I Want To Buy A Nice Writing Desk - What To Consider?

[lionheartlee]

This thread is pushing me towards a secretary style desk. my struggle is finding one that will fit into the Small opening leading to my future writing room. As of now it is a large crawl space.

[Shangas]

Shove it in sideways.

[lionheartlee]

I'll have to get the exact measurements of the door tomorrow and a few pre construction pics for ya

[DrCodfish]

An issue not yet mentioned with the drop front bureau is the lack of leg room. I am a lefty over writer so I tend to drape my body over the desk top when I am writing. So the writing surface needs to be very solid, (expansive is also nice) and because I am so much into, or onto the writing surface, I always need more leg room than those things offer. To be honest, I see these more as a storage vehicle with an occasional writing surface than as a writers desk. Two book cases with a writers desk (like you got from Ikea) in between will meet your storage needs and make a great space dedicated to the act of writing.

[domnortheast]

I have the drop front bureau below. It is spit ugly, tall, narrow and dark brown & from the 1960s / 70s I think, it was given to me by a customer who was moving house and who no longer required it.

 

That was about 10 years ago and there's barely been a week gone by when I haven't thought, "I really should get rid of that and find something nicer looking". In the meantime though it has been been perfectly usable, the writing surface is the correct height and is firm with a very slight downward slope, the draws and slots are perfect for stationery (as they were designed to be), the case on top takes books, maps and a pile of junk. So really, I can't fault it. I just wish it was a nice Edwardian light oak drop front bureau that's all, wider and without the over-tall case top.

 

[sidthecat]

I wonder if you've thought about the slant of your desk? I've used drawing desks for years and it can be a great advantage to be able to control the tilt of your writing surface.

[inkstainedruth]

I can remember when I commented that I hoped to have a roll top desk someday my Mother saying that I had better enjoy it with the "top

open" as she had never seen many that continued to operate without issue. The older ones actually were glued or affixed someway to cloth strips that were certainly designed for less than optimum longevity. I have seen (probably later) ones that consisted of metal bands that held the wood strips. But I still remember her caution. (I also had a retractable hardtop car when I was a teenager & original owner said she hadn't lowered the top in years & wouldn't recommend me doing so. I took it to the service department of our Ford dealer & got "set straight" in short order! The manager said they were trouble from the beginning & that was the reason they were only made a few years. IF I was foolish enough to try my luck I should remember HE wouldn't help me & would only say: "TOLD YOU SO!" I never did get my courage up to try it & happily said good bye to it after a year.) I suspect some new owners of roll top desks might become equally frustrated.

Ironically, we have a couple of kitchen cabinets like that. The morons who designed our new kitchen assumed we'd have a normal stove/rangetop, needing a normal sized hood. But instead we ended up with a large semi-pro sized 6 burner unit (big enough that if we needed to, we could have several 4 gallon pots heating up the same time). So we needed a big honking semi-pro sized hood. And they failed to take the size of the hood into consideration (the range top and hood are angled into a corner of the kitchen). As a result, we couldn't open the upper cabinet to the left of the hood more than about an inch (!) and the right side one (which fortunately is a 2 door unit) we could only open the left side about 4-5". The guy actually stood in my kitchen and said "Well, that should be okay for you, right?" (Um, no, Rich, really not so much....) So the next option was tambour doors (i.e., rolltops). And Rich and one of his partners stood there in my kitchen and argued with each other for something like 20 minutes over whether or not tambour doors would break. And then installed them.

And guess what. They broke almost immediately. And the double cabinet one is now duck-taped in place at the top.... And neither cabinet now closes at ALL, which is not what my husband wanted (he didn't even want glass-front doors on anything, which I thought would have looked nicer).

At least those two cabinets now contain stuff like spices and other ingredients, rather than being used for storage for stuff like pots and pans.

Lessons learned from the experience:

1) Tambour doors don't work. Period.

2) Vet your contractor. A lot.

3) And even if you follow #2, make sure to hold back a sizable payment for completion (we did 10% with these bozos. If we had done, say 30% they might have taken less than a year, and been less blasé about issues like the cabinets. And the other things that were screwed up. Some of which were never fixed....

Oh yeah, and when the guy called to ask when they were getting that last 10%, and my husband said "When are you going to come back to fix X Y and Z problems?" and got told "Oh, you don't understand scheduling...." he got really torqued. And said "So, Rich -- do you have any published papers do YOU have on the topic of scheduling? I do...." [He only has one published paper to his credit, and is not principal author - but it IS on optimized scheduling....]

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Lou Erickson]

I just got a new desk ... from IKEA. It, on its own, has no storage. (It's their current professional desk, BEKANT, with the sit/stand legs.)

 

The solution to this is freestanding drawers. A two drawer filing cabinet or a one-file-drawer-two-desk-drawer cabinet. Goes under the desk and gives you storage.

 

My problem is that the desk is mostly consumed with the three monitors and two PCs and associated cables that go with them. Trying to find a way to tidy all that up a little. I think the KVM switch and cables are going to wind up under one of the monitors.

[MikeGB]

I don't have a practical experience with those, but number 2 and 3 are my favourites.

 

I like the idea of a desk exclusively for writing, but number 3 I could quite happily see(although a larger version) using as a normal desk in an office.

[Shangas]

I wonder if you've thought about the slant of your desk? I've used drawing desks for years and it can be a great advantage to be able to control the tilt of your writing surface.

 

When I was a kid, I actually had an old drawing board as a desk which you could alter the angle on. But that was the only good thing about it. I don't miss it, I can assure you of that!!

[Runnin_Ute]

I have a pedestal style desk that belonged to my grandpa and was used in his plumbing & heating business. A little smallish, but it works. The writing surface is only 22" deep and 44" wide. I have a glass top on it. It is large enough for my laptop, but if I had an additional monitor and keyboard space would be at a premium very quickly. The most frustrating thing about its size is the knee hole is only 18" wide. Currently using a kitchen chair as it is the narrowest I have and won't tuck under the desk.

 

The picture is crappy because the lighting in the room isn't very good. (cell phone photo)

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/af283/Runnin_Ute/Mobile%20Uploads/2015-01/20150119_123405_zpsdsxinpfa.jpg

[john74]

My actual desk is in a tight space and I can't get all of it on a single photo, but it looks a lot like this one:

 

 

I works fine for me, but it does not have the largest writing surface and knee space could be problematic depending on your body size and position. The writing surface is at the ideal height for me however. This is my writing desk only, I have a separate computer desk that looks like a simple table with a single keyboard drawer in the center. But that desk is too high for comfortable writing (I find myself slumping over it) and it has zero storage for pens, ink, paper, etc... I have some storage nearby for those things, but I really don't want to get up every time I need to get some supplies.

[DrCodfish]

My actual desk is in a tight space and I can't get all of it on a single photo, but it looks a lot like this one:

 

 

I works fine for me, but it does not have the largest writing surface and knee space could be problematic depending on your body size and position. The writing surface is at the ideal height for me however. This is my writing desk only, I have a separate computer desk that looks like a simple table with a single keyboard drawer in the center. But that desk is too high for comfortable writing (I find myself slumping over it) and it has zero storage for pens, ink, paper, etc... I have some storage nearby for those things, but I really don't want to get up every time I need to get some supplies.

 

 

That's a nice looking piece of antique furniture. The most important part of your post is "I works fine for me," however the next part " but it does not have the largest writing surface and knee space could be problematic depending on your body size and position" is the absolute first thing that came to my mind upon seeing the photo. I could no more write at that 'writing space' than I could write in a phone booth. A very nice piece of furniture, but not a writing desk to my mind.

[Shangas]

It looks beautiful, but as a practical, long-term, everyday writing desk, it looks hardly sufficient. Great storage, though.

 

The hunt continues.

[inkstainedruth]

 

 

That's a nice looking piece of antique furniture. The most important part of your post is "I works fine for me," however the next part " but it does not have the largest writing surface and knee space could be problematic depending on your body size and position" is the absolute first thing that came to my mind upon seeing the photo. I could no more write at that 'writing space' than I could write in a phone booth. A very nice piece of furniture, but not a writing desk to my mind.

That was a consideration for me as well, which is why I ended up not getting a small hutch with a drop-down. I had seen a fairly nice smallish one, in an antiques store in south-central PA, that probably wasn't too expensive for what it was. But it had Colonial style hardware (not my favorite). And it was painted bright blue, with white stenciled decorations. While I liked the color, I wasn't sure I could live with it long term. Especially since I tend to like stuff that's a little less florid.

Saw an Eastlake desk in a antiques mall near me, but it seemed really kinda rickety on second inspection (i.e., with the husband in tow). I'm still a little sad about the side-by-side we'd seen earlier in the day, but it was really just too small overall, and at $600 was really not affordable (the blue Colonial style one was ,by comparison, roughly half that price.

Someday I'd like to replace the one I ended up with with a nicer one, but I still did okay for the price.... And price is almost always a consideration. After all -- I'd rather buy a $40 desk and a $130 bookshelf; and still have spare disposable income for pens and ink....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[lionheartlee]

This is the desk I bought after being inspired by this thread.

Edited April 9, 2015 by lionheartlee

[inkstainedruth]

Wow, that's a pretty nice one. I see that it even has the pull out supports for the dropleaf top. Having some storage is also a plus.

Wish I had seen something similar when I was looking last fall.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[lionheartlee]

What sold me was the hidden compartment, just waiting to be filled with paper.

 

Unfortunately It didnt have a key to the lock.

[my63]

It looks beautiful, but as a practical, long-term, everyday writing desk, it looks hardly sufficient. Great storage, though.

 

The hunt continues.

Why not go back to the roll top desk option the Tambour (roller mechanism) can be repaired easily it is quite a simple mechanism

 

We might have to teach lionheartlee how to make a key

[webgeckos]

This is my secretary for writing:

 

http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm186/webgecko1webgeckos/20d339a1-5fea-4d0a-ac45-7c414623fa37_zpsxk2cekoa.jpg

 

Inside

 

http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm186/webgecko1webgeckos/2a7010a8-5878-4a83-aaa2-c3771163e32c_zpshviomhqw.jpg

 

Also has one shallow and two tall drawers.