Most people buy a desk the way they buy a sofa: they find one they like the look of, check it fits the wall, and order it. Then it arrives, and the monitor sits so close that they spend the next two years leaning backwards to read it.
Desks are one of the few pieces of furniture where the wrong dimensions don't just look off — they change how the room feels to work in, every day. It's worth ten minutes with a tape measure before you commit.
Start with depth, not width. This is the number that decides whether a desk works, and it's the one almost nobody checks. You want roughly 60cm between the front edge and the wall. That's enough to put a monitor at arm's length, which is where your eyes want it, and still have room for a keyboard and your forearms in front of it.
At 55cm you're fine if your monitor sits on a stand or an arm, which buys back a few centimetres. Below 50cm and a monitor is simply too close — you'll find yourself pushing your chair back to compensate, which undoes the point of the desk. Our Walnut Writing Desk with Drawers sits at 55cm deep, which works comfortably with a laptop or a monitor on a riser.
Width is about what lives beside the laptop. Once depth is right, width is a question of habit rather than ergonomics. If you work on a laptop and nothing else, 100cm is genuinely enough. If there's a monitor plus a notebook, or a second screen, you want 120cm. At 140cm you can have two monitors and still put a cup of tea down somewhere that isn't on a cable.
The temptation is always to go bigger. Resist it slightly. A desk that fills the wall makes a small room feel smaller, and the extra surface tends to fill with things rather than stay clear. Our Oak Desk with X Cross Metal Legs comes in 120, 130 and 140cm for exactly this reason — the right answer depends on the room, not on ambition.
Height is more standardised than it should be. Almost every desk sold in the UK is 75cm tall. That figure suits someone around 175cm reasonably well and is a compromise for everyone else.
If you're taller than about 185cm, a standard desk will have you working with your shoulders slightly raised, which you'll feel in your neck by the end of the week. If you're under about 165cm, your feet won't sit flat. In both cases the fix is the chair first: get the seat height so your forearms are level with the desk, then use a footrest if your feet are dangling. A footrest is a much cheaper solution than a new desk.
If you'd rather not compromise at all, a height-adjustable frame removes the question entirely. Our Walnut Wood Top Electric Height-Adjustable Standing Desk moves between 73cm and 118cm, which covers sitting and standing for nearly everybody.
Check the clearance underneath. Desk height and legroom aren't the same number. A desk with drawers loses several centimetres to the drawer box, and that's the space your thighs were going to use. You want at least 60cm of clear height under the desk, and ideally a bit more.
It's worth measuring the width of the clear space too, not just the height. Some desks put a leg or a support bar exactly where you'd like to cross your legs.
Measure the room, not just the wall. A 120cm desk needs more than 120cm of room. Pull a chair out to sitting distance and you've used around 90cm of depth in total — desk plus chair plus the space to stand up. In a box room or a bedroom corner, that's the measurement that decides whether the door still opens.
Mark it out on the floor with masking tape before you order. It takes two minutes and it's the single most useful thing you can do.
Sometimes a console is the honest answer. If you work on a laptop, don't use a monitor, and the desk lives in a bedroom or a hallway rather than a dedicated room, a full-depth desk is more furniture than you need. A console at 35cm deep takes up half the floor space and reads as a piece of furniture rather than an office. Our Scandinavian Walnut Console Desk is 90 x 35cm and works as a desk by day and a dressing table the rest of the time.
The trade-off is real — you won't fit a monitor at a comfortable distance — but for a lot of people that trade is worth making.
The short version. Depth 60cm if you use a monitor, 55cm if you don't. Width 100cm for a laptop, 120cm for a monitor and a notebook, 140cm if you genuinely need two screens. Height 75cm unless you're notably tall or short, in which case adjust the chair before you change the desk. And tape the footprint out on the floor before you buy anything.
Get those four numbers right and everything else — the finish, the drawers, the legs — is a matter of taste.