Looking for a New Home Office Desk

Our new house is coming along nicely. Very nicely. From the street, it looks pretty much complete other than the landscaping. Inside, it has just about everything in place – woodwork, lights, cabinets, bathroom stuff, appliances, etc. – but the protective coverings and dust tell that it isn’t completely finished.

28 days and counting.

Part of our move into the new house includes getting some new furniture. And part of this new furniture includes my home office desk. My new office is big (relative to my previous home office), and I’m excited. The room will be both office and game/craft room. Our old kitchen table will become a game/craft table in the office.

So I’ve been looking for a new computer desk. I like my old desk except that it isn’t wide enough. It’s a corner desk with a hutch, and I can put my hands on both ends of it at the same time. I like the shelves in the hutch, and the shelves under the desk, but I want a little more desk-top room to spread out my stuff.

Having given some thought on it, I’ve decided I want an L-shaped desk that I’ll place in a position where my back isn’t to the office door. My old setup had to be arranged with me facing the room’s back corner, so every time someone came in, they just saw the back of my head. I don’t want that any more.

My past two or three desks, over 15+ years, cost between 100 and 300 dollars, so I figured surely I could find what I want now for about $300 – maybe up to $400 taking inflation into account.

I searched all the furniture stores in our town and online, and everything I found was $5,000 to $9,000. I couldn’t believe it. (I still can’t understand it.) I discovered the price of my work office desk, and it floored me. Holy crap! I love my office desk, but it ain’t like mahogany or gold trimmed or anything.

I even found several “executive” desks in the $10,000-$12,000 range. WTF? For twelve grand, that better be a damn nice desk.

Then it was suggested I try Walmart. What the hell, I’ve looked everywhere else. I searched the Walmart web site, and lo and behold, I easily found half a dozen desks just like I want – for less than $400!

“But it’s not real wood; it’s just particle board.” So the hell what? My previous desks have all been particle board constructions, and they’ve held up just fine for my purposes, for years. It’s not like I’ll have a dancer standing on the top.

Maybe if I bring home a bottle of good wine.

Bullgrit