I was in my classmate’s house recently to take care of some school stuff and while I was rummaging through his cabinets full of magazines, I came across an Ikea catalog from 2008. I spent a few minutes going through it and remembered how I’d been meaning to assemble a list of items that would compose my dream workspace. Here is that list.

Tabletop

Envelop Desk attached to wider desk for non-computer stuff. Photo from ikea.com

The core component of any fancy workspace is the tabletop. I’ve always wanted the kind that has a corner, like Ikea’s GALANT corner-desk left. A much more extravagant (and much more expensive) solution is the Intent Furniture setup from Herman Miller. I’d personally prefer a modification on the Intent Furniture setup—one that includes the Envelop Desk, also from Herman Miller, attached to a longer work desk for non-computer-related tasks  (see picture on left).

Seat

Profile of the Embody Chair. Photo from Flickr / Bfionline

For the past four years, I’ve had to contend with sub-par seating in my small study desk/workspace here at home. Since freshman year in high school, I’ve used only three chairs: a monobloc plastic chair that feels more at home in a government office lobby than in a home setting, a wooden dining seat with a comfortably high backrest but ridiculously low seat height, and another wooden dining chair with a nice seat height but  an inconvenient seat depth. Throughout the years, I’ve experimented with ways to make the most out of this poor situation: I often pile a pillow or two on top of the seat so my ass doesn’t break after hours of sitting on such a hard surface, and place another pillow against the backrest so my back doesn’t break while I’m working.

My dream workspace is a world away from this problem. I’m sure many a person will vouch for the Herman Miller Celle Chair as the chair to have in a workspace. As far as I know it’s one of the best work chairs you can get out there. Here’s a review by tech blogger Paul Stamatiou back in 2007. A more recent Herman Miller model, the Herman Miller Embody Chair, has received similar acclaim; in fact, tech blog Gizmodo calls it “the best chair we’ve ever sat on“. If there’s anything backbreaking about these seats, however, it’s the price tag attached to them. The Embody is priced at a ridiculous $1,600 (I repeat, $1,600—that’s more than an iMac!) while the Celle Chair sells for $450 in Amazon.

Computing

The Apple iMac. Photo from Flickr / stephenhackett

Let me be frank: although I constantly praise FOSS and use Ubuntu as my main OS for my day-to-day activities, I make no bones about the fact that I really want a Mac. It’s not just because it’s shiny and has a picture of a half-eaten fruit on it, either. The Mac is the computer of choice of professionals, businessmen, tech geeks, and artists. Its amazing hardware custom-built for its remarkable operating system makes it an excellent choice regardless of your inclination or profession. It doesn’t have the clunkiness and vulnerability of Windows and offers a wider array of software and a better user experience than Linux.

The crown jewel of the workspace of my dreams would be a 27-inch iMac complete with a Logitech mouse + keyboard combo. The iMac should also be loaded up with incredible software: Adobe Creative Suite 4, iWork, and Microsoft Office for Mac, among others.

My workspace should also feature a number of devices that take my computing experience to the next level. For my printing needs I’d like the super badass HP Officejet J3680 All-in-One Printer, Fax, Scanner, and Copier. For networking I’d definitely need a Netgear router, maybe a Wireless-N 300.

I’d also need some other gadgety stuff. For example, this fancy iPod dock from JBL. For backup purposes I should also have at least three Western Digital external hard drives (three for redundancy).

Writing

A Montblanc Meisterstück and a Moleskine. Look at that thing. It's gorgeous. Photo from Flickr / idreamoutloud

The crown jewel of the workspace of my dreams would be a Montblanc Meisterstück 149. I would dedicate a drawer to it and the bottles upon bottles of only the best ink there is to be had. For writing that doesn’t require or befit of the use of a fountain pen, I would need a Montblanc Bohème rollerball.

I would also keep a Moleskine 12-month daily planner on my table for scheduling and organization. For everything else writing-related I would have a couple of ruled Moleskines. Perhaps there would also be a few boxes of stationery for letters, notes to friends, addenda to my Grand Plan for World Domination, and the like.

Other

I’d also like a good desk lamp, such as the Forså work lamp from Ikea. Some implements from Rolodex like their letter tray and pencil cup, too. (Not their actual rolodex, though; no one uses that anymore.)

Finally, my whole workspace and workflow should be designed in accordance with David Allen’s patented Get Things Done (GTD) system.

* * *

What does your dream workspace look like? Anything you would add to, subtract from, or change about mine?

Excerpts from pp. 57-58, dated 02-01-2010.

Today I fell in love.

I first met my new muse indirectly, on the Internet. Jessica Zafra copied JD Salinger’s “Before the War with the Eskimos” [by hand] as a way of remembering him (he died on Jan. 27, Wednesday, at the age of 91). Ms Zafra’s penmanship is remarkably elegant and I couldn’t help but notice how nicely the ink looked on the paper. This led to a bit of exploration which led me to the Montblanc website. (Montblanc is a renowned writing instruments manufacturer.)

And then I saw her.

The Meisterstück 149 fountain pen. Gorgeous. Elegant. Seductive.

Yes. I just called a fountain pen seductive.

Unfortunately the Meisterstück costs upwards of $500, way beyond what I can afford. However, the offerings of Parker, another popular premium writing instruments maker, are quite beautiful, too, and much more affordable. Some of their fountain pens can be had for below $30.

This afternoon I floated the idea of buying a fountain pen to my dad. I did so quite sneakily, too—I simply asked him if he had an unused fountain pen lying around. He told me there wasn’t much of a point in purchasing a fountain pen towards the end of the school year (he’s right), but that he wasn’t closed to the idea of buying me one for college.

I’m not going to hope for a Meisterstück 149, but a nice Parker with a refill bottle sounds delicious. Hopefully I will acquire one over the summer.

* * *

Look at this. Just look at it. Now, tell me that isn’t gorgeous. Here’s a beautiful Parker, too.

Do you use fountain pens? Any recommendations?