Disclaimer:
Before we get started with the setup of this dream studio office space, it's important to acknowledge that not everyone has the luxury of a spare room for such a project. I’m very fortunate to have had an available space in my home, and I understand that space constraints can be a real challenge for many. However, even if you only have a portion of the room, or a little corner under some stairs that you can customise, this guide should give you plenty of ideas and practical tips to create something cool!
One thing I need to highlight is that my studio makeover wasn't a complete overhaul from scratch. I was able to repurpose and utilize some existing items, such as a standing electric desk, a spare tall table, and a couple of smart lights… so I set my budget for this project considering that I already had some stuff.
Throughout this guide, I'll share insights based on my experience, with the understanding that each individual's circumstances and resources may differ. Keep in mind that adaptability and creativity play a key role in crafting a workspace that suits your needs, regardless of the starting point.
I set a personal goal to build the room with a budget of AUD $1000. but I know that costs can vary depending on factors such as location, availability of materials, and personal preferences. Your budget may differ, and I encourage you to tailor the project to your financial capabilities… I established a straightforward yet arbitrary guideline for setting my budget: it should not surpass the cost of my computer tower.
As a note of transparency, there may be affiliate links included in this article. These links are provided for your convenience, and if you choose to make a purchase through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you ;)
As always, the first thing I do for any project is to create a folder in my drive and collect references and inspiration to start the planning. Straightaway, I thought I could use my 3D skills to create a quick mockup of the space and visualise how things could look like before I bought anything… this was a massive time saver and a fun practical thing to do while planning. I’ll walk you through it, but here is the 3D mockup render
Before you start collecting cool references and inspiration, I think is important that you do 2 things:
To help you define your needs here is a checklist with questions you can ask yourself to define the space. I know you might want to jump in to the DIY section, but believe me, this is the most important part if you are serious about replicating this process:
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Once you have your checklist, you can start with the collection of references. I think is important to have a plan before you start digging into other designs because it will keep you focused on what you actually need/want and it will help you narrow down the search for the studio inspiration.
This might not be relevant for you if you don’t do any 3D work, but you can still plan your space using some tools I’m going to share. Let’s start with the measurement of the room:
Measure your space in all directions, any irregular area and the space to the door or windows and write them down on somewhere as reference. Then you can use an app on your phone to 3D scan your room to give you a starting point.
Polycam is a free app available in both android and iPhone/ipad and works great (very easy to use too) and you can export an GBL file with the scanned 3D Mesh.
With the right measurements and the scanned 3D object as reference I build a very simple room in Blender… a cube for the room and opened a couple of areas for the window, the wardrobe and the door:
Then I did a very simple model with textures of the things I already had and placed them in the room.
Then I went back to my checklist of the things I needed or wanted to include and made mockups of them in 3D. In my case I already had a good idea of the ‘style’ I wanted to go for and I had already checked some items online so it was easy to reproduce some things in 3D (for instance IKEA gives you the measurements and you might even be able to get the 3D model of the exact object too).
Another powerful advantage of this mockup is to test different moods and paint colours for the walls. I also decided to take advantage of the 3D mockup to test the setup of my lights and visualise how my environment would look like during the day and at night (since I tend to work late most days).
This process also gave me some ideas to solve problems that I didn’t account for. For example, I wanted to have a nice diffuse light on top of my computer monitors but I realised that when sitting down, the light will be quite visible and very distracting if I looked up slightly so I came up with a simple solution that actually looks better in terms of the design:
Once you are happy with your 3D Mockup even it is not 100% perfect with all your decoration, you can move to the actual setup of the room
Time to prepare the space and get started with the creation of your new creative space!
The first step would be to declutter and remove unnecessary items to create a ‘clean canvas’ to work with. In my case I had a chance to Paint and sort out the electrics before I moved in.
At this point, you can also consider donating or repurposing items to reduce waste. I had a few things I gave away and some other that repurpose in other areas (my old shelf is now in the garage keeping some of my electric tools and bunch of wood scraps).
I used a bunch of old sheets to cover the carpet and began to fix the walls (there where a bunch of holes and dints I had to fix before painting):
Then I used a brush to paint all the borders of the walls and windows and the ‘patches’ I fixed.
I recommend you select a color scheme that promotes focus and creativity… I know this sounds a bit vague but the colour you apply to your walls would be a big factor in the mood of the room. When in doubt, just go for white.
Also, a quick point on the ‘good lighting conditions’ form the checklist… if you have a dark room, avoid dark colours. I have a large window with natural light so my room is very light even with the dark walls.
It is also important to mention that the colour would look different when you apply it to the wall and might ‘feel’ very different depending on the lighting conditions. I grabbed a sample of the colour I wanted from the local hardware shop:
Paint sample AUD $10
If you want to try my choice of colour, the brand is Dulux and the colour name is ‘Prestige Blue’
4L Paint bucket AUD $112
The paint is actually pretty good quality so I only used a 4 litter bucket for two coats on each wall and had some left over. Here is my ‘clean canvas’ with the painted walls to start the setup:
Working stations wall:
Background and decor wall:
Here is another angle to show how bright the room actually is even with a cloudy day:
time to measure the room dimensions and plan the placement of furniture and equipment. The pervious measurements where more to replicate the room in 3D as accurate as possible, but it is good to do the measurements again… there is a cool saying: ‘Measure twice, cut once’ that I think is very valuable!
The next thing is to measure for anything that will be hanging or attached to the walls. This is something else that will be very different between people, in my case I have plaster wall with wooden studs so I had to get a stud finder to mark where I can drill into.
I used masking tape to trace the placement of the studs after I found them so I could plan how to attach my things to the wall. I also did a quick markup of the desk at the ‘standing’ position so I could align it with the bottom of my pegboard
Something I should mention is that this wasn’t a weekend project… It took me a while since I was still doing work. I had to shift my working hours a bit but here is my workspace while working on the walls:
Alright, now that you have everything carefully measured and marked is time to setup anything that will go on the walls (ideally before bringing anything else in the room).
I already had the tools for the job, I just bought the right screws for the type of wall
Just for your references these are similar to the ones I used:
Fischer 544546 Kit Duopower Universal Dowels with Screw, Transparent, 80 Piece
And this could be very obvious, but just to make sure I include everything in this guide… here is a list of the tools:
The first thing I setup was the main shelf on my wall which I will also turn into my main light. For this I used the IKEA ‘LACK’ floating shelf. They have a couple of sizes but I went for the long one ‘190cm’ since it roughly matched the size of my desk:
IKEA LACK Wall shelf AUD $69
Because it was a long piece, my wife helped me to hold it while I level it and marked the right height and mount it to the bracket. I wasn’t planning on putting too much weight on this shelf, but I made sure that at least 3 out of the 4 holes of the bracket where attached to a stud:
by the way, that tiny piece of tape I added was to align the centre of the shelf with the centre of the desk ;)
I’ll come back to this shelf in a bit when we get to lighting and decoration so for now I’ll move on to the next thing: the pegboard. For this I bought the IKEA SKÅDIS and other bits:
IKEA SKÅDIS Pegboard AUD $30
IKEA SKÅDIS Pegboard AUD $25
I got the wood colour to match my shelf and desk style but you can also get it in white. Also depending on the space you could maybe get two of these… they are very handy. I bought a square one and a ‘half-square’ because they didn’t have the long one but you could just get one like this (and it would be cheaper AUD $35)
SKÅDIS Pegboard - wood 76x56 cm
Also here is an alternative to this specific pegboard. A bit more expensive but it comes with the extra bits like hooks and boxes.
The boards are pretty easy to setup. it is just a single bracket with two wholes for screws so I used the drywall anchors and the level to make sure it was nicely alighted:
so far so good… everything fitting within the plan:
I followed the same steps for the other smaller bit and this is the setup of the pegboards:
Now for the hooks and boxes that go into the pegboard, that is something very personal and I would say decided it based on what you planned to put in this part of the wall. So just for your reference here are the ones I bought (I’ll add the links below if you want to check them out):
An important thing for me while setting up my studio was to maintain the theme I planned for. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the bits for the pegboard in a black colour so I had to improvise and pivot… I bought the white ones but I painted with a metal enamel spray ;)
The spray paint I used is this one from Dulux:
Dulux 300g Metalshield Epoxy Enamel Spray Paint Satin Black AUD $14.50
I put a plastic bag in the garden and spray them all with the black paint
I was a bit concerned about scratches and all that, but I’m surprised how good the paint is once you let it dry and set properly:
Here are all the bits and quantity that I got for my pegboard:
Storage basket, set of 3, white (AUD $15)
Hooks, white 5 pack (AUD $2.50)
Magazine holder, white (AUD $6.50)
Clips, white 2 pack (AUD $2.50) x2 → $5
Hook rack, white (AUD $2.50)
Hook (long), white (AUD $2.50) x2 → $5
Container, white (AUD $5) x2 → $10
Let’s now jump into a bit of a DIY to customise the shelf and setup some lights
The main function of the floating shelf is to turn it into a lamp for the desk so I wanted to use a strip of smart lights to acomplish this and as I mentioned before, the issue was that I could see the light when sitting down and it was quite distractign.
So I came up with a simple solution that actually made it quite nice and unique. I bought this Armrest tray from Ikea:
RÖDEBY Armrest tray, bamboo (AUD $15)
And I used it to create a lip or and extended edge around the floating shelf to hide the lights and help ‘contain’ the light a bit so it is more diffused.
Here is how simple this ‘hack’ is:
I measured the armrest bit and and marked 4 lines. These are about 2 inches thicker than the floating shelf thickness.
With a jigsaw I cut the 4 pieces. One thing is worth knowing in case you want to do the same with a different ‘armrest tray’ is that the IKEA one, has a nice fabric glued to the bamboo pieces which holds them together and makes it flexible.
Here are the 4 pieces after cutting them
and to polish them a bit I used sand paper to smooth out the edges:
I did a quick test before committing to gluing the pieces to the shelf with cheap light strip I had:
Everything look right but I realised I needed a better more powerful light source… Then to attach these pieces to the floating shelf, I used wood glue and started from one of the edges:
because they are from the same piece, the cuts blend nicely together. also you can see a bit of the fabric that is underneath the bamboo bits:
Here is the final one with all the bamboo bits attached:
The next step is to turn this shelf into an actual lamp. I bought a smart light strip of 2 meters which fits perfectly on my shelf lamp (remember it is about 190cm). The one I got is this:
Smart Philips hue light strip 2m → AUD $149.95
Probably one of the most expensive gadgets I bought for this setup but totally worth it. I needed it to be bright enough, reliable and easy to control so I avoided generic ones… is important to figure out where you can cut expenses and where you should try to invest on something good, this was one those things (the cheap one I had and I used to do the test wasn’t good enough for the main lamp).
The light strip comes with an adhesive tape so I just clue it to the back of the bamboo bits in the shelf:
now the moment of truth…
Here is my custom shelf lamp on the wall (also the pegboard with some of the bits I painted):
And here is the smart light plugged in! I’m quite happy with it actually haha
Next thing I needed for this wall is a mix between function and design… this is another reason why doing your checklist and planning is so important.
I do quite a bit of livestream, tutorials and recording so I wanted something that could help me improve the quality of the audio without compromising the look of my room too much. So right below the custom shelf lamp I added the acoustic foam pannels I already had, similar to these:
I simply arranged them in a slightly different way to make some sort of intentional design (might not be the best use of them to help with the sound but it is something). I used 3M double sided tape to add them to the wall and the level to make sure they were at at 45 degree angle
This is the final arrangement and they actually look quite cool with the lights on.
The next thing was to bring in the desk and work on a couple things that I’m quite particular about: cable management.
One of the main things I used to struggle with when using my electric desk is where to place the computer tower… I tried keeping it on top of the desk so I can move my working position from sitting to standing quite easily but the pc tower takes up a good chunk of the working space.
The alternative was having it on the floor or on a table next to the desk but there was always a bunch of cables visible and tangling with other stuff and I HATE THAT!
So after some research and testing, I bought this strap mount from VIVO:
VIVO PC tower under desk straps AUD $30
This is probably one of the best upgrades to my workspace, they are totally worth it!
They come in a tiny pack…
they are really good quality and comes with all the things you need to install them
I screw the metal brackets to the bottom of my desk:
And that’s it! no more dangling cables, the PC tower now moves up and down with the desk without taking up space on top of the desk. Keep in mind that the ventilation of my pc tower is in front so I’m not obstructing the air intake AND because my pc tower has the power button and a couple of usb connexions on the top… I installed it so that it sticks out a tiny bit.
There are two more things I did to upgrade my desk space, like this custom desk shelf/drawer:
This is so that I can organise and hide some stuff like my GoXLR mini and that sort of things. You can probably buy something similar, but I enjoy DIY stuff and sometimes is cheaper… I bought a piece of treated wood similar to the colour of my desk and cut about 25cm on each side with a mitre saw at 45 degree angles:
Then I used my wood glue to attached the ends to the main piece and add some reinforcement with tiny metal brackets. Also added some adhesive felt strips to the bottom:
That’s it. The idea is to have this desk shelf right in the centre. The other thing I did for the desk update, was to attach at the back the cheaper trip of light I had that didn’t work for the main shelf lamp.
Here is a quick test with masking tape (this is the back of my desk and although is subtle, it helps with the mood and the indirect warm light I wanted):
Once everything was setup in the main wall (shelf, lights, desk, etc) it is time to setup the computer screens and do a bit of cable management. There isn’t much to say about this first part of setting up the screens since these are all items I already had so they are not part of the budget… just unpacking and setting things up.
The ‘big screen’ in the middle is actually my main Wacom Cintiq 27” Pro display and is sitting on an ergo hydraulic arm so I can pull it up and down depending on what I’m working on.
The next part was to group all the cables together and hide them away so they are not visible… I bought this handy thing that I put under my desk at the back:
Cable management AUD $31.95
I started by attaching things to all the devices and the PC towers and ‘group’ them a bit:
The Cintiq for instance has a few cables coming out of the back so I used a plastic wrap thing to keep them all together like this one (I already had it so I’m not counting it in the budget):
Here is a photo from underneath the desk and how the cables are nicely hidden in the trays.
After stting up all the ‘gadgets’ and computer things here is the setup for the workspace with the main lamp (shelf) and no visible cables 💪🏽
Also, to give you an idea of the subtle effect of the extra old light strip at the back of the desk, here is a photo at night with everything OFF except that cheap light and the screens:
And just for your reference, when I say ‘cheap’ light strip I mean $15.78 bucks. This the exact one I got. The good think is that is batter or USB so you can power it from the PC and it will turn on an off with the computer:
Alight, I then brought in my secondary or auxiliary table for the room. This is the one that goes right below the pegboard and is for me to work on more ‘analogue’ stuff.
I’m not counting this table towards the budget because I already had this table in our previous flat… we bought this one in IKEA ages ago and it was out ‘kitchen island’ but in our new place there is an actual kitchen island so I stole it for my room:
At this point I wanted to share with you how things are looking in different light conditions… This is a photo at night with the blinds down and with only the main lamp on (full brightness) and the tiny effect of the cheap light at the back of the desk:
This is the same scenario but with the actual downlights from the room ON plus my KeyLight from elgato that I used for streaming:
Here’s another shot of what I would have when working at night with the main lamp with a warm light at 50%.
You might also notice I hide the light cable on the wall. I just bought a white cable cover and used the bit of paint I had left from the walls to paint it with the same colour and blend it with the wall. Maybe it is more visible from this shot:
At this point the main parts of this wall are ready so I move on to the clean up and arranging the extra bits I got to upgrade my space.
For the keyboard and mouse area, I bought this awesome leather desk mat from NORDIK
NORDIK leather desk mat cable organiser (AUD $33.97)
And I went for the blue colour to match my walls ;) - It comes nicely packed and the quality is great:
And because it is quite big not only looks neat but it covers the space for my Keyboard, mouse and 3DSpaceMouse:
And here is how I organised my pegboard… it is mostly for my drawing and sketching process but I also found a good space to keep the Oculus VR (the black metal strip at the top left where the remote is hanging, is actually an old magnetic thing I had to hang knifes in the kitchen that I glue to the pegboard).
At this point we can call the main wall DONE and move to the other side of the room that is looking quite empty:
This second wall is quite important for two reasons:
The main pieces of this ‘featured’ wall are made of three shelving units. One in the middle:
FJÄLLBO Shelving unit, 100x95 cm → AUD $179)
And two taller bookshelves on each side:
FJÄLLBO Shelving unit, black, 51x136 cm (AUD $119) x2 → $238
These are a couple of alternatives that I was also considering that you might want to try
Putting this pieces tougher is pretty straight forward like most IKEA stuff… just ‘Lego for adults’
The shelfs look pretty cool against the blue wall but this is just the ‘structure’…. there is a lot that I had to do to make it look nice.
So the next thing for me was to setup the lights and I wanted something cool modern design, a bit industrial’ to go along with the metal mesh of the shelves so I got a couple of lamps and cool lightbulbs from IKEA:
TVÄRHAND Table lamp, black/bamboo (AUD $15)
Table lamp, lightbulb (AUD $5)
I also got this other type of lamp for the other side which I thought it was pretty cool:
MARKFROST Table lamp, marble black (AUD $29)
Also, my wife bought a new diffuser for her space and gave me the old one which conveniently matched nicely with my design (I already had it so I actually include this in my original 3d Mockup)
I’m not sure if you are interested in a diffuser but I found something similar to what I have so I’ll leave the link here:
Devanti Aroma Diffuser Aromatherapy Ultrasonic Humidifier Essential Oil 300ml
Now, for ‘ambiance’ I bought two Led tower lamps… these are very cheap, they are not smart or anything but more on this later:
These are from shop called ‘the Reject shop’ which has lots of cheap stuff. Here’s the link:
And here is an alternative you can grab online, a bit more pricy but this one is ‘smart’:
After placing all the lights I started filling the shelves with some stuff like my 3D prints, some books and other things I like to ‘store’ but in a more visible way. You’ll also notice at the bottom right of the photo I have this cool tripod with pots that I got from IKEA as well.
OLIVBLAD Plant stand, in/outdoor black, 58 cm (AUD $39)
And the three pots are cool reclide plastic pots that look like cement for only $3:
NYPON Plant pot, in/outdoor grey, 9 cm (AUD $3) → x3 $9
you might also notice a couple of extra lights on the central shelf.
I already had those lights, so they are not included in the budget. They are quite cool and they are smart Philips lights but a bit expensive. Here is the link to them in case you are interested:
Philips Hue Play - White & Colour Ambiance Smart LED Bar Light - Black - 2 Pack (Base Kit)
NOTE: be careful with the Philips Hue play lights because they also sell ‘extensions’ and they look ‘cheaper’ but they don’t come with any adaptor for the power so you might be very disappointed.
Now, since I did a bit of planning before buying stuff, I knew I was going to need a few power outlets for this wall but I also wanted to control the lights from my phone or with voice (I use Google assistant). So instead of trying to make all the lights ‘smart’ lights I bought a smart switch:
This thing is pretty cool because it allows you to control (on/off) anything that is plugged into it. So I just attached my extension rack and plugged all my lights and diffuser in there. So know I just need to ask google to ‘turn my back wall on’ and it will turn everything on!
The one I got for this project came as a ‘two pack’ but I only needed one so the other one is on my kitchen with the coffee machine plugged to it so I have it on automatically to turn on with my alarm so coffee is ready for to start the day (just an extra tip that I thought I mentioned).
This are exactly the ones I bought and they work great (very easy to set up also)
By the way, the cheap LED tower lights are connected to USB so I had a power adaptor with two USBs so I was able to plugged them both using a single powerpoint:
But, only because I already had the rack and the adaptor. If you don’t, you can probably get one that already has some USB ports like this one:
The final step to complete the studio was to bring in some green into it! - this might not be for everyone, but I personally feel it adds a lot of character and it makes me feel better.
I placed some plants I already had and bought some cool new ones:
For instance, I’ve had my bonsai for ages now so it one of the main pieces in the shelf:
I also had some framed artwork and I hanged those on the side.
I also installed a rail with some hanging pots on the computer wall, and added a hanging pot from the corner over my ‘analogue’ station. I also added some climbing plants to The main lamp/shelf and here is how they are all looking:
I know that this might not be for everyone… I just love having greenery in my workspace. Anyway, if you are interested, here are the stuff I got from IKEA:
This is the one in the corner hanging from the roof:
CHILISTRÅN Hanging planter, in/outdoor black, 12 cm (AUD $25)
Then I have this rail on the wall next to the main lamp/shelf:
HULTARP Rail, black, 80 cm (AUD $12)
and hanging from the rail I have one of these:
HULTARP Container, black/mesh, 31x16 cm (AUD $25)
and one of these:
HULTARP Container, black/mesh, 14x16 cm (AUD $15)
And finally… in case you are into plants, here is a list of the cool plants I have. All of these are pretty easy to take care as long as they get good amount of natural light (indirect light is better) and watering them at least once a week:
Alright, I think that is pretty much all there is to it in terms of the studio setup. But just to make sure that I cover absolutely everything and show the try value of everything that I bought to make this happen, here are a couple more things:
For the main camera on my computer I bought a cheap light ring for $10 bucks
I didn’t really need it but it was only $10 and works remarkably well… also it comes with a tripod so I have an extra tripod for… something haha
I also bought this ‘lightbox’ thing for only $15.47 and is what I have in the centre of my back wall with the 3D Concept Artist text:
Also something that I had in my list of things to by but didn’t end up buying:
This IKEA wall shelf was pretty cool but I didn’t want to just ‘fill’ the space on the wall with anything so I waited and I actually think I don’t need it… but it could be handy
I also was going to get ‘smart lightbulbs’ for the back wall but decided to go for simpler stuff and use the smart switch to make them ‘smart’:
And to wrap up this very long guide, here is the summary of the expenses… I did go over the budget but just a little bit. All things consider I’m quite happy with the result given what I spent!
This is a list of all the items I bought with their prices:
So the total expenses for all the items was: AUD $1,148.87
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