32 Desks, Vetted 32 Ways

New York Magazine’s senior art director and visuals manager, Stevie Remsberg, stocked a workstation on wheels to work from wherever (like the park on nice days). Her set up includes this lap desk from Ikea. “The laptop gets hot, so you can’t put it right on your lap,” Remsberg explains. “I needed something to sort of prop it up, and it just seemed crazy to bring a whole table. It made more sense to have my laptop on my lap. This thing works great. It has a beanbag cushion on the bottom, so it’s comfortable, too.”

When searching for affordable desks on Amazon, we found this gem: an L-shaped desk for well under $100. As you can see from the other L-shaped desk on the list, they can easily cost over $1,000, so this one, with plenty of space for storage underneath, and surface area sufficient for two monitors, is a steal.

If you’re really tight on space, you might need a desk that can completely disappear at the end of the work day. Khalea Underwood, the global editorial manager for M.A.C Cosmetics, who typically works from her couch recommends this folding table. It’s a suitable height, as compared to a coffee table and works as a “desk, table, and workstation,” she says, and can easily be tucked away at the end of the day.

If getting your steps in during the work day is important, consider a treadmill desk. “Too often we work too many hours in a day and not enough hours exercising and moving,” says chiropractor Daniel Huang of Level Up Sports Chiropractic. “A sedentary lifestyle increases your risk of cardiovascular disease, joint pain and other systemic issues that can be prevented if we just simply move.” With something like the Lifespan treadmill, you can create an “active workstation” and get the recommended 10,000 steps a day while getting your work done. You can build a desk customized to your expected activity level and choose desk widths between 38-, 48-, and 60-inches.

“I am a very minimalist person,” photographer Raquel Hendriksen says. “So having a clean and uncluttered space is relevant to my overall sanity. I do not like cords.” A clunky desk would just add to chaos, so she was happy to find this simple, all-wood desk from Dims. It has nice clean lines, and is wide enough to spread out any essentials so it doesn’t interfere with her minimalist aesthetic. She has it in the natural ash pictured, but it’s also available in ink black.

When Blakely remodeled her Los Angeles home, she installed a mid-century modern secretary desk with two drop-down shelves that create “the perfect small-space desk and bar.” Though there’s no exact replica for Blakely’s vintage piece, AllModern’s multipurpose white floating desk has two drop-down shelves and a modern look.

Obell told us the design of this desk suits her minimalist style, and the white marble desktop serves as a canvas for her to add “pops of color from desk accents like a stack of books, a cute tray shaped as red lips.” She likes that because the drawers are open-facing, they “force me to keep them tidy.” Obell also tells us it was “easy to assemble, which I appreciate as a single woman. All I had to do was screw on the legs.”

The artist tells us that in place of a desk, he prefers to use this coffee table from Ikea to work on “smaller drawings.” Brutus says he leans over it from his couch and that it “isn’t so low that it strains my back.”

Desks aren’t generally featured in concerts, except Bob Boilen’s, which is used in NPR’s “Tiny Desk Concert” videos. His L-shaped eight-by-six-foot desk sits in the network’s D.C. office and comes from Herman Miller’s Canvas Office line. Since those are only available in bulk, get this L-shaped six-by-six-foot desk from Bush Business Furniture, which comes with a wide top and looks quite similar.

Dr. Donna Housman says having a flip-top desk will help ensure children store their belongings properly, as it gives them “a special place that belongs just to them.” We particularly like this handsome-yet-unobtrusive wooden option.

For New York City–based special-education music teacher Connay Bratton, having a desk with wheels enables her to “easily transition the classroom into a better setup for my students,” who do a lot of “hands-on project-based learning in groups.”

[Editor’s Note: Bratton’s exact model is sold out, but this Alera desk is nearly identical.]

Just as most people reached the one-month mark of working from home during the coronavirus pandemic, Ashley Parker, a Pulitzer Prize–winning White House reporter for the Washington Post, took to Twitter looking for an in-stock desk. “I am losing my mind and don’t know how much longer I can work from my ‘left side of the bed’ home office,” she wrote. Parker had her eyes on this Safavieh desk, but it was sold out at the time. Not only is it back in stock, it’s on sale.

This mango-wood desk from West Elm is a classic. It’s just two inches wider than the above, but has a more modern look with no drawer pulls and metal legs. “Petite dimensions and a pleasing wood finish combined with ‘go with anything’ black metal accents make this one a great choice for a variety of more laid back décors,” says interior designer Christopher Stevens, founder of Tipper Studio. If space isn’t an issue, Stevens points out this desk comes in a few other sizes that might better suit your space.

If you prefer function over form when it comes to standing desks, both chiropractor Jan Lefkowitz and integrative pain expert Joe Tatta vouch for the Varidesk, because it can switch between standing and sitting height. Tatta explains that “substituting prolonged standing for prolonged sitting results in a greater feeling of discomfort,” so he likes that this three-plane desk “accommodates a variety of body types and postures.”

[Editor’s Note: This is currently sold out, but you can join the waitlist.]

According to writers and editors at Curbed, another desk solution for small spaces is this wall-mounted Elfa pick, which includes three shelves. “Transform a small nook from wasted space to functional desk with this set that uses only one piece of track mounted to the wall,” explain the writers. Plus, on the Container Store’s website, the desk gets dozens of five-star reviews (with none under four stars), including one Manhattan-based customer who calls the purchase their “best decision ever,” adding that they can now study in their studio apartment instead of going to a cafe with enough space.

Real-estate developers and mechanical engineers praise the minimalist look and sturdy construction of this Zinus Soho desk, which is the best-rated home-office desk and writing desk on Amazon. The rectangular desk is two feet deep and ranges from 47 to 63 inches long, providing what one reviewer describes as a “huge work space so I can spread everything out, and my desk-chair arms fit underneath without getting stuck so I can roll around freely.” The under-$200, flat-pack desk is from Zinus’s readily available Modern Studio Collection, which also includes these well-reviewed bed frames and mattresses that have been tested (and approved) by Strategist writers and comedians, so we expect it’ll last.

Writer Kayla Levy had been a fan of this Reader Desk from local design company Akron Street for a while (she’d been seeing it on her Instagram for months), but its $595 price tag was a tad too high. She wasn’t the only one: Enough other people have their eye on the Reader (Strategist writer Lauren Ro, included) that it’s back-ordered until the fall of 2020. So she tried to find an in-stock dupe: “Direct-to-consumer furniture brand Inside Weather makes an extremely similar-looking, now on sale desk called the Jorn, which comes complete with an open drawer and back ledge,” she says. “When it’s not on sale, though, it’s more expensive than the Reader itself. Blu Dot’s modern-looking Stash Desk is a close second, but it might take a couple of weeks to ship.”

With over 2,000 reviews and an average rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars on Fully, a direct-to-consumer furniture company, thousands of customers appreciate this sustainably built, customizable standing desk for its sleek look and expert-approved ergonomic setup. “It is beautiful, extremely sturdy, and easy to move up and down,” says one grad student, who found the desk to be better for her back pain than biweekly visits to the chiropractor. Plus, four staffers at the Verge recommend the desk for working from home, including Nick Statt, who calls the Jarvis “far and away my best work-from-home purchase in years.” At just under $600, Statt adds that the desk is “rather pricey by desk standards, but cheap by standing desk standards,” especially for one that “looks great.”

According to our data, this well-reviewed standing desk is the most-purchased desk by Strategist readers over the last 30 days. Similar to the Jarvis, it has a sleek wood-and-white design and an electric lift system, which one five-star Amazon reviewer says rises and lifts quickly and according to your height. “Never knew I needed an electric height adjustable desk until I got this one,” they add.

When we explored the workspaces of creative and productive people, Emma Mcilroy, the CEO of Portland-based feminist clothing line Wildfang, says she gets the most work done at her West Elm Jensen Desk. “It’s kind of mid-century-inspired because I’m really into that era,” she says of the desk, which has a wooden A-frame base and sleek glass surface.

“For anyone (everyone?) trying to shoehorn a work-from-home situation into an already-full home, a corner desk will work wonders,” says lifestyle journalist and author of The Little Book of Living Small, Laura Fenton. This triangular Andover Mills desk has over 1,500 five-star reviewers on Wayfair, who vouch for its small but functional storage spaces. “The desktop is spacious enough to accommodate my two full-size computer monitors,” says one reviewer, and another adds, “I love the little shelves underneath to tuck away our small printer and books.”

When Strategist writer (and our resident home-design expert) Lauren Ro isn’t writing at her vintage desk, she works from bed or the couch with this lap desk. “I wanted something that was sturdy and also looked nice, so I opted for this bamboo one with cutouts that help keep your laptop cool,” she says, adding “it also has a ton of neat features, like adjustable legs and a tabletop that can be tilted to a range of angles.” Much like Liz Carey’s lap desk (turned Fruit Loops-in-bed tray), Ro imagines that her bamboo desk would double as a great breakfast-in-bed tray. Strategist writer Tembe Denton Hurst also stands by her slightly less-expensive laptop tray, which has a convenient mini shelf and is big enough for a 17-inch laptop.

[Editor’s Note: Ro’s pick is sold out, but this one is extremely similar.]