In search of the perfect computer desk

by garth on January 4, 2007

G'day! Welcome to my blog. I only post intermittently. If you'd like to keep track of what I'm doing, please consider subscribing to my RSS feed. You can also follow me on Twitter (1-20 short posts a day) and Tumblr (a few found objects per month).

I need a desk with:

  • A gutter up the back for cables;

  • Enough width for my two monitors;

  • Enough room underneath for two computers and a subwoofer; and

  • Hopefully some magic shelfy thing for the printers, etc.

I'm about to head to Ikea.

I dread Ikea.

If anyone has any better ideas, I'd love to hear them.

{ 13 comments }

PMB 01.04.07 at 8:18 pm

Two possibilities:

- Take a look at places that do refurbished second hand office furniture. I actually scored a pretty good L-shaped desk (which is three different modules) this way.

- Talk to someone about custom building it. Then you can get it made exactly to spec. Generally speaking, the thing that ends up incurring the most cost is the material it’s made from (eg. Tasmanian Oak certainly incurs a cost!)

João Marcus 01.04.07 at 9:19 pm

You forgot the most important feature of the perfect computer desk:
* A builtin coffee maker

Alastair 01.05.07 at 7:43 am

My problem with Ikea desks (ie the Galant or the hilariously named Jerker) are the fact that they are not the right width for my space. I have just over 180cm available for a desk and Ikea don’t seem to make a desk in that width. Also they tend to be just too deep, possibly as a result of being designed when CRTs were popular.

I don’t have a good suggestion for you except to go down to Bunnings and get a $50 fold-up table. It’s the right height, width and depth for me. And once I’ve trained myself to stop banging my knees on the supports I’ll be happpy with it.

David Mackie 01.05.07 at 9:31 pm

http://www.ericharshbarger.org/lego/desk.html there you go see if you can get the powers that be to spring for one

Good to see you can buy a S500 through Lan1 in AU now very cool.

scaba 01.06.07 at 10:47 am

I’m a big fan of the Galant from Ikea. You can buy a cable gutter and keyboard tray from there, too. It’s a big desk, but it easily fits a 21″ CRT monitor, a docking station and 17″ LCD, a scanner and a few other random things, plus you can buy extensions for it.

garth 01.06.07 at 10:12 pm

Funny you should mention it, Alastair: I just put my Jerker outside. :) The problem was that it was too big, leaving lots of places to stack stuff and hide it under more stuff. The new one, a yellow lozenge shape, is much smaller. Even it might be a little too big; I’d like to put the filing cabinet next to the desk. Pant; wheeze.

An associated someday-maybe project: wall mounting some kind of cable organiser. Oh, and some shelves. Lots of shelves. Oooh, do I need shelves…

Wealthy Webmaster 01.13.07 at 8:13 pm

Personally I really really like my Jerker from IKEA. The CPU attachment for it is worthless but the shelves are nice. I have 4 of the shelves and 2 19″ lcds on it with plenty of space to spare. 2 of the shelves house my speakers and another has my laser printer. The 4th one currently contains a pile of junk. It might not be the best choice if your room is small though.

Dave 02.23.07 at 4:58 am

Dood check out http://www.milk.dk – I cannot WAIT for this desk to arrive in the US.

Na, it’s not big on the “shelves” thing, but it’s still so damned sweet.

garth 02.28.07 at 12:32 pm

Okay. I want one. Wow.

elementary desks 01.18.08 at 7:18 pm

I have always regretted IKEA. The idea is good, the design, sensible. But the build quality is poor. The best thing is the restaurant – cheap and cheerful. The desks I have had have always let me down in one way or another (I have not tried the most expensive in the range).

Susan 09.10.08 at 4:55 am

what………………..you’ve missed the beer fridge!

Gwendolyn Choo 01.19.09 at 12:05 pm

Personally I really really like my Jerker from IKEA. The CPU attachment for it is worthless but the shelves are nice. I have 4 of the shelves and 2 19″ lcds on it with plenty of space to spare. 2 of the shelves house my speakers and another has my laser printer. The 4th one currently contains a pile of junk. It might not be the best choice if your room is small though.

You forgot the most important feature of the perfect computer desk:

nice blog

Regards
Gwen

[URL removed – Ed]

Gwendolyn Choo 01.19.09 at 3:47 pm

Take a look at places that do refurbished second hand office furniture. I actually scored a pretty good L-shaped desk (which is three different modules) this way.

nice blog

Regards
Gwen

[URL removed – Ed]

Comments on this entry are closed.