Desks

When an L Shape Earns Its Corner

An L shaped desk is usually compared against a straight one on surface area, which is the wrong comparison. The real cost is that it claims a corner and blocks two walls at once, so the shelving, the radiator or the window that used to be usable is now behind furniture. An L pays for itself when two things are open at the same time all day, and costs more than it gives when the second plane just collects paper. In a room that has to do something else in the evening, a straight desk against one wall leaves the corner free for everything else.

Desks With Drawers, and What They Cost

A drawer built directly under the top takes legroom from exactly the place your thighs need it, and it lifts the working surface by however thick the drawer box is. A pedestal standing beside the desk does the same job and takes nothing. If you are tall or you cross your legs while working, choose storage that sits beside the desk rather than under the top of it. A hutch is the opposite trade and a good one: it adds storage in the vertical space nobody was using.

Assembling It Once and Moving It Later

Flat pack desks are designed to be built once. Cam locks and threaded inserts hold well the first time and hold noticeably less the second, which is why a desk that survives a move is usually one whose top is a single piece bolted to a metal frame rather than a panel joined to other panels. If you rent or expect to move within a couple of years, a folding desk or a steel framed one will arrive at the next address in the same condition it left this one. Keep the hardware bag taped underneath, because the replacement parts are the hardest thing to source years later.

The chair is the one piece in the room in constant contact with you, and it sits with the rest of the Seating. For the filing and paperwork that ends up beside a desk rather than on it, see Dressers & Storage.