Desk ideas

[leen...]

Hi All,

With a future now of working from home, we have decided to renovate our study. The current iteration of the design has some painted units along the back wall and a large desk on the opposite wall (has the entrance door to one side and rest the desk). The units we are looking to make them look like a piece of purpose built furniture and keen to also make the desk look more interesting/ like a piece of furniture rather than a piece of worktop/ board with 4 legs etc. Both I am informed I am going to be making :)

We are flexible on a modern vs traditional design and some ideas we have had are

1. Something that is say 900m one end narrowing down to say 400mm (2m long) and at the 400m end (where the door is) some shelves to form the leg.
2. A piece of timber which has the bark/ ragged edge still on for the front edge
3. Glass (although not particularly keen)

Anyone come across some more interesting designs/ materials used?

Thanks in advance

Lee.

[nightjar]

I got my computer desk from a company called 21st Century Antiques; a Winchester business that didn't actually make it into the 21st Century. It is in the style of a Victorian kneehole writing desk, similar to this:

but finished in English yew veneer. What appears to be three drawers in the left pedestal is a cupboard to hold the computer and a printer. The centre drawer front fold down and a keyboard platform slides out. That has another platform underneath, which slides out to the side for the mouse mat. Two brass plates at the back of the desk top allow cables to come up to the monitor.

[Andrew]

I use an old fire door that came out of Boots Brighton refurb, slightly reduced in width and length that sits on battens at each end screwed to opposite walls of my little 3rd bedroom, up against the window wall.

Rubbed down and polished with button polish it looks OK. The edges are fully finished with the same hardwood as the faces so all I had to do was use an offcut to infill where the hinges were.

Being a fire door it takes my weight if I need to clean the window and allows moveable storage arrangements underneath.

[Andy Burns]

I used 40mmx3mx1m butcher block, it's supported on battens around four walls, similarly it'll take my weight, the plastic drawer units left and right underneath can be pulled out.

[Tim Lamb]

Nice!

Any sources for *slot in* file drawers?

The entire desk offering on the Viking site has just been rejected by my wife who has opted for me to make! a matching larger version of her nested Oak tables. The files are to be fitted in the boxed off alcove next to her dormer window. Shelving I can do.

[Andrew]

Nice.

I have a similar arrangement where the old fire door is under the window at a slightly higher desk height than normal about 80cms and is 70cms wide, then a cut down 'egg box' sapele door, about 75cms wide by 160 cms long is sitting on battens on the opposite wall and hangs under the fire door which it uses to support its 'window' end. The egg box 'desk' is surprisingly strong, though I haven't tested it with my weight, and don't intend to. Being sapele it has finished edges unlike egg box doors intended to be painted. It came out well with button polish and plenty of elbow grease.

Both doors were skip-dives, so quite econonomical other than time, fittings and rubbing down, fettling and finishing.

All the timber sections in yours go the same way which means the bit under the window is potentially weaker. Is there something below to support it ?. Is this solid wood or does it have a strong chipboard core or some sort of laminated construction ?

[Andy Burns]

No, I did look for something that could be slung below the desk, but ended up a single-width and a double-width version of these, all in smokey black plastic and removed the castors.

[Andrew]

That should say the adjacent (party) wall, so the two form an L shaped desk

[Andy Burns]

Just a batten all around the edges.

There's a join between two sections roughly where the back of the chair hides the desk, it has 5 lengths of 15mm oak dowel in it.

solid oak, finger jointed (breakfast bar stuff).

Really should tidy up all that wiring, it keeps growing, originally I fitted some ikea suspended cable baskets under the desk, and it all emerged to the top through desk grommets, then I removed them and they never made it back yet.

[Martin Brown]

Mine was a former corporate office desk in near perfect condition that work was throwing out to replace with modern stylish furniture (which fell apart inside ten years). Buyer collects. That was 4 decades ago.

Mine is 1.6m x 1m. I'd skip the modesty screen on the back if I was making it from scratch and knew it would be against a wall. Another option to consider is a hinged gateleg table type arrangement that lies flat against the wall with its legs hidden when not in use. That way you can get your spare bedroom back when visitors are allowed again.

TBH it is worth having a look in Ikea or similar once that is allowed.

Mahogany (or these days hardwood imitation) faced ply looks nice. Don't underestimate the amount of real estate you need for printers and scanners. Mine has drawers either side of the working space and pull out trays for paper clips and stationary to sit in. Only thing wrong with it is that it is steel frame and very heavy so it doesn't get moved much.

Word of advice. Make the front edge smooth and comfortable to rest your arms on. Bark sounds nice and rustic until you catch your hand on it.

3mm rounded edges are about right if you intend to work at it a lot.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Does it matter unless you are recreating a virtual board room or something? Brian

[leen...]

Thanks very much all for your suggestions.

[newshound]

I picked mine up for (IIRC) a tenner from a closing down office in Bristol in the 1970's that dated from the time of Dickens. It was designed as a two person desk, it is 5'6 wide and 4' deep. Three pieces: two pedestals with cupboards one end, drawers the other. Simple flat top. Probably inter-war. Room for a tower desktop, two A4 printers, HP server, NAS drive, Konica Dimage scanner (which sits on top of the HK bass unit), Canon flatbed scanner sitting on top of the tower. Two monitors (23" and 25") on swivel stand, mounted on a riser that I can slide an unused laptop or full sized keyboard under.

I routinely use it with the desktop and two laptops "open", using bluetooth keyboards and mice for the laptops and usually displaying one of them on the second screen. That still leaves room for a couple of open A4 files on the desk.