Home and Office Furniture Desk Buying Guide

Don’t forget to take the time to consider exactly what you or your business needs as rushing into this may mean you underestimate the needs of your home or office and it could be that you waste money and purchase items that are either not fit for purpose or are completely unnecessary. This office furniture buying guide aims to help you consider every aspect of your office and understand exactly what you need your furniture to do.

Which Desks are available or suitable?

There are numerous desk styles available and we have highlighted the most popular types below:

Desk usually come in the following widths (side to side):

•    120cm
•    140cm
•    160cm
•    180cm

   Bench desks can be fixed together so it is not unusual to have a run of 10 desks in large spaces.

Desks are usually MFC (fibre board) and supplied in the following colours

• Nova Oak
• Beech
• Grey oak
• White
• Black
• Maple
• Walnut
• Pine
• Graphite
• Ply Edge

With Frames in

• Silver
• White
• Black
• Matching wood panels

The desk can be delivered flat-packed or assembled depending upon your requirements. The picture below provides an indication of desk sizes.

Bench Desk

Ideal for open environments and space-saving

Cluster Desk

Ideal for call centres and high-density working

Cantilever Desk

Legs are “C” shaped rather than straight

Wave Desk

Desks are wider on one side than the other

Corner Desk

Can be left or right-handed and used to be popular when the desktop PC was very deep

Starter Desk

Budget level desk usually 18mm top

Education Desk

Usually seen in schools and have a desk with a fitted storage drawer

Left or Right-Hand Return Desk

Usually a corner desk providing plenty of workspace in the corner

Height Adjustable Desk

These can be manual or electronic height adjustable and ideal for desk sharing and providing a variety of working positions in an office.

You will most likely want to look for desks with plenty of space underneath them, such as to ensure employees have room to move their legs without kicking furniture or files

Forward Planning

The first questions are to think about why you need furniture:

• Is it replacement furniture for existing items?
• Expansion
• Contraction
• Refurbishing during an office relocation?
• Setting up at home or remote working

This means you need to assess exactly what you will need.

• How many people will you have working?
• How many of them will need a private working area?
• How many can share or hot desk?
• How much space is required for storage?
  • Laptop or Desktop PC
  • Monitors
  • Monitor arms and laptop stands
  • Charging points
  • Filing
  • Personal storage
  • Power requirements and cable management
  • Do staff require height adjustable desks for disabled, wheelchair access? Different size people have different needs and one size fits all is not true.
  • Draw a rough plan and take some measurements so that you can then review the requirements when sourcing solutions.

Remember if the business is replacing furniture rather than starting from scratch, it is worth assessing the items you already have:

• PC’s have been replaced with laptops and mobile devices so deep corner desks may be redundant.
• Check what is good and works well for the current office and what your staff like/dislike about the current solution
• What would make work more productive?
• What they think they need to better do their job.
• Some solutions may be obsolete such as fax stands, obsolete power points without charging USB solutions
• Review the different requirements of your staff as we all come in different shapes and sizes so different chairs and desk heights may be optimum
•  The work environment is changing with fewer meeting rooms and more break-out area. These offer casual discussion areas and can lead to better productivity and communication in offices.
• Think about the future. More staff work from satellite and home offices. What space is required and how can this be optimised?
• Most offices we refurbish have vast amounts of historical filing and it is worth carrying out an audit of paperwork and reviewing personal storage and flexible working environments.

Look for Practical and functional items

This is particularly important when procuring and identifying desks for the office or home. Whether your requirement is for 2 or 2000 desks you may not want to buy multiple desks that all look the same, unless you have an extremely large company, because it is unlikely that you or all your employees will use their desks in the same way. You will usually need a desk that can accommodate at least a laptop or tablet computer, with all of its cables, and probably a phone and small storage. Mobile workers and employees will bring in their laptops, and so will need less space than those working on a desktop machine. A communal printer, fax and scanner is usually sufficient for a small office, but where is this going to sit? And does each employee need their own set of drawers and shelves, or will some people be able to manage with just personal storage?

As our working environments change the migration from pure filing and storage to powered charging points, personal storage areas have increased with combination units now common in the workplace.

Do employees often work late or overnight? If so, they may also need space for additional storage and proper lighting.

How to maintain your office furniture

The better you look after each piece of furniture, the longer you can expect to use it. Every material has a slightly different way that it should be cleaned and it is worth taking note of this so you don’t cause unnecessary damage.

• Glass furniture should be cleaned regularly and manufacturers recommend purchasing a glass cleaning solution to prevent leaving streaks and watermarks.
• Metal legged furniture including those with a chrome finish should be polished regularly with a duster since they are prone to collecting dust. If a deeper clean is required, a damp cloth and a touch of mild detergent will remove any marks. Wiping dry with a paper towel will create a beautifully shiny surface.
• Metal filing cabinets tend to be light texture finish so wiping with a damp cloth and very light detergent may be necessary.
• Leather and other fabrics should be kept out of direct sunlight to prevent them from fading. Leather should be deep cleaned using specialist leather products, but a slightly damp cloth will do for minor spills.
• Fabric should always be treated as soon as a mark appears using a mild soap and damp cloth, but the area should never be saturated.
• Keep wood furniture away from sources of intense heat or cold, such as heaters and air conditioners, since the extreme temperatures will cause the wood to warp. Also, keep out of direct sunlight to keep the colour at its best. Wood should be polished with a dusting cloth.

An ordinary desk that has an extra wide section on one side. This gives extra workspace if required.

So please do take some time to read through our details before you make your investment decisions.

Purchasing decisions are made by either an employer or an individual and both need to consider the needs of the workplace. If you are an employer, you have a responsibility to your staff to furnish the workplace in a certain way. While it might seem beneficial to purchase the budget items, particularly if you have a large office to fill, in the long run, it could end up costing you more due to use and replacement requirements. While your employees will almost certainly appreciate the extra money spent on their work environment, the real benefit to them comes from a comfortable seating area that reduces the aches and pains that can occur after sitting in the same position for a long period. Wellness in the office is currently focussed on the level of comfort and ambience in an office. Colour choices and the right equipment for different people is important and most large offices can write down the cost of furniture for a period. An individual start-up and worker requires similar solutions to larger offices, and at ebonium, we have solutions for all workplaces.