Wayne's retro-minimal desk setup — Hangzhou
In their own words
My desk style is retro-minimal. I built the desk myself, choosing marine plywood as the main material; with a brown wipe-stain finish it takes on a retro, artistic feel. The riser shelf is black walnut, echoing the color of the desktop. The Mac mini dock is a Macintosh-style design, which strengthens the retro mood a bit more. Beyond that, I chose simpler styles for the desk mat, keyboard, and tray, hoping to pull the look back toward a tech feel. A desk setup represents a person's taste and interests — I hope people don't all copy one another, but put together something with their own character.
— waynetranslated
Observation notes
Wayne, a designer and photographer from Hangzhou, built his desk entirely by hand — ocean board planks, hand-stained brown for a weathered vintage depth, then anchored by a black walnut riser and a Macintosh-era inspired dock that deepens the retro signal. The rest of the surface pulls deliberately in the other direction: carbon fiber mat, sparse keyboard, minimal objects. His take is straightforward: a setup reflects taste, not a template — so he engineered the tension between vintage and precision rather than picking one.
Hexcal cable management runs underneath — the one invisible layer that keeps the handbuilt surface exactly as intended.
Gear list
15 items- Desk
- Custom DIY (ocean board, brown stain finish)
- Monitor arm
- Huixiang K-series (opens in new tab)
- Monitor light
- BenQ Screenbar Pro (opens in new tab)
- Keyboard
- Cherry K5V2 (opens in new tab)
- Desk riser
- TOD black walnut (opens in new tab)
- Laptop stand
- Twelve South (opens in new tab)
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