How to Set Up a Home Office and Sim Racing Space in One Room

Quick answer

Decide first whether the rig or the desk is your permanent anchor. If the room is small, keep a fixed desk for work and put the sim rig on a wheel stand or a compact cockpit that rolls or folds away; if you have more floor space, run one shared display and swap the seat between work and racing. Either way, plan power, cable routing and monitor height before you buy anything.

Most people try to build a home office sim racing setup by buying the rig first and finding space for the desk afterwards. That order almost always produces a room where the chair hits the wheel base, the monitor is too high for work and too far for racing, and every cable is a trip hazard.

This guide runs the process in the order that actually works: decide the anchor, measure, sort power and data, set monitor height, then add the parts that make the two roles coexist. It is written for a spare bedroom or corner office where the same square metres have to do two jobs.

Choose which setup owns the room

There are three workable arrangements. A fixed desk with a separate wheel stand or compact cockpit is the easiest to live with because neither role compromises the other. A single shared surface, where the wheel base clamps to the desk and comes off after work, costs the least space but demands a rigid desk and quick-release hardware. A full cockpit with a small desk tucked beside it suits a larger room and gives the best driving position.

Pick one before you measure anything. Mixing arrangements halfway through is what produces a room that does neither job well.

• If you work on calls, keep the desk as the fixed anchor and treat the rig as the movable item.
• If you race more than you work, invert that and put the desk on castors instead.

Measure floor space, seat travel and door swing

Mark the footprint of the desk, the chair at full slide-back, and the rig including pedal travel. A cockpit needs clearance behind the seat for reclining and in front of the pedals for your heels, so the usable footprint is usually larger than the frame itself. Leave at least a door's width of clear floor to the room entrance.

Check the diagonal too. A rig that fits along one wall may not fit once you rotate it to face a shared monitor.

• Measure with the chair pushed back, not tucked in.
• Photograph the empty room with a tape measure in shot so you can check dimensions while shopping.

Sort power and data before furniture

Count every plug: PC, monitor, wheel base, pedals, USB hub, desk lamp, phone charger. A sim rig alone can add three or four devices. Put a surge-protected strip under the desk and a second one at the rig so you are not running extension leads across the walking route.

Run network and USB cables along skirting boards or inside trunking, and leave a service loop at each end so you can move the rig without unplugging everything.

• Label both ends of every cable while the room is still empty.
• Keep power and signal cables separated where they run parallel to reduce interference.

Set one monitor height that works for both roles

For desk work, the top of the screen should sit near eye level with the monitor roughly an arm's length away. For racing, you want the screen closer and lower, with the horizon near your eyeline. These two positions are close enough to share if you use an adjustable arm rather than a fixed stand.

A gas-sprung monitor arm lets you pull the screen forward and down for a stint, then push it back for work without unbolting anything. Check the arm's weight and size rating against your monitor before buying.

• Mark your two preferred positions on the desk edge with tape so you can return to them quickly.
• If you race on a triple setup, treat the centre screen as the work monitor and angle the outer two away when not in use.

Make the rig quick to switch in and out

The friction of setup is what kills a dual purpose sim rig. Anything that takes more than a minute to stow will stop being used on weeknights. Quick-release wheel hubs, a wheel stand that folds, or a cockpit on locking castors all reduce that friction.

Store the wheel, pedals and cables in one place so switching roles is a single trip, not a hunt through the room.

• Use locking castors rather than plain ones so the rig does not creep under braking.
• Keep a dedicated box or drawer for the wheel and cables so the desk stays clear.

Keep the desk ergonomic and the rig comfortable

Do not sacrifice your working posture to the racing position. Desk height, chair height and keyboard position should follow normal ergonomic rules, and the rig should be adjusted separately to suit your arms and legs. Sharing one chair between both roles rarely works because the two positions need different heights and angles.

If you do share a seat, choose one with adjustable height and a firm, flat base, and accept that you will adjust it twice a day.

• Set the desk up first, then adjust the rig around it.
• Check that your knees clear the desk underside when you swivel between the two positions.

Control light, sound and heat in a shared room

A room that hosts calls and long stints needs lighting you can change. A bias light behind the monitor reduces eye strain at night and doubles as fill light for video calls. If you use speakers or a subwoofer, isolate them from the desk and rig so vibration does not rattle the other setup.

Ventilation matters more than people expect. A closed door plus a PC and a load cell pedal session warms a small room quickly, so plan a fan or keep the door ajar when racing.

• Use a dimmable or colour-tunable light so the room suits both work and racing.
• Put a mat under the rig to protect the floor and damp vibration.

The seven-step setup order

1. 1. Pick the anchor: Decide whether the desk or the rig stays fixed, and which one moves. Write it down so you do not drift mid-build. Checkpoint: if you cannot answer which one moves, you are not ready to buy furniture.
2. 2. Measure the real footprint: Record desk size, chair slide-back, rig frame plus pedal and recline clearance, and door swing on a simple floor plan. Common mistake: measuring the rig frame only and forgetting the space your heels and head need.
3. 3. Plan power and data: Place two surge-protected strips, one at the desk and one at the rig, and route cables in trunking or along skirting with a service loop at each end. Checkpoint: no cable should cross a walking route.
4. 4. Set the shared monitor position: Use an adjustable arm so the screen can move between a work position and a racing position, and mark both on the desk. Common mistake: a fixed stand that forces one role into a bad viewing angle.
5. 5. Build the desk ergonomics first: Set desk and chair height for work, then adjust the rig seat, wheel and pedals around it. Checkpoint: your working posture should not change because of the rig.
6. 6. Make switching fast: Add quick-release hardware, folding or locking castors, and one storage box for the wheel and cables. Common mistake: a switch that takes five minutes, which means you stop racing on weeknights.
7. 7. Tune light, sound and airflow: Add dimmable lighting, isolate speakers, and keep the room ventilated during long stints. Checkpoint: the room should feel like an office at 9am and a sim room at 9pm.

Parts that help a shared room work

• AXIS Mono Lift Monitor Arm: Supports monitors up to 9 kg and 32 inches with full omnidirectional movement and a gas-sprung lift. One arm can serve both roles: pull the screen forward and down for racing, push it back and up for desk work, without a second monitor.
• MOZA RACING CRP2 Inversion Kit: Turns MOZA CRP2 Load Cell Pedals into an inverted setup with an adjustable 20° angle and customizable pedal spacing, built from aluminium alloy. Inverted pedals often sit lower and further forward, which can free up space under a shared desk and give a more car-like pedal feel.
• CHASE Alcantara Cushion Set: Direct replacement cushions for the GT Omega CHASE bucket seat, wrapped in Alcantara and designed as a direct swap for the original plain fabric cushions. If the rig seat doubles as a spare chair in a shared room, refreshing worn cushions restores support and finish without replacing the whole seat.

A home office sim racing setup works when you decide the anchor first, measure honestly, and spend your budget on the parts that make switching easy. Get the monitor arm, power and cable routing right, and the rest of the room will follow.