The setups you see online have a room to themselves. Most real ones don't. They are in a bedroom, often a small one, sharing the floor with a bed, a wardrobe and a pile of washing. The room has to work for gaming in the evening and for sleeping an hour later.
That is a design problem with good answers. Here they are.
Where the desk goes
Measure the room and draw it on paper before you move anything. There are four usual positions.
- At the foot of the bed, against the opposite wall. The classic layout. It keeps the desk and the bed apart.
- Beside the bed, along the same wall. The desk can double as a bedside table. Good in a long, narrow room.
- In a corner. A corner desk uses space that is otherwise wasted and gives a wide surface.
- Under a loft bed. If the ceiling allows, raising the bed frees the whole floor beneath it. This is the biggest gain you can make in a very small room.
Things to check:
- The chair needs about 30 inches behind the desk to pull out and sit down.
- Doors, wardrobe doors and drawers must still open.
- The window. A screen facing a window gets glare. A screen with its back to a window puts the light in your eyes. Side-on is best.
- The radiator. Don't push a PC up against it.
- Sockets.
Choose a smaller desk than you think
- Width: 40 to 48 inches is enough for one monitor, a keyboard and a mouse.
- Depth: 24 inches is comfortable. Less than 20 puts the screen too close.
- A monitor arm clamps to the back edge and lifts the screen off the surface. On a shallow desk it gives you back a third of the top.
- A compact keyboard, without a number pad, leaves more room for the mouse.
- Put the PC on the floor or on a small stand beside the desk, with space round it for air.
Use the walls
In a small room the floor is full. The walls are not.
- A shelf above the monitor for speakers, a console, figures and books.
- A pegboard for headset, controllers and cables.
- Hooks on the side of the desk or the wall for a headset and a bag.
- Art, which costs no floor space at all and does more than anything else for the look of the room.
The desk mat
On a small desk, a mat does three jobs. It marks out the desk as a setup. It quiets the keyboard, which matters at night and with thin walls. And it brings the colour scheme down from the wall to the desk.
- Medium, 23.6 × 13.8 inches, suits a desk of 40 inches or less with a compact keyboard.
- Large, 31.5 × 15.5 inches, suits a 48-inch desk and covers most of it.
Measure the clear space in front of your monitor stand before you choose. See the desk mat size guide and desk mat and wall art pairings.
Art for a room with two jobs
The setup wants energy. The bed wants calm. In a small room both are in view at once. There are two ways to handle it.
Zone it
Put the bold piece at the desk and a calm piece at the bed.
- By the desk: neon, cyberpunk, space. Japanese City Punk FX.3, Cyber Wave Escape, Scanline Spaceman.
- By the bed: something quiet. Blue Mountain Fog, Star Valley, Wolf Pack.
Position matters. Hang the bold piece where you can't see it from the pillow: on the wall behind the headboard side, or beside the desk. Hang the calm piece where you can.
Or choose one palette for the whole room
Pick art that suits both. Dark, cool pieces in blue and violet do. They look right beside a screen and they are restful at night. Starlight City, Light Nebula and Hand of the Stars all work this way.
In a small room, keep to two or three colours across the art, the mat, the bedding and the lights. A small room with many colours looks cluttered however tidy it is. See the 60-30-10 colour rule.
One large piece beats several small ones
It sounds wrong, and it is true. A single tapestry or a large canvas makes a small room look bigger and calmer than a scatter of small prints. A tapestry behind the desk or the bed is the cheapest way to do it. See why small art looks wrong on a big wall and the tapestry size guide.
Lighting
- Bias light behind the monitor. Easier on the eyes in a dark room, and it lights the wall.
- One colour, or two at most, matched to the art.
- Dimmable and warm for the last hour. Set the lights to a low, warm colour before bed. Bright blue-white light late at night makes it harder to fall asleep.
- Everything off at night. Standby lights, the glow of a PC case and a pulsing keyboard are all bright in a dark bedroom. Use a power strip with a switch, or cover the lights.
See how to light wall art with LED strips.
Protect your sleep
When the desk is three feet from the bed, the room never stops being the place you play. A few habits help.
- Don't face the screen from the bed if the layout allows. Turn the monitor away, or drape a cloth over it.
- Shut the PC down. Fans hum and lights blink.
- Push the chair in and clear the desk at the end of the night. A tidy desk reads as closed.
- Keep the bed for sleeping. Play at the desk, not on the duvet.
- Use a curtain, a shelf unit or a screen to divide the room, if it is large enough. A tapestry hung from the ceiling can do it. See a tapestry as a room divider.
Sound and heat
- Heat. A gaming PC warms a small room quickly. Keep the door open or a window ajar during long sessions, and give the case clear space on all sides.
- Noise. A rug, curtains, bedding and a tapestry all soak up a little sound. Use a headset late at night. A desk mat takes the edge off a loud keyboard.
Cables
Loose cables make a small room look smaller. Fix a cable tray or adhesive clips under the desk, run everything along the back edge and down one leg, and put the power strip off the floor. It takes an hour and it is the cheapest improvement there is.
Three layouts
- The box room: a 40-inch desk at the foot of a single bed, monitor on an arm, one shelf above, a tapestry on the wall beside the bed.
- The long room: desk beside the bed on the same wall, serving as the bedside table, with a row of three small prints above both.
- The loft: bed above, desk below, an LED strip under the bed frame, and posters on the wall behind the monitor.
For more, see desk setups for students and the cozy gaming setup. Browse the desk mats and tapestries collections.