Built-in Desk Suggestions?

For an established customer, I need to design and build a built-in computer desk for this room: http://home.kc.rr.com/plumb/cooper_office.htm

The door to the right goes to a hallway. The windows are at the bottom of the plan view and view northward. There will be shelves on the left and on the back (of the 3D view). It should have one file drawer. The style should be functional/modern. The surfaces will be white.

Does anybody have any ideas or suggestions? What's a good source of modular components, such as the file drawer and the other cabinet

I would rotate the desk 90 degrees and have it in the middle of the room, probably 6 to 12' from the south wall. I would sit facing the hallway door. Light from the window shouldn't give glare problems.

Having the back of the computer & monitor easily accessable makes it much easier to connect/troubleshoot all the cables.

HTH.

I agree with Mark, but if that is not possible, consider putting the desk along the wall with the windows....

I'm sitting in a similar sized room with windows on all walls and while I can leave the windows on the same wall with the computer desk unshaded, the windows behind me have to always be shaded... plus it's nice to be able to glance up and enjoy the view every so often.

On 01 Dec 2003, Mark Jerde wrote

Or facing the other way, but you're absolutely right: having a window at your back (or front) when working at a monitor is a right pain in the eyes

On ours I provided for under-desk mounting of as many components as possible. Put a copier and a printer on slide outs. Added a narrow shelf along the back to hide wires and have the surface blend directly into a window ledge. Also put a reinforcing triangle under the main monitor. Made that part of the desk deep enough for a big CRT. We've since switched to LCD monitors, so now there's about a foot and a half of empty space back there. <sigh> Old photo here www.citlink.net/~wmbjk/images/desk.jpg Top is 1.5' of particle board and oak veneer ply. Front edge is simple custom molding.

Our local kitchen & Bath design place also does desk design and assembly. Most kitchen cabinet places sell modules to build and integrate desks.

- Nehmo -

- Mark Jerde -

- Harvey Van Sickle -

- Mark Jerde -

- Harvey Van Sickle -

- Nehmo -

They have a plasma screen (and probably will get plasmas in the future), so glare won't be a problem. The widow's also, as I mentioned, face north. They seemed to want an arrangement somewhat like this:
http://www.cwcabinet.com/homeoffpaint2.html

Right now, they only have the basic computer set-up: tower box, keyboard, mouse, flat screen, printer-scanner, and cable modem. But I think there should be some room for expansion.

The glass top surface used in the pic above is an idea, but I'm not sure that's the best way to go. What *is* a good desk surface?