Desks Styles: Part 3

Over the past couple of month, we have been looking at different styles of desks, ranging from hundreds of years old to newer styles. So far we have looked at the first ten styles on our list, and will finish looking at the last five today, starting with the Pedestal desk.

• Early desks


• Secretary


• Slant top desk


• Fall front desk


• Wooton desk


• Bargueno desk


• Trestle desk


• Bureau a gradin


• Rolltop desk


• Armoire


• Pedestal desk


• Student desks


• Steel desk


• Corner desk


• Computer desks

The pedestal desk has been around for a few hundred years, and is a style that has persevered. It is a basic flat surface set on top of two "pedestals" or small sets of drawers, with a single, central drawer in the open space between the two sets, above the users legs. These desks were often quite large. In the mid-18th century, the top was often inlaid with a large panel of leather for a more comfortable writing surface. In the 19th century, the addition of a "modesty panel" was added to the front of many desks so the user's legs could not be seen. Today, many of the larger, fancier desks of this style are called executive desks.

Student desks broad definition would be any desk that was designed to be used by a student, but originally is was similar to a small pedestal or writing desk that teenagers would use in their room at home before the advent of the computer. It is much smaller than the traditional pedestal desk, having only one pedestal of drawers on one side and regular legs on the other. So you can have left-pedestal or right-pedestal student desk.

Another style of student desks were single seated desks with attached chairs as found in school rooms. Styles would vary from lift desk tops and small pedestal desks to store school supplies, to just a writing surface of varying sizes.

Steel desks can obviously be any desk made of steel, but when I think of these, I think of the big, heavy bad boys that used to be in every government office that I saw when I would visit my Dad at work. Later, these would come into our used furniture store, and I hated them! They were big, heavy and a pain to move! Basically, they were large pedestal desks made of steel and they seem to last forever.

Corner desks have been around just since the 20th century, and as the name implies, is a desk that is designed to fit in the corner. Some are really basic, others have corner hutches on top, some are just a desk and others have side extensions to create a larger work surface. The style mostly seen today is designed for computers; also, some form of the corner desk evolved into cubicle desks in large work areas for a lot of people.

Computer desks have obviously only been around for a couple of decades. They come in a variety of styles, with hutches, shelves and drawers etc. But they are designed for the modern world and computer use. They have pull out lower drawers for a keyboard and mouse, and sometimes a small half shelf on top of the desk for the monitor, or a lower shelf for a CPU. You can find computer desks made of wood, metal, press boards or a combination of materials. The small adjustments made for the computer make them more convenient than older style desks for modern day work.

This is the end of a look at different desks for now, but one thing I discovered while looking around, is that there are more styles out there than named above. The most important thing I can say about a desk, is most everyone needs a good one, so choose a desk that suits your personality and your needs.