A PC disguised as a desk isn’t new. You can build one thanks to the Lian Li DK-07X and the UNEVN BASE. Someone even DIY-ed one that looked completely like an ordinary table. This “someone” is Matthew Perks of the YouTube channel DIY Perks, who has taken going incognito to the next level by disguising a PC as a large picture frame.
That’s right. The art piece you are looking at is a full-fledged PC setup, complete with a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and tabletop. Who knew this was even possible? In recent years, some TV manufacturers have been trying to pass off TVs as art, but DIY Perks has made that endeavor look like child’s play.
When closed, the creation hangs on the wall as a framed landscape painting. Fold the artwork down, however, and its rear becomes a tabletop, revealing an LG ultrawide monitor, wireless keyboard, and wireless mouse neatly recessed into an MDF wall panel behind it.
The computer itself uses a secondhand laptop motherboard mounted within the panel. Matthew added custom cooling and reused the board’s existing power button before installing Linux Mint. A Framework motherboard would have made the job easier, he admits, but that probably would not have been nearly as satisfying.
Of course, a disappearing PC would be somewhat ruined by a power cable dangling down the wall. To solve that, Matthew ran power through two wide copper strips extending upward from the floor. The strips were insulated, covered, and painted over, leaving the entire setup looking suspiciously cable-free.
As for the artwork, Matthew painted the landscape himself in a slightly Bob Ross-inspired session involving mountains, a river, trees, and a tiny train. It is certainly more peaceful than the usual glass box filled with RGB lighting.
When work is over, the tabletop folds back against the wall, the computer vanishes, and the room returns to looking like nobody has ever argued with Linux in it. You may check out the entire build process in DIY Perks’ Building a NEW Kind of Invisible PC video.
Images: YouTube (DIY Perks).
