Small Space Desk Setup

Name: PJ Manalo

Location: Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines

Occupation: Human Resources Consultant

Room size: 12,3 m² (132,4 ft²). Desktop space: 1,8 m² (19,3 ft²).

Cost of the setup: ~$6K, including the PC and monitors

Hey, PJ! Tell us a bit about yourself

I’m a Human Resources Consultant and manager for an international HR Consulting and Solutions company.

I get to collaborate with HR practitioners from all over the world. I help them so they could help their own organisations. I provide advice, training, designing and putting in place HR systems & frameworks.

Before the pandemic, my job involved a lot of travel — with upwards of 100 days of business travel in a year. I’ve been to 33 countries (as of December 2021) since I started working for the company in 2006.

I’m a lucky husband of an awesome woman. We both share a quiet lifestyle. We enjoy food, books, occasional travel, and watching streaming shows.

PJ and his partner live in a small (52 m²) 1-bedroom condominium in the city centre. “It’s super convenient — lots of restaurants and bars in the neighbourhood, two malls within walking distance, and a 20-minute walk to the office”

I enjoy learning, building things, and tinkering. Cooking new recipes and trying different techniques make me happy, too.

Also, I love Lego, especially Technic and space-themed sets. I got into PC building (kinda like adult Lego) and gaming during the pandemic.

Since August 2020, I’ve built six PCs.

My current gaming/work PC has had two versions. I built one for my wife, one home theatre PC, another work PC, and a budget gaming build for a nephew.

Can you describe your home setup?

Item	Model
Monitor	Samsung Odyssey G7 32in, AOC 22B2HN 22in + Eyoyo 13.3in 1440p
Monitor mount	FlexiSpot MA8
Monitor light bar	BlitzWolf BW-CML3
Speakers	Razer Leviathan
Headphones	beyerdynamic DT 880 PRO 250 Ohm + EPOS H6Pro
Keyboard	Royal Kludge RK61
Mouse	Delux M618XSU
Desk mat	MD Custom Felt and Cork Mousepad, 800×300mm
Mouse mat	MD Custom Aluminum Mousepad, 240×300mm
Chair	HandO Gain Executive Mesh Chair
Desk shelf	Generic steel shelves
Web camera	Center Cam
DAC/Amp	iFi Zen DAC v.2 + Topping A50s
DAC	EPOS GSX 300
Clock	Lenovo Smart Clock

Lack of space is the main challenge of a 52 m² apartment for two people.

There isn’t really space for a home office. My first setup was in a nook in the bedroom. The nook must’ve been used for a dressing table before.

PJ’s first setup had a view of the bed behind him. “It wasn’t optimal when sharing a bedroom”, he says

I could only fit an IKEA Micke Personal desk — it was 73 cm wide and 50 cm deep.

The whole space was a little less than 1 m².

It wasn’t ideal because I couldn’t slide my chair back much. I would’ve collided with the bed behind me.

There was little natural light and no view.

And my spouse couldn’t get to her closet or the bed without people seeing her if I was on a video call.

I grew tired of that setup after over a year in quarantine. I did some measuring and moved furniture around the bedroom.

This gave me tons of space (1,8 m²; 80% more) that had more natural light, and a view of the city past the balcony.

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Better yet, my new space is angled so that my wife has free reign of the rest of the room even while I’m on camera.

I still have a relatively small space.

I took inspiration from my neighbourhood of high rise condominiums.

I built vertically with as few compromises as possible.