Results Are In

I officially love my desk post-modifications. As a lot of you big kids know, sitting at the office 8+ hours each day can have a serious effect on your posture. I make a major effort to take stretch breaks and walkabouts. But when the bulk of time is spent in your chair, arms at the keyboard, eyes facing the monitor, that’s not enough. So think about how important your seating position is — at the end of the day it’s going to make a difference. For those of us who have next and shoulder trouble already, it’s especially important. I ordered a laptop stand that you see in the picture above, but it just wasn’t cutting it. So I had to take matters into my own hands.

Problem

Here was my dilemma: I have a long torso, and long legs. (I’m tall.) I needed to crank my office chair all the way up to have my feet planted on the floor, but then I’d be hunched over my screens to see. Not great on the neck. If I lowered my chair, I could see my screen, but my arms would be freakishly high up to type. That just killed my shoulder.

Solution

Bricks. Yep! The best part? They were 100% free. Thanks Dad! Total cost for this project was less than $1.50 and I couldn’t be happier with the outcome. Here’s how I made my makeshift laptop riser from a couple of old landscaping bricks.

Step one: Summon the pops.

Who has bricks laying around? This man, that’s who.

I got the goods, now what?

Brick logistics. I hauled these around in a duffel bag. Call me The Girl With a Bag of Bricks.

Well, they’re a bit dirty so I gave them a good soak.

And later, they needed another soak.

And a good scrub. These suckers were dirty!

Then I went to the deep darks of the work room looking for old paint.

I found old paint. A lot of it.

The problem was, some of it was so old that I couldn’t use it.

5 bricks and 3 good paint cans later…

I picked up a couple new ones that I thought would brighten my desk. Springy, no?

So then I was ready to get to work painting.

“Is this necessary?” you ask. Of course, this is necessary.

So far, so good.

The new paints needed more coats than the really thick house paints.

It was fun to use some colors from a bedroom we feather dust painted a few years ago!

In the end we’ve got blue, green, yellow, and two shades of purple.

I think they’re all looking pretty sharp after a few coats. Just had to dry them overnight.

So they’d be ready for me to lug on the bus bright n’ early! Who needs pepper spray when you have a bag full of bricks?

They got a little scuffed up en route, but they work! Raising my desk nearly six inches, these bricks serve my purposes perfectly.

I also added the yellow one to my monitor on the right, so they’re now level.

Happiness.

What’s Next?

Hopefully my neck will thank me in the long run. I’m going to need it for working on the ceiling this weekend. Guess who’s got a popcorn and movie date tonight? Popcorning the ceiling, that is. Yay! More on that soon. Who’s got fun plans for the weekend? Any desk issues or solutions that you could share? I’m really curious to try a standing desk. And would love to even try the treadmill desk out.