OK – so I added a full sized shelf above my desk to give myself a little more shelf space. Great – Except that within a few hours of use, I have cracked my head on it numerous times – so I decided to take the shelf and cut away a chunk, so that it still works as a shelf and gives me shelf space, but minimises the risk of me cracking my head open.
The other advantage is that being more open, it lets in more light.
Cut-Out for Monitor shelf?
It also made me think that a similar shelf for my monitor & speakers might be a little more stylish that the plywood frame that I have. It would also allow me to adjust the height, and make it look a little more integrated than just a stand plonked on the desk.
As I look at it now, my speakers are actually in the wrong place – they should ideally be at ear height – I was considering making a pair of adjustable bracket to fit the speakers to the IVAR uprights.
However, It would need to be a bigger cut-out to not get in the way and hinder my movements. And I’m not sure how it will affect the light coming onto my desk. Still – it might be worth a go.
How did I do it?
I took the basic shelf and measured 100mm from each side, then I measured in 250mm from the front edge. This allowed me to mark out the basic cutout. However I decided I wanted to round the corners so literally took a coffee cup and used it as a curve template on the 90 degree corners of my cutout.
I then used a jig saw to cut out the curved shape to be removed, and next used a hand router (hand trimmer) with an “ogee” bit to round over the edges along where I’d cut out.
Finally sanding all edges with a medium sandpaper. The whole process took about 20 minutes.
What did I learn?
Well, it was easy to do, and works well. Once installed I realised that the same concept could be used for my monitor shelf (that also contains my speakers) – it might make my desk a little less cluttered. I could even move the shelf down lower – closer to the top of my monitor.
Could I improve it if I did it again – no, not sure I could.
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