Hobby Home Improvements: Building a Better Hobby Desk

Hi everyone,

Today I thought I'd do something a bit different from the usual painting post and take a deep dive into one of the oft unexplored realms of the hobby - the ubiquitous hobby desk. 

We've all got one; whether it's a tiny corner of the kitchen table or an entire garden office dedicated to nothing but the glory of your miniature collection, no hobby enthusiast can do without this most essential tool. For myself, I've often just settled for whatever space I could find. It's never been ideal, it's rarely ever been spacious, but it's allowed me to clip, file and paint my way to a surprisingly large collection of models.

However, having just recently moved home, I've been presented with a rare opportunity to design my own room; and with it, the chance to build my perfect hobby zone. My previous set up was far, far away from functional. Sharing the space with my PC and digging through an old Citadel Hobby Project Box (these things sound like a great idea up until the first moment you actually use them) to find my paints/tools for the day was not the best start to a hobby session. 

So what then would I change? What exactly constitutes a perfect hobby desk in the madness that is my mind?

I suppose before I go any further, I should give you an idea of the space I was previously working with. 

As I mentioned, it wasn't exactly conducive to a productive hobby session.

I've recently been reading a lot into motivation and habit formation, and there are a few core rules to implement that'll get you doing more of what you enjoy. Some of these ideas are to make the task you want to do apparent and easy to start. Having a dedicated workstation is, for me, a straightforward way of achieving this.  

So, when planning out my new workspace, I first started with the desk itself. I needed something with a decent amount of room to set everything up, but being confined still to my bedroom meant it couldn't take up too much space. After a very brief search, I found what is undoubtedly the old reliable of desks - the Alex/Linnmon combination from the Swedish powerhouse that is Ikea. This gives me a 120cmx60cm desktop along with a set of storage drawers for all the additional books, tools, dice, counters and other knick nacks that Games Workshop loves to sell. 

With that sorted, I now needed some way to force order upon the inevitable entropy that ends up encompassing a hobby space. After another brief search around the web, I found a company called Hobbyzone that sell a unique modular workspace system designed for us hobby loonies. They've got a web tool that I had a play with creating my ideal hobby space, and by the end, I was convinced it was the system for me. So, I patiently waited until the kits I wanted were back in stock and one quick attack on my bank account later everything was ordered and being prepped for shipping. Not long after that my box of pure hobby potential arrived ready for assembly!

Assembling it All

Each of the workspace kits comes individually packed as a set of wooden "sprues". Everything is wrapped well in bubble wrap to prevent any damage and comes with a small instructions sheet detailing how to put your newly acquired goodies together. Right out of the box, the presentation of everything is really well done. All of the individual components are cleanly cut, with none of my kits having any damaged parts. We're off to a good start!

All the contents are wrapped in a full sheet of bubble wrap to prevent any damage.

Here's one of the kits all laid out

For assembling all of the kits, HobbyZone recommends some wood glue, a hobby knife, wet cloth and some masking tape. This is what I had going into the assembly, and it was all I needed. Any old wood glue will do; I used some that I bought off of Amazon, and the masking tape was handy to secure components while I was waiting for everything to set. This handy tool will become your best friend while working with these kits.

Who needs the clamps - not me!

During assembly, I did, however, encounter my first and only gripe with the product - having to cut components off of their "sprues".

These small stubs were very much my nemesis during the build.

Things get very messy cleaning off all those extra bits of wood...

I appreciate that part of the experience here is getting to assemble your workstation à la flatpack furniture, and I'm particularly weird and actually enjoy that, but cutting through pieces of solid wood to remove the connecting stubs gets old very fast. I would say that I spent longer disconnecting parts from each other than I did actually glueing some of the kits. Ultimately, however, this is a minor gripe. Everything still went together wonderfully and, in several cases, had few or none of the connecting stubs present, so assembly took me 20 minutes or less. Hopefully, HobbyZone can look to remove the stubs from all of the Modular Workspace products in the future, as, for me, they really were the only issue I had while building everything.

One of the handy in-built options for these kits is magnet holes drilled into every side and a set of magnets included in the box. This gives you the ability to magnetise your entire workstation, further enhancing the modularity of the whole set up and allowing you to further expand based on future needs. All you'll need is a hammer and a good memory; getting the polarity right takes a few checks just to make sure you're not one swing away from an unfortunate mishap.

There'll be these small holes on the top, bottom and sides of each kit to insert magnets into, allowing for maximum possible orientations.

Final Thoughts

Here it is, my now fully armed and operational battle station! To say I'm happy is an understatement. I've wanted a proper hobby workspace for a while now, and this set up ticks all the boxes. Having my paints all racked up, rather than having to dig through a grubby old box, makes life much more enjoyable when painting. The storage drawers have allowed me to clean up and organise my workspace from the previous mess it seemed to perpetually exist in. I've got plenty of room still to use for all my other doodahs and thingamajigs I end up collecting. 

So now we come to the real question - would I recommend this to another hobbyist?

Yes - as long as you've got the spare cash.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that the whole set up cost me upwards of £150, so it's not exactly cheap. Including the desk, it was over £200 in total. I can confidently say that it was worth it for me. Having a clean and organised workspace is something I've desired for a while, and this system gives me all that and more. The ability to further add modules as and when I need is another big boon, as it "future proofs" the system for when I can get a bigger hobby space. 

Another advantage is how compact the whole system can be. Given how modular all the kits are, it's quite easy to stack several on top of another, even if you're only working with a tiny amount of desk space it allows you to fit a surprising amount in. 

So there, it is. My new hobby desk! I couldn't be happier with it all, and am looking forward to the many models I'll be painting on it. 

I hope this articles been useful to anyone reading and given you some ideas if you're thinking of designing your own workspace. If you'd like to follow any more of my hobby adventures feel free to check out my Instagram.

Until next time,

James