Vintage Office Furniture

Since people started working from home, the office has stopped being a separate room and moved into the living room or the bedroom. That changes everything chosen for it: the pieces have to look right even when nobody is working at them.

Depth matters more than width

A correct working surface sits at 73-76 cm, the same height as a dining table — the height at which your forearm stays parallel to the floor with the elbow at ninety degrees. Old pieces usually respect the measure. Depth is what decides whether the desk is usable: for a laptop and a notebook, 45-50 cm is enough, but for a monitor you need at least 60 cm so the screen can sit 50-70 cm from your eyes. If you work with a monitor, measure the depth before any other consideration.

The secretary desk solves the living-room office

A secretary desk is not a smaller desk, it is a desk that closes: the fall front lifts over papers, laptop and cables, leaving an elegant carcass with drawers in the room. For anyone working in a room that is also the living room, that is the difference between tidying every evening and shutting a flap. The trade-off is width: for two screens you need a full desk. Cables are handled without drilling the piece — a clamp-mounted socket under the top at the back, and on secretaries the extension lead lives permanently inside the closed body.

Light comes from the side, never from behind

With the window behind you, the screen picks up reflections and your face stays in shadow on any video call. With the window in front, you look straight into the light and tire within two hours. A desk set perpendicular to the window receives daylight across the working surface with neither fault. For right-handed people, a window on the left means your hand casts no shadow on the paper. In the evening, a warm-toned lamp in the corner opposite the screen works better than a ceiling light, which creates exactly the contrast that tires the eyes.