apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I saw a nice minimalist desk this morning on edgemodern.com... it wasn't super affordable, but was very nicely designed.

I seem to remember crate and barrel having a glass L shaped desk. click on see alternate views to see the L shape configuration.

http://www.crateandbarrel.com/itemgroups/430_0.asp

This bludot desk is the only one I know of with integrated cord management.

http://www.edgemodern.com/shop/blu-dot/74

I put my office in a small corner of a bedroom using a uten.silo from vitra on the wall for storage of supplies and a vertical literature rack I got from martha stewart to store letter sized files on the wall. The bad thing about minimalism is that you still need storage.

http://www.velocityartanddesign.com/becker.html

http://www.marthastewart.com/page.jhtml?type=product&id=product3107&site=

I do know that Herman Miller/Vitra is going to reissue an old George Nelson Desk that is very minimal too. But I am unsure as to when it will actually ship. I think its priced at 3500. But herman miller is selling it in the US.

http://www.vitra.com/products/wtu/workplaces/home_desk/default.asp?lang=il_en

I have *exactly* this problem. I want a smallish, modern desk where I can conceal not only wires, but also my CPU (ugh), and the various modems and external drives and docking bays and everything else. I want it to look clean when it's all closed up.

I can't imagine I'm the only one. Why doesn't anybody make one? (That I can afford, that is.)

Try Roomandboard.com They have a whole section on organizing wires for your desk. We bought the office armoire (not small) but really cool.

There's this great dropleaf desk at G.A.D. called "Boge" (http://www.gad.se/pdf_webb/pdf_english/boge.pdf is the only page on it I could find since the site http://www.gad.se/english/index.htm is flash). It has a stack of 5 drawers in the center and the two flanking desktops that drop down. Brilliant.

As for wires, the best suggestion I have is going wireless (Permalink to Last week's NYT story on the AirPort Express http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/22/technology/circuits/22state.html?ex=1248148800&en=7a25041911ae692f&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland). You'd never regret it.

And why everyone doesn't make furniture integration for CPUs, I'd think, is that there is the assumption that if you're going for minimal you wouldn't have all that equipment in the first place. It sounds like y'all are PC users, but minimalism is one of the big reasons for using Apple. The iBook is the perfect example of integrated design; even the CD/DVD drive doesn't extend beyond the iBook's body with a useless tray.

To get rid of those external drives why not just burn all those zip disks onto CDs and use a USB key for any other storage? USB "mini" drives are self-contained, the size of a key and have much higher storage capacity than other kinds of external media, certainly zip disks. This is a link to the Iomega site http://www.iomega.com/na/products/product_family.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=3037523&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=63191, but I know there are a lot of different brands out there making them for PCs (and they automatically work on Macs).

Try:
The practical and lean
Pocket Desk from DWR.com
http://dwr.com/productdetail.cfm?id=1052
or
the quirky, leggy and eco-conscious,
Lucy Desk from DWR.com
http://dwr.com/productdetail.cfm?id=4102
or
the sexy, dark and trapezoidal
http://dwr.com/productdetail.cfm?id=5130

none of which, unfortunately, solves the CPU issue, so I'm all in favor of Sara's "go Mac/go wireless" sentiments, for all her well-stated minimalist reasons.

but bludot, Oriac, TopDeq (and maybe even Crate and Barrel) all offer some sort of fun CPU trolleys if you're committed to keeping the tower. Plus it's fun to say "trolley".

Oops, sorry Adam... I missed the "most likely in an L-Shape" part with the above desks.

I see that we've been mentioned here a couple times, so I thought I'd add my $.02. We have a couple desks at www.edgemodern.com that MAY fit the bill. If affordable and low-profile is what you are after, check out the Lil Buddy (you have to say "lil" instead of "little") from Blu Dot for $299.

It has a cleat around which you can wrap your cords plus a hole in the back if you want to snake wires through there. However it isn't the "L" shape you are looking for . . .and you may not like the old school desk style.

Our Wave desk is very minimal and good if you have a laptop (bad if you have lots of wires) and our D2 desk has some of the best cord management I've seen in a desk, although it is more expensive. The back of it opens up to hold your DSL box and anything else you want to stash back there.

Finally, if budget is what you are after, you might black file cabinets from Office Max. Cheap, kind of industrial, and does the job. This configuration got me through grad school.

Sorry, here are the links:

The Lil Buddy --> http://www.edgemodern.com/shop/blu-dot/74
The Wave Desk --> http://www.edgemodern.com/shop/offi/21
The D2 --> http://www.edgemodern.com/shop/offi/603
Ikea --> www.ikea.com
OfficeMax files --> http://www.officemax.com/max/solutions/product/prodBlock.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&expansionOID=-536891939&prodBlockOID=536930887

whats with all the spam?? clearly edgemodern trolls sites to respond to forums solely for advertising in the guise of helping.... between this and the fake testimonials on their site i conclude edgemodern is run by a bunch of socio-pathic shysters.

give me a f'in break!!!
----------------------------------

this is soo exactly my dilemma! i've been looking for ages, and as time goes on, i'm wearing down, and beginning to consider a compromise. i think wireless keyboard/mouse is going to be key, there just doesn't seem to be much out there (yet) that can hide wires and a computer and be minimalist. i had considered the offi wave desk, but it is currently not in production (i've heard they encountered difficulties mass producing this guy, main obstacle being bending the large piece of plywood in an easy, mass-producable way). production keeps moving back, now to mid aug. 2005, i believe. the cappellini loop desk also popped up on my radar, but i'm just not ready to spend so much. but like i said, i slipping down that compromise slope....
at least there is some comfort in hearing that others have the same dilemma?

I am looking for bathroom cabinets online with a minimalist style as I live in New Orleans and there is not much availanble here.Any suggestions?

I have a vintage modern table/desk aprox. 66x32
It has a molded plywood storage bin (for hanging
files) along the back edge/surface about 10" wide. The front has four equal sized shallow drawers (molded trays with wood trim} This I think could be a herman Miller. I want to know .

ELFA is the ONLY answer I found to my needs. I wanted a very narrow desk and I wanted shelves to go really high. I bought Elfa freestanding stuff at the Container Store. My desk is 2' wide and 7' tall. Perfect! (though kind of expensive--buy from Container store between September and January as all Elfa is on sale then. I spent around $400 even on sale.)