Choosing the Best Secretary Desk

You may not be overly familiar with the secretary desk, or perhaps you are, but you're curious how exactly you'd want to use it. A secretary desk is an antique design. It was in common use around 100 years ago or so, when it was used by - you guessed it - secretaries and businessmen around the world. The convenience was that it has literally dozens of compartments, drawers, and slots to keep every conceivable kind of paperwork in one place, and well organized. I would be very surprised to see it in any modern office these days - the desk does not accommodate a computer well, which immediately eliminates it from being convenient for virtually everybody in the business world.

So why would you get one?  Well, primarily these days it's a combination of storage and style.  The secretary desk can still handle papers quite easily, and the slots in the front of it manage as an inbox / outbox well.  Depending on the level of quality you can get a desk made out of many different types of wood.  Secretary desks often have some writing space to do any work on that you need to, though it's comparatively small to what we use today.

Mostly, the desk is a style and a statement.  It complements a wood with wood paneling, or a heavy wood element to it, very well.  Just like the antique secretary desk, they are often hand-carved or decorated, and so they're very beautiful to look at.  They are a heavy wood piece of furniture, and that will never go completely out of style.

Since secretary desk furniture is quite decorative, it really depends on what your room design is.  As I mentioned earlier, you can get the desks cut from very nice wood, such as cherry or mahogany, which make for absolutely beautiful additions to a room.  The most traditional model is very tall, as it has a cabinet above the desk space, but if you have more limited room, you can get models that do not have that cabinet piece as well, so space shouldn't be as issue.  There is something that will suit you.

The desks are not wide, usually only around 3 feet across, so you don't need much space for width either.  Depending on the desk you get, you may not want to shove it into a tight space though, because the sides may be decorated and you wouldn't want to cover that part of the desk up.

If you're not going to use them for work, then what?  Well, as I've already stated they are commonly used as decoration.  Often the cabinets in the desk come with glass in the doors, so you can put photos, decorative plates, or whatever you want inside the cabinet for people to look at.  If they're solid wood doors, then they can be opened to make a display case for your things instead.  The workspace itself is a larger shelf that can be used for the same purpose.

The same can be said for the shorter desks without the cabinets - in fact, these may even work better for you since they're lighter and easier to move.  I'm sure once you decide where to put the desk you'll start thinking of many different ways to decorate it.  That's how it always works!

A secretary is a great addition to your home.  While it's still just as practical as it was 100 years ago, it's somewhat obsolete due to the fact that it's highly efficient for paperwork but not so great at accommodating a computer.  Because of this, it's mostly used today as a decorative piece of furniture.  It can add quite a bit to your home, and while it's usually associated with a more antique look, it's still nice enough to fit more modern styles too.

If you have any questions about secretary desks please leave them in the comments below!