Every week we bring you fresh workspaces from the Lifehacker Workspace Show and Tell pool, all supplied by you—the awesome Lifehacker readership. Today we're highlighting the 25 most popular workspaces of 2009.
Featured workspaces cover a wide range of designs, budgets, and occupations. We've featured entire offices, individual offices, home offices, workspaces, work benches, and every possible configuration of places therein. Wherever you get things done, we love to see and hear about it.
The following are the 25 most popular workspaces of 2009. Each featured workspace includes additional photos and sometimes video of the workspace, so click on the name of the workspace to check out additional photos and information about it.
If you want to give your workspace a shot at fame in 2010, make sure to check out our guide to photographing your workspace for fame and fortune and then then post it to the Lifehacker Workspace Show and Tell pool!
Before and After: Barren Attic to Programmer's Paradise
One of the most popular workspaces we featured in 2009, Mitch's home office was a makeover to behold. He totally gutted his attic and rebuilt the entire thing as a programmer's paradise.
Floating Monitors and Hidden Peripherals
Lifehacker reader acflynn put together a home office with a lot of functional style. The small shelf beneath his monitors actually houses his network gear.
Office on the Forest's Edge
What can you say about reader Peter Frazier's office? It's awesome. It's built into a cliff with a scenic view. It's got grass growing on the roof!
Building The Ultimate Dorm Desk
When you're a DIYer with a desire to build an epic desk for your dorm room, it helps to have access to good tools and materials. One Lifehacker reader used great gear and forward-looking design to craft an ultimate dorm desk.
The Trap Door Desk
How do you maintain a completely uncluttered workspace, but also keep access to basic tools and peripherals? You build, as Lifehacker reader Roitsch did, a desk with a large storage compartment in the middle.
The Computer Cabinet Office
Lifehacker reader Steve Price had a two-fold problem. His previous desk was short on space for all his monitors and the noise and heat generated by having all his computers under the desk was unpleasant. By taking advantage of an alcove in his computer room he was able to cut down on the heat and noise substantially.
The Well-Planned Dorm Room
Just because you're in college doesn't mean that your room has to be a cluttered mess of schoolwork, piled with unwashed clothes, and overseen by John Belushi posters. Check out today's featured workspace to see a well planned room.
Custom Wire Management for Multi-Monitor Bliss
Brian Connolly was tired of cramped desks and messy wiring, so he built his own desk and wire management system to have the spacious and tidy spread he desired.
The Mac-tacular Lair
Lifehacker reader m2j2 has invested quite a bit of time, creativity, and cold, hard cash into his office setup. The result is an office that is not only visually appealing but packed with enough shiny tech toys to cover all sorts of work and play. His office is set up to handle just about anything he wants to throw at it, short of planning a zombie apocalypse resistance, although don't quote me on that—for all we know, the office is in an abandoned missile silo.
Unidentified Floating Desk
Brett wanted to get his monitor off his desk, but didn't want to waste money on an expensive mounting arm. With the addition of some lumber and LEDs, problem solved!
The Innovative Office
Lifehacker reader and architect Jeremy Levine has a spacious and well lit office that will likely be the envy of cubicle-dweller and telecommuter alike. Jeremy's office features a vaulted ceiling with exposed recycled wood beams and a combines clerestory and transom windows to bring in a huge amount of natural light and create an expansive work environment.
The Hidden Cable Workspace
Lifehacker reader Tomas Carrillo—responsible for sharing the handy chain sinnet method of cable tidying with us—has the kind of neat workspace you'd expect from a guy with that kind of cable wrangling knowledge.
The Triple-Monitor Haven
Combine dark colors, ample desk space, and an arc of viewing pleasure, and you've got a workspace dear to many a geek's heart. Throw in a few toys like an Ambient Orb and a break now and then to play some video games on a nearly wraparound display and the deal is sealed.
Handcrafted and Free Floating: The Wraparound Workspace
One of the best ways to cut down on cable clutter is to get all your equipment and cables right off the floor, so cables can never drape across the floor in the first place. Louis' workspace uses a system of shelves to keep everything in a position where the cords travel the shortest distance possible.
The Quad Monitor Alcove
Lifehacker reader Mandrake has assembled quite a setup for himself. From the custom ergonomic chair to the tilting work surface of the ergonomic desk, the workspace is geared for long term comfort.
The Serene Workspace
Lifehacker reader Schodts has been tweaking and tuning his workspace setup for some time. The current incarnation is a pleasing multi-monitor setup with plenty of space to work. Thanks to a wall mount for the TV and a repurposed glass table top turned monitor shelf the common desktop fixtures like monitor stands, phones, and pencil cups have been lifted off the desk freeing up more space.
Before and After: The Wire Loom Workspace
This featured workspace belongs to Lifehacker reader tehdik. He was pretty happy with this workspace, save for the enormous tangle of wires under his desk. Thanks to its sleek glass surface, he could see the mess not only across the room but every minute he was at his work station. Finally he'd had enough of the mess and ordered some supplies to make short work of it.
The Attic Playground
If we had to guess how Lifehacker reader edgefactor627 came about the idea of having such a pile of goodies in his attic, we'd have to go with him having a strong desire to serve as a beacon of fun for the whole neighborhood, drawn to the signal of condensed awesomeness in the highest room in his house.
The Floating Shelves and Hidden Cables Workspace
Lifehacker reader msweston took some basic building blocks from IKEA and assembled them into a sleek workspace with well manged cables and a tidy layout.
Before and After: The Loft Workstation
Lifehacker reader aloftindenver lives, shockingly enough, in a a loft in Denver. They've been cataloging their adventures in furnishing the loft-largely by creating their own designs and furniture-at their blog A Loft In Denver. While we'd highly recommend reading over the entire blog, especially if you're into loft living and modern design, what really caught our eye is the amazingly sleek workspace they built from scratch.
The Mac Lover's Bedroom
This featured workspace pulls off the office-as-bedroom tact without introducing clutter or bulk into the bedroom. Tucked neatly in the corner and with dual monitors to boot, reader ryopang can get work done in style in his bedroom office
Before and After: The Benefits of Basic Tidying and Cable Management
It doesn't float, spin, flash, or appear to contain glowing alien spore, but today's featured workspace gets the job done in a very practical and tidy way. Lifehacker reader Dani Cela just needed to tame the mess of cables at his feet and tidy up.
White Space and LEDs
This featured workspace is an example of how you don't have to spend a fortune to have a fun and functional workspace with a solid dose of style. Obviously Apple products don't come cheap, so we'll discount the presence of a gorgeous and pricey Apple screen as part of the total cost of the space. The rest of the space is composed of simple and inexpensive items, like $89 IKEA Vika Gruvan desktop and a comically large clothespin for temporally stashing important papers.
Land of the Colorful Cubes
Cubes are the antithesis of individuality. Tiny, colorless combs in the hive of industry, right? Not if you work at The Balcom Agency in Fort Worth, Texas.
The Media Mecca
What do you do when you and your roommate are media-loving computer geeks? Why, turn your mutual living room into a mecca of computing and media magic, of course!