Pixie just sent us this great post from Lifehacker that shows how Adam Pash successfully hid the cords in his home office. We found ourselves staring at the before and after pics with disbelief not being able to figure out how it was done. Like all good magic tricks, the answer is simple and well worth checking out. (Thanks, Pixie!)
THAT is one of the most fabulous things I've ever seen!
While you're twist-tying the cords, take a minute to affix colored adhesive dots to each end, so you can see at a glance which one you're unplugging.
That's a good idea Wende! Maybe you can even label the dots to see which gadget the cord belongs to.
...in case both ends get unplugged.
I bought these from The Container Store - simple and effective:
XL Cable Organizer:
http://www.containerstore.com/browse/Product.jhtml?CATID=77244&PRODID=10012630
i think i've said this here at AT before, but i just don't get what about those $$ cord keepers is necessarily better than the cheapo solutions of twist ties, double sided velcro, and zip cords. which is part of what i like about this link and wende's brilliant color coding idea. i'm open to revelation, here, so cord-gaget types, please evangelize me.
I'm definitely doing it. I think i'll try one of those new wire management power strips too.
Those Ikea cable baskets are awesome. I used them when wiring my (music) production studio.
http://img439.imageshack.us/img439/2786/prodsuitesm5oe.jpg
Objective: Keep the budget as focused on performance, zero to little fabrication, and ergonomics as a major factor in the layout.
To keep the desk from absorbing too much of the budget, I chose to modify a $0 home office desk. The desk was originally designed to face into a corner, and had an "L" shape. The basics of it was that there was a corner piece of countertop that joined two 'legs.' The corner countertop piece was not used since I was not going to use an "L" configuration, but I did use it's leg, more on that later... The Left side 'leg' was used on the Right side in my setup though... With the CPU tower 'locker' door removed, and used as a shelf to elevate the CPU tower for easier access/extra storage. The original Right side 'leg' just had some drawers in it, and was used as my Left 'leg.'
Ikea sells some nice, inexpensive countertops (even the bottom is laminated). This is their largest size countertop, and was isolated from the legs with a few layers of Snap-On toolbox drawer liner I had around. This is much deeper than a standard office desk, so I used the 'corner leg' to support the back of the countertop, and as a hiding place for power wires.
On the countertop is a Tascam DM24 digital mixing console (24 tracks of simultaneous in/out at 24/96k through three TDIF cables and the MOTU audio interface in the rack), MIDI bongo drum (a f-ing awesome controller BTW) on your left, and an old MC-505 "Groovebox" on your right side of the countertop. Event 20/20bas powered monitors were used
I wanted the mixer, computer keyboard/mouse, and MIDI keyboard all directly in front of me. This makes capturing a sudden inspiration easier than having to turn to keyboard every time I want to trigger a note. My second keyboard (with better feel) is mounted on a conventional adjustable stand in the far left of this picture.
Nobody makes a desk that has the ability to have a layout like this, so I ended up just making a giant version of a conventional computer keyboard drawer. To keep fabrication at a minimum, I used two black laminated shelves from Home Dept and mated them together on some slides.
Anyone familiar with putting together a MIDI rig will tell you the mass of wires, between all the power, MIDI, and audio cables can get substantial. It was my goal to all but eliminate any sight of wires. While at Ikea I also found some cool cable guides to conceal all the wires and get them off the floor. They screw to the bottom of the desktop and are made from metal wire, similar to the closet shelving you'd see in Home Depot. The best part is the cables are not bound in any way, so to add/remove something is super easy.
BTW, the wire you [i]do[/i] see at the bottom of the picture is the foot/sustain pedal for keyboard. ;)
To raise the LCD monitors above the console, I used the same Home Depot shelf material (only smaller) and just put some Ikea kitchen cabinet legs on it. The same Stainless Steel Ikea legs were used as speaker stands Dynamat Xtreme was used as a gasket between the legs and both the desktop and speaker cabinet.
In the rack on the right held (from bottom to top) a BS Sony CD Player for a quick listen... a stereo 1/3 octave EQ (for monitor speakers only, not in recording chain)... a surge protector... MOTU audio interface... emagic Unitor8 MIDI controller... Akai S5000 sampler (who the hell uses these anymore!)... Planet Phatt sound module is that purple piece... A solid single rack-unit blank is below the Avalon microphone pre-amp (a $1500 tube pre-amp/compressor/EQ, but Avalon's best units are actually solid-state), with a mesh/vented blank is above the pre-amp to keep it at the proper temperature... Then there is a headphone amplifier... an inexpensive ($200?) Lexicon multi-effects piece (only really fed into the vocalists headphones to add an effect onto their voice when tracking)... Another mic-pre (a less expensive HHB tube model), is the last thing mounted in the rack. On top is a Zip drive and CD-ROM drive for the Akai sampler.
Obviously, there was a bunch of egg-crate foam... and basstraps, ten I think???
Whew! That was a long one.
opoponax, high five from the twist tie crew!
I've used the ikea cord basket and twist ties in the past, and amusingly enough, I'm actually in the process of setting up my new desk with the same thing!
Something important to mention that isn't really touched upon in the post: Having your computer off of the ground helps in cable management, and will also keep your computer somewhat more dust bunny free :)
There is also this:
http://www.wiremate.com/
I don't know how good or bad this is.