Functional design for wireless technology

I am looking for home office furniture and home entertainment furniture that respects the fact that we are wired these days, even when we buy so called wireless technology. What I want is:

- a desk that will accommodate laptop, USB, printer, scanner, data projector, the wireless router, a phone , charger for cameras, cellphone, a lamp and possibly that nice radio that imrokyrok has mentioned on another thread.
- An entertainment unit (I wish there was another term but can't think of one) that accommodates cable box, DVD player, VCR player, laptop, turntable, radio, Mp3 etc

What I do not want is spaghetti junction; wires, cables, multiplugs everywhere and a mission every time I add or change comething.

Are there units that are on castors, backed with all the sockets, surge protectors and whatever with just one cable going to to a wall socket. I am tired heaving furniture around, trying to sort out scart cables while upside down over the back of whatever. And I want something that looks good, naturally.

They must exist, but I simply can't find them. Any ideas?

Something like this? It is £63.67 in IKEA.

You can screw your surge protector etc to any desk and wire it up yourself that way.


or if you need something even bigger this is £92.98

Thanks Johnfás. I don't see the solution here though as I see no castors; the workspace is small for all the other items and as you may notice, no wires are shown. It is as if they have no reality for the designers .

If you see a nice desk you like you should install the wiring yourself and attach castors yourself - both can be done.

There's a good thought. As a non DIYer I never think that way. The only power tool I own is a cheque book!

Add in the wires from all the game consols the kids use and the average sitting room looks like someone spilled a pot of spaghetti. I try to disguise our variety of wires, extension socket boards etc with the strategic placement of plants etc but it's impossible. I'd also like to know if anyone has an answer to the problem. 

You can pick up a cordless drill for under 20 euro and I'd say a set of mini castors would be less than a tenner. Most power leads (ie the ones with lots of plugs and a surge protector) have holes on the back so you can mount them, eg to the back of or underneath a desk.

imokyrok wrote:

Add in the wires from all the game consols the kids use and the average sitting room looks like someone spilled a pot of spaghetti. I try to disguise our variety of wires, extension socket boards etc with the strategic placement of plants etc but it's impossible. I'd also like to know if anyone has an answer to the problem.

They sell those cable snake things which bulk all your cables into one single plastic thing but I'm not convinced as to how successful they would be because I think you would really need everything vertically on top of each other for them to work. At our desk we have the printer to one side, the monitor to another, the tower underneath and all sorts of periphary things about the place. I'm open to hear if anyone has had success with them though.

Quick wireless internet question:

bought laptop for home use. don't have landline or cable tv, want internet (wireless variety), may move apartments within few months so need box that i can pick up and take with me without changing accounts etc.

anyone any tips?

I try to imagine Bill Gates' house. Not a wire to be seen I'm sure. So someone has solved the problems. They say one should have nothing in the house one does not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful (family members and pets are not covered by this). Cables are never beautiful and become less than useful when they are all tangled up and lying behind an antique desk or tall wall unit. The 'cable snake things' like the spine of a spiral bound file are hopeless as are the little velcro thingies for holding wires together. In offices I notice they are rarely used, and don't address the problem of access to equipment.



Design seems to be very outdated in terms of the changes in technology providing for little more than Pc, tower, keyboard on a sliding tray and a small printer. Very 1990. Any chance some furniture designer, ergonomics person and technician could get together to get us off our knees in 2009?

zakalwe wrote:

Quick wireless internet question:

bought laptop for home use. don't have landline or cable tv, want internet (wireless variety), may move apartments within few months so need box that i can pick up and take with me without changing accounts etc.

anyone any tips?

You've seen this
http://www.wirelessbroadbandireland.com/residential.htm. I think they use the Breeze Max Product.

zakalwe wrote:

Quick wireless internet question:

bought laptop for home use. don't have landline or cable tv, want internet (wireless variety), may move apartments within few months so need box that i can pick up and take with me without changing accounts etc.

anyone any tips?

You need one of those little dongles from o2 or Vodafone. O2 had a great deal for people who were full time students recently, don't know if that applies to you or if it is still available.

candide wrote:

I try to imagine Bill Gates' house. Not a wire to be seen I'm sure. So someone has solved the problems. They say one should have nothing in the house one does not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful (family members and pets are not covered by this). Cables are never beautiful and become less than useful when they are all tangled up and lying behind an antique desk or tall wall unit. The 'cable snake things' like the spine of a spiral bound file are hopeless as are the little velcro thingies for holding wires together. In offices I notice they are rarely used, and don't address the problem of access to equipment.



Design seems to be very outdated in terms of the changes in technology providing for little more than Pc, tower, keyboard on a sliding tray and a small printer. Very 1990. Any chance some furniture designer, ergonomics person and technician could get together to get us off our knees in 2009?

Forget the specialised desks. I have one, and its more hastle than its worth in trying to pull out cables. For the periperials use bluetooth. For the network, wireless at N speed(150Mbps) is pretty good now. Checkout www.Linksys.com who are Cisco's home users division. Lots of good kit for attaching media devices.

Smarthomes do it - at a price.