This desk was created as a gift for my brother Yuta. He helped me get my business started and has helped me in countless other ways so as a token of my appreciation I decided to make him a computer desk. His line of business is film and video production and everything is done on computer, I decided he won’t have too much need for drawers or cabinets. The one thing I noticed was that since every film project takes up a lot of computer memory, he needs an external hard drive for every project. His old desk had external hard drives scattered on his desktop and even piled on the floor. To account for this, I decided to create a little shelf area right under the top and in between the drawers so he can quickly tuck and hide things that has no need to be on the work surface. This makes it possible for the top to be clutter free.
The inspiration for this design came from my fascination of windsor chairs- mainly the part where the legs attach into the bottom of the seat with just a hole and a round tenon. I wanted to try to incorporate this look but make it strong enough to resist racking and twisting. The legs are tapered and splay out to create the look of the windsor chair legs. The legs are not turned like the windsor chairs because I didn’t feel it would look right. Also, the aprons are designed to prevent racking so it is much larger than you see in the windsor chairs.
Because the legs splay out, I decided to introduce complimentary angles to the top, the drawers, and even to the inside partitions that separate the shelf area from the drawers. When the drawers are closed, that angle flows all the way through to the back. The angles add a lot more work to the piece, but I think it helps elevate it from just a regular boxy furniture.
Since this is a computer desk with monitors and other necessary electronic equipment, I designed the back so wires and cords will be easy to feed through and hide.
I wanted to accentuate the different parts of the table (top and the base) so I used contrasting woods- Ash and Beech. I also decided to bleach the ash to create a paper white look. Bleaching creates a greater contrast from the Beech and also looks more elegant than unbleached ash (unbleached ash takes on a yellow tint with finish).
In the end, we were able to set up a surprise birthday party where he thought he was helping me deliver a desk to his boss’s house, but instead it turned out the desk he was helping deliver was his desk.