage, but that’s low priority at the moment.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Need to sort custom shelf space for it, the Ghost and the Razor Crest.

They’re all massive things so takes a bit planning.

Can't you just rig up some fishing line and hang it from the ceiling?

Speaker wall brackets are quite effective as well. You need to work out some kind of clamp or support fitting, or just screw int the underside