apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I'd say Craigslist

Try Craigslist, eBay and the local thrift stores.

BTW, Does anyone know where I would be able to get the secretary pictured on top?

Blythe, I had similiar requirements when I was looking for a desk (and similiar frustrations with all the desks I found with ZERO storage) and I found a great vintage peice on craigslist for $200. It took me a while but I checked ever day and eventually it popped up.
Good luck!

Have you seen that IKEA desk in person? it had very very little work surface so unfortunately, I don't think that is your best bet. You're better off looking for a desk with small drawers, adding a drawer unit underneath or to the side and then wall mounted selves than that thing by far. Look at the Jonas series from IKEA. It is much higher quality...solid water with a vaneer. If you can't/don't want to attach shelves to the wall, look at the West Elm Jay hutch in white on the Jonas desk.

Sorry, I meant Gustav, not Jonas.

good lord...sorry, solid wood, not water! I guess I'm thirsty!

Weird, I thought it was directed at me. The name and all. I second the used item selection. Alternately, a cheap desk with a matching file/tabouret type deal might work really well.
http://www.target.com/Bedford-Student-Desk-Ebony/dp/B0014ZSCIM/sr=1-9/qid=1216929153/ref=sr_1_9/602-6437680-1094219?ie=UTF8&pricerange=&index=target&field-browse=1038576&rh=k%3Adesk&page=2
Or something similar with a rolling file.
Thanks,
Blythe

For that price, you're better off hunting for a used peice. I've found great deals on craigslist... and even on ebay! check for dealers who ship oversized via greyhound.

Craigslist - I see many solid wood mid-century desks and rolltops in Minneapolis/St. Paul, so I imagine the possiblities should be even better in New York. Ikea's selection of desks is terrible - I'd sooner check out Target or Overstock if you have to go that route.

I see great, cheap desks on Craigslist ALL THE TIME, and always feel a little sad that I already own an amazing desk, and don't need 20 more of them!

i own that ikea desk. bought it in the "as is" section. we had to disassemble it so that it would fit in the car, and i too was worried about building that thing. but hey it was extremely easy! so if you don't find an alternative, that desk won't be a headache to build, it takes up very little space, plus it has great storage in terms of shelving. those top racks make a simple place for books, binders, folders, etc. that panel to the left is magnetic, perfect for posting important papers and things :D

We moved recently and I saw tons of great desks on Craigslist, especially nice looking secretary and rolltop desks which ended up working in our small space. I eventually found the framed secretary from West Elm for $300 on Craigslist in SF. I love it, though it is bigger than it looks in the picture on-line.

Blythe, I feel your pain. I haven't found that one perfect desk that does it all but have been customizing stock pieces to suit my needs. Here is a picture of a home office from a recent Martha Stewart magazine that has some good ideas using the West Elm desk and the storage unit from Ikea (I forget what it is called but it is $39.99 and BRILLIANT--I love it.)

http://tiny.cc/LnGCU

I am not sure of your requirements but if you need a printer also in your desk area you can put that on top of that Ikea unit and stash a lot in those six drawers. At that price, you can get two and it will be visually easy on the eye if you go with the white. I strongly recommend it.

Good luck at grad school.

Home Decorators Collection has some desks that may be close to what you're looking for, at the right price. Also World Market.

Good luck!

There's always the, ahem, contentious Wal-Mart Stockholm desk ( http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/look/look-our-new-desk-057233 ), if you can't find what you need on Craigslist.

Martha Stewart has some great ideas on organizing. Thanks for the link, Deepa!

Craig's List: I found my vintage steel tanker desk for $35

This may be more than you want to spend, but this could function not only as your desk but also as your bookshelf/media shelf. It could be a nice way to divide your sleeping area from a sitting area too.

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fur/768865529.html

CRAIGSLIST!!! 100%!!! I recently had the same requirements [although an even lower ceiling $-wise] and managed to find an amazing mission-style desk on CL for $100. No Ikea, Target or Walmart [although that orange/white walmart desk I've seen posted on AT is pretty nifty, but for the slave labor, etc].

Be persisten in checking. I found the search terms "antique desk" the most useful.

Now if anyone can help me find a nice chair I would be grateful! CL hasn't helped me at all in that regard, but mostly because there are eight million chairs being sold...

Thanks so much everyone for your comments! I'm going to wait until I find the perfect piece (I do have a month before school starts). It seems my initial hunch -- Craigslist -- is going to be my best chance of finding something great. My only question is, how am I going to get the thing home? Are there (relatively) inexpensive delivery services that deal with this kind of thing? I'm new to the city so I don't have any big hulking friends to help me out ;)

By the way, comicgeek, I'm so sorry I forgot to respond to your query - the first desk was an ebay find from sugarbarrelantiques, the link is here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=280246353873
I couldn't afford the shipping.