My brief was to create some furniture home office. The client already had in mind a corner desk but we went on to explore some typical rectangular desk designs before settling on a small suite comprising a filing cabinet, corner desk and sideboard. Each piece would be a separate standalone item which gives great flexibility in how they are used. A corner desk maximises the use of space in the corner of a room while allowing the two units to be placed in multiple configurations.
Delving further into the design I proposed two styles – one looking like more typical furniture, and one looking more like ‘office’ furniture. The ‘office’ look was box carcasses with mitred edges, a heavy chamfer on the front face giving a recessed front to any drawers or cupboard doors. The desk would echo that design with a heavy undercut chamfer to the desk top and with smaller chamfers on the underside of the skirt.
The corner desk requires 5 legs and has two short sides of the same depth as the filing cabinet and sideboard. The height of the desk combined with its depth was such that it would not be possible to actually get the desk into the client’s house and for this reason I made the skirt and leg framework in two parts which could be re-assembled in the customer’s room, and with the desk top also attached onsite. The desk can be easily disassembled by the customer and moved to another location.
The final decision was choice of materials. Office furniture tends to be made from veneered sheet materials – these are flat, stable, cheap and readily available – but the client appreciates solid wood and had a definite desire for some lovely grain pattern. Looking through the typical furniture hardwoods (oak, elm, walnut etc) we settled on some of my special olive ash. The grain and colouring would look fantastic and provide visual interest to go with the relatively simple look of the ‘office’ style.
By carefully milling my rough sawn ash boards I was able to find fantastic pieces showing all of the best grain patterns and colouring that olive ash can offer. The legs are each laminated from two pieces which gives stability and another opportunity to display amazing grain. The solid top is attached with slotted ash blocks to allow it to move with the seasons, and the finish is Osmo clear satin which really brings out the rich tones of the olive ash and gives good protection.
The end result is a beautiful solid corner desk that is a perfect partner to the subsequent “Snipe” filing cabinet and “Snipe” sideboard.
Dimensions: Long edges are 1 metre long, short side edges are 48 cm, the front angled edge is 73 cm, and the height is 76 cm.
